Rating: 
Summary: A suspenseful and enjoyable, if ultimately unfulfilling read
Review: Don't get me wrong, The Weatherman is a real page turner. Mr. Thayer tautly strings along his audience from page one right through the conclusion. He expertly foreshadows some great red herrings and some true clues which kept the reader guessing nearly until the very end. I thought, "Oh, it's DEFINATELY him" regarding several different characters, and my opinion flip-flopped back and forth several times. The titular character, Dixon Bell, is particularly well created and fleshed out. In fact, I'd go so far as to say Dixon Bell might be one of the best characters I've read this year. Being from Minnesota, it was especially fun to read about well-described local landmarks (ie: the France Avenue flower shop a friend of mine works at) being destroyed by a gigantic tornado. Mr. Thayer's behind-the-scenes descriptions of local TV news crews, production, and politics were chiefly compelling. Very eye-opening and believable (except for one rediculously over-the-top faux-puritain-esque producer). Unfortunately, the other characters don't get the same star treatment as The Weatherman. The story's main sex-pot, Andrea Labore is cardboard in comparison. Her actions had me asking, "Why would she DO that?" a number of times. The lead investigative reporter, Rick Beanblossom, is better, but still nowhere near the character quality of Dixon Bell. Then there's the aforementioned sex-obsessed-but-repressed TV news producer - he's so cliched it hurts. He really had no point being included in the story except to have somebody for Mr. Thayer to sling mud at. While Mr. Thayer shined so brightly when descriping Dixon Bell, it was disappointing when the other characters fell flat. There was one particular scene I found profoundly disappointing. Mr. Thayer describes an execution by electric chair. (Somewhat unrelated point-of-fact: Minnesota has no Death Penalty.) The overwhelming shortcoming of this scene is that it is a virtual carbon copy of the grizzly, botched execution as seen in the feature film, The Green Mile. I felt like I was reading the screenplay, right down to several key central descriptions. I felt cheated as I read it. This was a good story that culminated in a scene stolen from another great story. A little imagination would have provided acceptable and more compelling alternatives. Ultimately, it's an enjoyable book, but it left this reader feeling empty. The book's resolution left me not caring for any of the characters one way or another, which was disappointing. Maybe that was the point. Still, this book was constructed well enough that I will most likely read future Thayer works.
Rating:
Summary: A suspenseful and enjoyable, if ultimately unfulfilling read
Review: Don't get me wrong, The Weatherman is a real page turner. Mr. Thayer tautly strings along his audience from page one right through the conclusion. He expertly foreshadows some great red herrings and some true clues which kept the reader guessing nearly until the very end. I thought, "Oh, it's DEFINATELY him" regarding several different characters, and my opinion flip-flopped back and forth several times. The titular character, Dixon Bell, is particularly well created and fleshed out. In fact, I'd go so far as to say Dixon Bell might be one of the best characters I've read this year. Being from Minnesota, it was especially fun to read about well-described local landmarks (ie: the France Avenue flower shop a friend of mine works at) being destroyed by a gigantic tornado. Mr. Thayer's behind-the-scenes descriptions of local TV news crews, production, and politics were chiefly compelling. Very eye-opening and believable (except for one rediculously over-the-top faux-puritain-esque producer). Unfortunately, the other characters don't get the same star treatment as The Weatherman. The story's main sex-pot, Andrea Labore is cardboard in comparison. Her actions had me asking, "Why would she DO that?" a number of times. The lead investigative reporter, Rick Beanblossom, is better, but still nowhere near the character quality of Dixon Bell. Then there's the aforementioned sex-obsessed-but-repressed TV news producer - he's so cliched it hurts. He really had no point being included in the story except to have somebody for Mr. Thayer to sling mud at. While Mr. Thayer shined so brightly when descriping Dixon Bell, it was disappointing when the other characters fell flat. There was one particular scene I found profoundly disappointing. Mr. Thayer describes an execution by electric chair. (Somewhat unrelated point-of-fact: Minnesota has no Death Penalty.) The overwhelming shortcoming of this scene is that it is a virtual carbon copy of the grizzly, botched execution as seen in the feature film, The Green Mile. I felt like I was reading the screenplay, right down to several key central descriptions. I felt cheated as I read it. This was a good story that culminated in a scene stolen from another great story. A little imagination would have provided acceptable and more compelling alternatives. Ultimately, it's an enjoyable book, but it left this reader feeling empty. The book's resolution left me not caring for any of the characters one way or another, which was disappointing. Maybe that was the point. Still, this book was constructed well enough that I will most likely read future Thayer works.
Rating: 
Summary: I really enjoyed this one
Review: Fast paced and interesting. I like novels where I feel liked I've learned something as well as been told a good story. Thayer seems to know his weather and news. I passed my copy along to my my dad and brother and they enjoyed it as well.
Rating: 
Summary: A 'lumbering' literary masterpiece.
Review: First of all, this novel is not for the occasional book reader. That could be why some of these reviews are so negative. The Weatherman is a very well written, engrossing book with a lot of back-story that adds subvertly but ingenuously to its progress, so that all of a sudden the characters are REAL! It's a mystery and so much more at the same time, including a realistic look into newsroom politics and meteorology. Few authors, today, attempt to write about such a large, unwieldy cast of characters as Thayer does almost effortlessly in this book. Rich Beanblossum ,a disfigured, yet brilliant Viet Nam vet, emerges slowly and unexpectly as one of the most original protagonists we've seen in a while. You may not enjoy every page of this grand mystery, but as you read it, the realization it's actually an incredible book will dawn pleasantly on you and you'll sense what a rarity it actually is.
Rating:
Summary: Best read in a long time...
Review: got my attention from the start, and tested my 'who-done-it' skills to the very end. Just picked up Silent Snow and hope it measures up .. waay ta go Mr. Thayer
Rating:
Summary: Good first half, fair ending
Review: Halfway through this book I would have given it a higher rating; an interesting and generally original plot with intriguing characters (even if handled a little heavy-handedly). But during the final few chapters, when you'd expect things to start 'coming together' and the characters to be fully developed, the plot seems to lose cohesion and comes to a somewhat loose ending (but by then I had lost much of my interest in whatever became of the main characters). Well, I enjoyed the book - but I think it could have been a much better one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Decent Read, Nothing Special
Review: I found Thayer's accounts of the Minnesota weather, and the workings of a television newsroom, to be engrossing and enjoyable. However, other than the protagonist, Rick Beanblossom, none of the characters are very deeply drawn. I did not find the book to be very suspenseful; it bogs down in the middle to the point that you begin to lose interest, and the author never really gives you an alternative to the obvious villain. Having said all that, if you have a few hours to kill on a plane, this is a decent story and the writing is a cut above the usual mass market thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to Put Down - Keeps you guessing until the end
Review: I found this book to have an inventive and original plot with unusual characters- people you don't come across everyday. As the book drew closer to its conclusion, I found it very hard to put it down. For a story that was far from believable, it was certainly most entertaining....a true "whodunnit" where any one of a number of characters could be the killer. The only thing that kept me from giving this a higher rating was the very subtle, but unmistakable political bashing of views from the right - a Republican governor who quietly pays for his love child's abortion, a thinly veiled stab at the Religious Right through the station manager who is a truly sick pervert, and a not so subtle botched death penalty scene which added nothing to the story but rather made an exaggerated point to show the author's opposition to it. I can respect whatever political convicitons you might have, but keep them to yourself. I read fiction to get away from propoganda....if I want to be blasted with someone's political agenda, I'll watch the news.
Rating:
Summary: Once You Get Into It, You Can't Put It Down
Review: I have to admit I'd had this book sitting on my bookshelf for years and had lent it to other people numerous times before I finally picked it up and started reading it. And boy what I'd been missing. A great psychological thriller with details that show the amount of research done. As a Minnesotan I was, of course, totally enamored with the weather descriptions as well as other characteristics of the Twin Cities -- all also accurately portrayed. My one regret is the beauty and the beast ending -- more science fiction than reality.
Rating:
Summary: Unexplained Mysteries
Review: I just read "the Weatherman" after having it hyped to me by a friend, and was keenly disappointed. Given the paucity of any compelling proof of Dixon Bell's guilt, the "mountain" of circumstantial evidence (that never placed him at the scene of a crime, a partial fingerprint that failed to meet even a minimum standard of proof, a diary that never mentioned any of the victims or hinted at murderous impulses) would have never convicted this man, let alone called for the death penalty. But far worse than these failings were the simply unexplained mysteries Thayer left behind. The last victim scratched her killer, leaving tissue and blood under her nails. The type O blood (the most common type) matched Bell's. But who can ever forget Detective Anglebeck's observation while interviewing Bell that he had no scratches anywhere on his hands. Apparently, Thayer did. This, unlike the circumstantial evidence against Bell, is forensic evidence that in any court would exonerate him. But it was never mentioned again. Neither was there any explanation of the origin of the "I'm going to ice you, Weatherman" messages Bell received, although there is a vague hint they came from Andy Mack, his jealous predecessor and temporary successor. And the mysterious meaning of Mack's dying words, "tell Dixon I'm sorry about those women," that at the time elicited such a strong response from Rick Beanblossom, disappeared from the story without a trace. ... My final complaint is not about "the Weatherman" itself but about writers who choose poor Minneapolis-St.Paul as the site of horrific serial murders. Between John Sanford's "Prey" series about serial killers in the cities and Thayer's "The Weatherman," I think I have counted somewhere close to one hundred victims since the mid-90s. Minnesota has changed. Charles Whitaker
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