My normal reading fare is what is called the heavy stuff – philosophy, religion, economics, history etc. To vary the pace and for diversion I do read fiction but, had recently not been doing so, particularly thrillers, by default.
By accident, I came across an advertisement a few weeks ago, for the latest David Baldacci book and from there it was a matter of going back to reading that book and a few others by him and Lee Child. I was just about to finish one by Baldacci when a favourite journalist reviewed some books in a column in one of our local newspapers and mentioned John Verdon as being one of his favourites. I had never heard of Verdon before.
Since I trust the journalist’s taste, I downloaded Verdon’s very first book Think Of A Number, on my Kindle and am just about to finish the book. I am glad that I discovered him as, he writes very well and I intend downloading the other five books that he has written to read in sequence.
The purpose of writing this post however is not to promote the three authors mentioned above though, if my readers want to pursue further, they will not be disappointed. The purpose is to write about a new phenomenon that I am experiencing while I read thrillers.
When the author builds up the tension in various scenes, I am unable to read through till the end and, have to pause for a while and then get back to reading to bring the pumping adrenalin back to normal. This never used to happen before and I think that my body is sending me signals to slow down on the excitement! Sure sign of ageing?
Does this happen to any of my readers? Shackman particularly is a regular reader of thrillers and I would very much like to hear of his experience on this phenomenon. I can’t think of any other readers of thrillers among my readers but, if there are, their experiences also will be most welcome.