New York Times bestselling author Lee Child and the International Thriller Writers, Inc. present a collection of remarkable stories in First Thrills. Showcasing many of the organization's bestselling authors as well as rising stars in the genre, here are twenty-five brand-new, never-before published, stories packed with murder, mystery, and mayhem.
*A cunning criminal thinks he can use a child to take the rap for his crimes.
*A hospital intern turned body-snatcher.
*A priest who comes face to face with his wife's murderer on death row.
*A confederate soldier comes home to his love, but changed by more than just the war....he comes back wrong.
*The discovery of a flying saucer in the deep sea brings one man to the brink of a massive revelation.
*A dying man's last request proves to his ex-wife that he's still rotten to the core.
*A clandestine operative finds himself caught in a wicked game of confusion . . . but who is calling the shots?
No matter what type of thriller you read, you'll find something here that will entertain you . . . and perhaps a new writer you'll cherish for years to come.
From Publishers Weekly
Child, the creator of the Jack Reacher series (Gone Tomorrow , etc.), offers a mixed bag in this anthology of 25 original stories by members of ITW (International Thriller Writers), divided between fledgling authors and established names such as Gregg Hurwitz, Stephen Coonts, and Heather Graham. Daniel James Palmer and Michael Palmer's The Dead Club, in which a greedy doctor joins a betting club that gambles on when unidentified patients will expire, does the best job at making the genre work in short form. Child, by contrast, misses the mark with the less than gripping The Bodyguard, an account of how the narrator became an ex-bodyguard. Of the newcomers, Rip Gerber's Last Supper, about a grieving widower's plot for revenge, is well-paced and compelling, while Ryan Brown's supernaturally tinged Suspended isn't. Other contributors include Ken Bruen, John Lescroart, and Karin Slaughter. Steve Berry, ITW's current president, provides an afterword. (June)
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From Booklist
Starred Review This is hands down one of the best short story collections you're ever likely to read. The brainchild of the (relatively new) International Thrillers Writers organization, the book features never-before-published stories by such notables as Jeffery Deaver, Michael Palmer, Gregg Hurwitz, Stephen Coonts, John Lescroart, Karin Slaughter, and Lee Child (who also serves as the book's editor). Alongside them, you'll find top-notch short fiction from names that might be less familiarβJ. T. Ellison, CJ Lyons, Sean Michael Baileyβbut they are writers who certainly won't remain unfamiliar for long. The stories fit under the most inclusive of thriller umbrellas, but many contain elements of mysteries, science fiction, and horror as well. They feature an equally diverse cast of characters, too, ranging from con men and killers to aliens, ghosts, and zombies. In many short story collections, there are a few standouts. Here, nearly the entire lineup stands out. Lescroart's βThe Gato Conundrum,β for example, is a fine spy thriller that moves through Italy, England, Russia, France, and the U.S., all in 20 pages. Heather Graham's βWhen Johnny Comes Marching Homeβ combines grisly horror with a historical setting. Theo Gangi's βEddy Mayβ is a seemingly straightforward story about a pair of con artists that turns out to be not straightforward at all; in an anthology full of plot twists, Gangi's definitely out twists them all. A masterful collection. --David Pitt