The Wheat Field (Mysteries & Horror) by Steve Thayer Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Wheat Field (Mysteries & Horror)
Book Review: A stellar story
Summary: 5 Stars
If I were sucessful writing I would hope to be half a good as Mr. Thayer. The twists, turns, and level ground of his story keeps your mind speeding all the time. He ties in love, hate,politics, small town USA and about everything else you can think of. I will look forward to reading more of his work and could assure all if it is even close to this book in readability it would be a great success.Book Review: Pseudonymous Straub
Summary: 5 Stars
If Peter Straub didn't write this novel pseudonymously, then Steve Thayer has studied the man's writings and imitated them perfectly. All the standard Straub elements are here: the Wisconsin setting, the obsessed and flawed hero besieged by numerous secret enemies, political intrigue, and a mysteriously vanished former love-interest femme fatale.Whenever you think you've got this one figured out, the author throws an ingenious twist your way. It begins with a double-barrelled shotgun blast, ends in thunder, lightning and flame, and traces a labyrinthine trail in-between of corrupt politicians and police, menacing secret societies, setups and double-crosses, frame-ups, cover-ups, mysterious late-night phone calls, contacts of dubious loyalties, hidden agendas, jealousy, greed, and every film noir element imaginable.
The most brilliant aspect of this lightning-fast, multiply-layered page-turner is its own narrator, Deputy Detective Pliny Pennington, a man who - all the way to the closing chapter - the reader can't ever quite be sure of. Pliny has a checkered past, which includes obsessive voyeurism, stalking, and even one plain, old-fashioned, cold-blooded murder. Is he a good guy, or a bad guy? Or just an average guy, a basic shade of gray with stronger than usual black and white highlights? The novel is brilliantly plotted and constructed, and holds the reader's interest in a constantly tightening vise that never lets go.
If you've never read Peter Straub, you'll get a great sample of his work in Thayer's The Wheat Field. If you have read Straub, you'll love this book more than you could imagine. If you don't know and never care to find out who Peter Straub is, you'll still find this an incredibly thrilling and surprisingly delightful read.
Don't miss it. It's great.
Book Review: What's Goin' On
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Book Review: What's Goin' On
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Book Review: Hummm?
Summary: 2 Stars
All in all I did like the book. I enjoyed the narration, despite the fact that the narrator was somewhat of a depressant. However, I don't know if there was some sort of political bias crafted by S. Thayer, but republicans then and now obviously don't complement the rudimentary actions of the book's characters as the author might have intended. Secondly, and most importantly the reason why I rated this book lower than three stars is this: The sex scenes. I have heard of vicarious reading but this was more in the area of vicarious writing. Sure, it was illicit and many people will find these sections of the book exciting, but that is why they sell penthouse magazines. Three pages to describe (sexually) a scene (early in the book), and yet the point of the scene was summed up in less than one paragraph. Go figure?