The Weatherman

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: One of my all-time favorites
Review: If anything makes a great novel, it's character development. The Weatherman has the most interesting cast of characters I've come across in a while. It's also a hell of a story. Someone is committing a murder once a season before a major weather event. Very well done, keeps you guessing until the end, and the suspense is relentless. A MUST READ! I can't wait for Thayer's second novel!

Rating:
Summary: Great Book! Couldn't put it down! Highly Recommended!
Review: This book was excellent! I am a HUGE Stephen King fan (King gives The Weatherman a great review) and although Thayer writes much differently than King, I could not put this book down. It was very easy to get wrapped up in the lives of the characters. I ran out and bought the next book, Silent Snow, as soon as I finished The Weatherman. This book is definitely fiction, which is probably why some people have not liked it. But, if you don't mind fiction and like a good mystery, I highly recommend The Weatherman and Thayers next book Silent Snow.

Rating:
Summary: FLAT
Review: Stephen King wrote about_ The Weatherman_ "the first forty pages would serve as a climax of most book". Well it served as it's own climax as well. I just could not be drawn in. There was nothing in the story of interest, nothing in the characters to want to stay. The reviewer before me, [e-mail], says it nicely. Not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Trying too hard
Review: This book has some very serious problems. The first is the characters: I don't think that "likeable" characters are absolutely necessary in any kind of book, but the author wants us too desperately to like his hero and heroine, and this is plain irritating. He seems to believe that Andrea Labore is some kind of female role model; I just lost count of the times he says things like "she isn't a bimbo" and "he was surprised because she was not a bimbo as he expected" and other similar phrases, and however, she keeps on doing bimboish stuff like jumping into bed with a politician the very first time she gets a chance to do it, getting herself pregnant and apparently believing that he'll do the right thing although he only has eyes for his political career. The author also wants us to like his hero Rick Beanblossom, but I couldn't care very much for him, and his deliberate humiliation of an anchorwoman so that his bimbo girlfriend would get her place just killed any sympathy he might have inspired in me.

Then, the author researched exhaustively the fields of TV news, weather prediction, the death penalty, autopsies, even porn movies, in order to write this book. This is obvious, because he never lets us forget it. There are so many digressions, so many dull episodes, so much nitpicking detail, so many encyclopedia-like paragraphs tossed in just to make us know that he did his homework, that without them the book would have been at least 300 pages shorter. And then, there is the botched execution. This is the kind of exaggerated stuff that ultimately achieves an effect contrary to the intended one. Thayer seems to want us to be against the death penalty because executions can go wrong and cause enormous distress, but the fact is that the death penalty will still be morally unjustifiable if executions go as smooth as silk, which in fact is what happens in most cases. In fact the only moving episode in the book is the execution, because, although I don't think that was the author's intention, the killer is the only person in the book we end up caring about.

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: Terrific! I guessed whodunit and doubted myself repeatedly
Review: This book's beginning is as good as any I have read. The story keeps the reader second guessing until the end. A very fast read with interesting characters. Don't start this book at night if you have to work in the morning.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book with an ambiguous ending
Review: The pages in this book fly by. Thayer grabs you on the first page and never lets go. The characters, the plot and the twists and turns of the subplots constantly keep you interested.

This is one of the books that kept our book club arguing and discussing for months and months. I loved it.

Do not be fooled by the ending. I do not believe that the person who is caught by the police is actually the killer. Who is the killer? Mr. Thayer, do you care to comment? ***ABM*****

Rating:
Summary: COULD'NT PUT IT DOWN
Review: "First chapter or so seemed a little slow, and difficult but after that it was really engrossing. I recommend it to anyone, especially good book to take on a long weekend or snow in, you will hardly notice the weather!

Rating:
Summary: A dual purpose for this book
Review: By the end of the story I was still unsure who committed the crime. The author tantalizingly hinted that Andy Mack or another serial killer in another state did the crimes Dixon Bell were convicted of. There were sub-stories of the other characters that cluttered the novel: Per Ellefson, Jack Napoleon and Old Jesse. IN the end, I learned the author worked at a newsroom for three years so it was probably his desire to invlude what could probably be the colorful lives of some of the people he met. Altogether a good read because of the author's incredible knowledge about TV newsrooms and weather forecasting, after only three years of on-the-spot experience. The love story of Rick Beanblossom was particularly poignant and is, to me, the sentimental touch in this mystery.