The first thing I did when becoming a newspaper film reviewer was to import a shortcut from the West: evaluating movies with stars. One Trink star was for the very worst motion picture, five Trink stars for the very best. Which was followed by a paragraph explanation. Readers approving my cinema tastes thus knew on what to spend -- or save -- their earnings.
Killer Instinct
by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
382pp
Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops
550 baht
Distributors and exhibitors were less appreciative. To hear them tell it, all cinema critics are worthless as everything the studios turn out is first-rate. When a visiting Hollywood executive visited the City of Angels, he singled me out as a vulture. My noting that vultures feasted on carrion, he stormed out of the press conference. In the event, the threat to pull the screen ads resulted in the dropping of the Trink stars.
My readers regretted it almost as much as I did. I was also reviewing books at the time, yet it hadn't occurred to me then to also use Trink stars for them. I suppose it wasn't common practice abroad. At this late date, I wonder why not? Most likely because the authors, publishers and bookshops would be displeased for the same reasons. The bottom line is, business is business. My reviews wouldn't be shorter. Still you most probably find the He Said, She Said irksome. If the Trink star system for novels, etc, grabs you, let me know.
James Patterson and Howard Roughan's Killer Instinct annoys me because it's the sequel to Instinct, which never reached me. It throws in bits and pieces of its predecessor. Not enough to bring you fully up to speed. I gather the crime thrillers are set in lower Manhattan in the Big Apple. Criminal psychologist Reinhart and experienced investigator Elizabeth Needham of the NYPD join forces (again) to track down the murderer of a university professor. Their quarry is a high-IQ bloodthirsty killer.
He is in his element when he bombs the police station and guns down fleeing people. In the penultimate chapter he captures Elizabeth, accepting Reinhart's offer to trade his life for hers. The twist at the finish is unexpected. Which one of the three won't survive? A New Yorker born and bred I was familiar with the venue. Of the author's plethora of quality fiction, Killer Instinct is par for the course.
FYI, the next novel by the author is Christmas, the first chapter given here.
I review more James Patterson works than by any other author. For which I offer no apology.
Worrisome story
Like many parents in the States, mine wanted me to be a doctor. This dream overlooked the fact they couldn't afford sending me to medical school. And more importantly while growing up, I blew their assumption out of the water that anybody in their right mind wants nothing less. My less was to become a history professor, my favourite subject in school. Their respect for me plummeted.
Pandemic
by Robin Cook
521pp
Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops
325 baht
In the event I didn't become a doctor or a history professor, but a journalist. And never regretted it. Those I read about just weren't me, if you know what I mean. Which is the reason l suggest you not choose a profession until you're mature. Come to think of it, that also applies to choosing a spouse. My reason for not wanting to be a doctor isn't the sight of blood
Rather, I don't want to spend my life around illness. Complaints and stories of operations don't make my day. Neither does the pressure on the professors (Publish or Perish) to keep turning out books while their heart isn't in it.
I first read a medical thriller by Yank doctor Robin Cook a half-century ago. It set the theme for his 30 novels to follow. Hospitals are worrisome places to go to. Their doctors are more interested in the big bucks they'll get from removing and selling your body parts than in curing what ails you. Several other medics got on the bandwagon. It made a good Hollywood movie. Hospitals protested. To no avail.
After a while, the author sidestepped to another fearful theme -- drones that carried diseases across boarders. Each story has a villain who is a brilliant but mad scientist. The hero who thwarts them is one of the few doctors dedicated to treating the unhealthy.
It's a short step to focus on epidemics. Protagonists versus heroes there, too. His latest is Pandemic. Whether Aids was one isn't beyond dispute, but the Spanish pandemic, 1918-1920, killed 20 million people worldwide. An unknown strain of influenza, it started, took its toll and stopped. There was no proper treatment for it.
In this story, set in the Big Apple in the current day, women are dying. New York City Medical Examiner Jack Stapleton diagnoses Spanish Flu. It isn't. A transplant surgeon is experimenting with gene-change which will result in a new breed of human -- as advanced from Homo sapiens as Homo sapiens are from Neanderthals. The dead women are failures of his transplanting. Dr Jack finally figures it out and tracks down the group of dastardly culprits.
