Marathon Man

This falls under the category of “Damn, I wish I’d written this.” This story has the quintessential out-of-their-depth hero who is drawn into a world much larger than himself and has to rise above the situation to survive.

I love how this book is about a man who lives in the shadow of his father and brother and has dedicated himself to academia and running but ends up facing off against spies and nazis. It’s a story that will make an ordinary protagonist a bona fide hero.

I never knew William Goldman (The Princess Bride) was such a versatile writer, and I love how he messed with my expectations. The result was funny, sad, and remarkably deep.

An athletic academic with delusions of grandeur, and an overpowering sense of his own awkwardness, getting sucked up in a world of espionage really caught my imagination. I loved the characters and character growth. Especially when the change was forced by a revelation that made me reevaluate everything I knew about the characters.

I especially enjoyed how the narrative follows the characters’ train of thought. The unusual use… show more.

“Is it safe?” There is, perhaps, no other trio of words in the English language capable of sending shockwaves of unimaginable pain deep into one’s molars.

Dr. Christian Szell’s ruthless determination to obtain his diamonds, no matter the cost, makes him one of the most detestable villains in all of fiction. So detestable, in fact, that I couldn’t help borrowing his surname for a tertiary antagonist in Sunset Empire, who is part heartless physician and part mad scientist.