Rating: 
Summary: What's Goin' On
Review: Well, now I read the description of WOLF PASS which is the new novel with Pliny P. and it sounds just like WHEAT FIELD except that the Gunn Club isn't plotting to murder President Kennedy, some Nazi guy is. So it's like another draft? Of the same deal? Only Pliny actually (I was going to put a bad word here that starts with p and is perfect for Plin-activity) this girl that dies instead of just PINING after her as in WHEAT FIELD?Why am I being so mean? I wasn't going to be mean, I was just going to say that the book felt tired to me after the first two thirds. I loved the WEATHERMAN and you'll see my positive review of it online. I loved Steve's writing, and I was very excited to read this book because I know the Wisconsin Dells. So . . . * Sex scenes - plenty and voyeuristic - an inside trip into early 60's entrepreneurial pornography. Unfortunately, Pliny's Sun Also Rises problem makes it almost as unsatisfying for the reader as it must be for poor Pliny.
* Poor Pliny - I did like the guy after the football run. I liked the guy even after his description of administration of vigilante justice. Maybe somewhere around 3/4 of the way through, possibly after the reappearance of the fisherman (!) I decided Pliny was a waste -
* The Dark Shadows influence - the fisherman, small town cabals, Pliny the outsider, and the last scene I won't spoil for eager readers.
* Nixon-Kennedy - I thought about this. The early 60's timeframe works for me in terms of the underlying story and real characters, but there's no point whatsoever in the Nixon-Kennedy cameos except to provide a backdrop that indicates the stupid Gunn Club Dopes are really the Kennedy Assassins. It reminded me of that horrible Oliver Stone movie (I like Kevin Costner, and I guess the movie was "entertaining" while it lasted, but it was still ridiculous). Why is Pliny a waste? Well, Pliny builds up some sympathy through his seeming shock and dismay at the sex doings, and it's not that bad that he's also interested. He isn't even bad for *watching.* His football run is his high point, not only in life, but in the book. But really, Pliny is a whiny, emotionally stunted, robotic character who breaks out into occasional heroic moments. This is a formula! I don't think WEATHERMAN was a huge formula, but I could be very very wrong about that. I found its surprises real. I found its main characters interesting and, maybe a little larger than life (no pun intended) - in fact, I loved the Willard-Scott-like character - but I am really writing this this way because I can't imagine somebody reading this book, WHEAT FIELD, and then picking up the new one that sounds exactly the same. After reading this, we're supposed to buy that Poor Pliny gets to run for sheriff as he sort of planned kind of in this one, and is accused of another double murder? And it's another Kennedy plot? There's one thing about writing similar stories, and another to have the exact same stuff happen only maybe try #2. Too weird. By the way there's a Harold Robbins quality about the sex scenes (or maybe subdued Harold Robbins) but only the final one is really hot. I've never known of precisely this type of "sequel" before. I guess it's a new style or fashion. Putting the other book aside, that I truly haven't read (although it sounds SOOO similar), this book runs out of steam somewhere halfway through. The chapters and scenes become perfunctory after the football run. There are some plot holes. I usually don't complain about them, but let's just say if *I* noticed them, they're really major. The unique vision that I read in the WEATHERMAN (you know I really enjoyed the twisted, quasi-real attitude in that book) is . . . well . . . it's retread here and the problem is that Pliny just can't carry the book. The only active things he does are reprehensible. The mystery is, to forgive the Wisconsin metaphor, cheesy. I'm not a traditional mystery/thriller reader. I think the usual reader of this type of book might be put off by the graphic sex. I don't know what the fashion is with the law-enforcement being essentially psychotic vigilante killers these days. There is a big difference between this book and the other one I read by Steve Thayer and I'm sorry about that.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid Thayer
Review: While not up to his usual (very high) standard, THE WHEAT FIELD is a good read. It is also predictably Thayeresque, which is to say, unpredictable. Hints are dropped that the narrator may not be the standup guy we have been led to believe, but someone quite different, someone dark. The plot twists and zigzags with no loss of plausibility and the ending is satisfying. Thayer has moved his setting from Minnesota to Wisconsin and his descriptions of the Dells and the Madison campus are accurate and effective. THE WHEAT FIELD lacks the ambitions of SAINT MUDD, THE WEATHERMAN, and the very impressive SILENT SNOW, but it is solid work, both sexy and suspenseful.
Rating: 
Summary: The way a thriller should be!
Review: You'd expect thrillers of this caliber from more well-established authors, such as Stephen Hunter or Nelson DeMille. However, Steve Thayer--who I'd never heard of until I picked up this book--unleashes upon the world a thriller as good as they get! Kickapoo Falls, Wisconsin, located in the beautiful Dells region. The year is 1960, a tumultuous year that revolved around two men: John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. In Kickapoo Falls, however, something else has come up. Two bodies, naked, gruesomely murdered, found in a crop circle in the middle of a wheat field. No witnesses--at least none who aren't implicated. Deputy Pliny Pennington identifies one of the bodies as Maggie Butler--a former childhood friend, and the girl he'd been lusting after for most of his life. It's no secret that Pennington wanted Maggie, and she wouldn't have him. In fact, now the town's beginning to think Pennington had something to do with it--except, of course, for the people who know the truth. For Maggie's death is just a small part in a conspiracy reaching further than Pennington could have ever dreamed. Now, using the skills gained by a stint as a military sniper and former deer hunter, Pennington is about to face the ultimate test of survival, as he races against enemies, shady characters in suits, former friends--and himself. Steve Thayer's writing is brisk and clear. He sidesteps from the plot every now in then, but only to give you a better insight into who Pliny Pennington really is--and make you wonder if you can trust his narration. "The Wheat Field" is a novel of sex, violence, and the quest for the truth--no matter how much it may hurt.
Rating:
Summary: The way a thriller should be!
Review: You'd expect thrillers of this caliber from more well-established authors, such as Stephen Hunter or Nelson DeMille. However, Steve Thayer--who I'd never heard of until I picked up this book--unleashes upon the world a thriller as good as they get! Kickapoo Falls, Wisconsin, located in the beautiful Dells region. The year is 1960, a tumultuous year that revolved around two men: John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. In Kickapoo Falls, however, something else has come up. Two bodies, naked, gruesomely murdered, found in a crop circle in the middle of a wheat field. No witnesses--at least none who aren't implicated. Deputy Pliny Pennington identifies one of the bodies as Maggie Butler--a former childhood friend, and the girl he'd been lusting after for most of his life. It's no secret that Pennington wanted Maggie, and she wouldn't have him. In fact, now the town's beginning to think Pennington had something to do with it--except, of course, for the people who know the truth. For Maggie's death is just a small part in a conspiracy reaching further than Pennington could have ever dreamed. Now, using the skills gained by a stint as a military sniper and former deer hunter, Pennington is about to face the ultimate test of survival, as he races against enemies, shady characters in suits, former friends--and himself. Steve Thayer's writing is brisk and clear. He sidesteps from the plot every now in then, but only to give you a better insight into who Pliny Pennington really is--and make you wonder if you can trust his narration. "The Wheat Field" is a novel of sex, violence, and the quest for the truth--no matter how much it may hurt.
| 
