This book wasn't really even worth picking up. There were only a few stories in it that I found worth reading. ( )

The short truth is that this book was an incredible disappointment, and I can only assume that the publisher relied on the names themselves to sell the book. And there's no denying that the big names--more generally accustomed to writing novels vs short stories--are part of the problem.

Far too many of the stories make no attempt at all to offer real characterization, instead seeming to assume that readers will already be familiar with the characters from the authors' larger collection of work. This is made clear in story introduction after story introduction, and I have to say that the editor and publisher would likely have ended up with a far stronger collection if they'd asked authors to come up with stand-alone stories that didn't rely on already known characters for effect and character depth. I have to assume that the reliance was a too-easy crutch, but for readers like myself who were unfamiliar with most of the authors' work, it made for awfully flat reading. Additionally, the editing was incredibly lacking, as if not much more than a proofread was offered. Perhaps the authors were missing the hands of their normal editors, but either way, the stories were rife with cliched phrasings, comma errors, and over-writing; from being familiar with some of the authors' work, I can honestly say from those few stories that the quality of the writing itself in their stories wasn't up to the standard set by their novels.

All told, I found the stories fairly flat, predictable, and lacking when it came to depth of either character or story; in the cases where there was depth, the stories tended to be so cluttered with extra detail--going overboard in showing the authors had done their homework on terrorism, geography, or police procedures, often enough--that the story and character ended up getting lost.

I can't really find anything to recommend this collection, in all truth, and although I enjoyed a few of the stories, those were a rare few. I won't pick up another collection edited by Patterson, no doubt, and I'll leave this one with a bad taste in my mouth. ( )

Thriller Anthology 🍒🍒
Edited by James Patterson

This anthology was given to me by a neighbor when I lived in Cathedral City. She said it wasn't her thing, and hopefully, although this volume has many of the best selling thriller authors, it does not typify a thriller novel in many of the stories.
Most of the stories were suspenseful and had elements of mystery and intrigue, only a few really captured me. But I guess it depends on how you define the word "thriller".
The stories I enjoyed most were:
Epitaph by J.A. Konrath
James Penney ' s New Identity by Lee Child
The Portal by John Lescroart and M.J. Rose
Man Catch by Christopher Rice
Interlude At Duane's by F. Paul Wilson

I would probably not recommend this because it had so few stories I really enjoyed. Edited by James Patterson, this just falls flat. ( )

This collection, featuring thirty-two well-known, award-winning authors, offers readers a wonderfully diverse collection of thriller tales. Highlights in the impossible-to-set-aside volume include Lee Child’s Jack Reacher tale, James Grippando’s Jack Swyteck story, and Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone narrative. Lieutenant Vincent D’Acosta, the creation of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, makes an appearance and Brad Thor heads to Greece for a thriller about the 17 November terrorist organization.

Aficionados of the thriller tale will find much to enjoy in this eclectic collection of stories from some of the most notable authors in the genre.

Highly recommended. ( )

Most of the stories were okay. Some were very good, others I didn't like. I did like being able to try out new authors to get a feel for their writing style. Several have been added to my "To-Read" list, which seems to grow much faster than my "Read" list! ( )