Why am I passionate about this?
I write thrillers full-time these days, but for many years, I was a writer and editor at publications that take reporting and fact-checking seriously. I still strive for accuracy in my novelsāwhich always involve violence. As a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, the mechanics and psychology of close-quarters combat are things I think about daily. This is not to say that you need to rob banks to write a heist scene. And while technical knowledge is helpful, thereās no substitute for close noticing of what happens to our bodies and minds in extreme situations. Here are some books (and one screenplay) which do that incredibly well.
Stan's book list on thrillers with beautiful, unforgettable violence
Why did Stan love this book?
Highsmith never fails to blow my mind, and this is her best work. The scene in which Tom Ripley (spoiler alert) kills his āfriendā Dickie Greenleaf is a masterclass in writing a murder. The two men are in a tiny boat off the Italian coast. We have access to Tomās thoughts right up until the actual killing when his internal monologue cuts out. Iāve always wondered: Does Tomās mind go blank? Does he somehow will it to?
These are the kinds of questions that great writers raiseābut donāt answer. And the writing is incredible. Hereās my nomination for Best Consecutive Use of the Same Word in Its Adjective and Verb Form: āDickie was on the bottom of the boat, twisted, twisting.ā Thatās as good as it gets.
26 authors picked The Talented Mr. Ripley as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
It's here, in the first volume of Patricia Highsmith's five-book Ripley series, that we are introduced to the suave Tom Ripley, a young striver seeking to leave behind his past as an orphan bullied for being a "sissy." Newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan, Ripley meets a wealthy industrialist who hires him to bring his playboy son, Dickie Greenleaf, back from gallivanting in Italy. Soon Ripley's fascination with Dickie's debonair lifestyle turns obsessive as he finds himself enraged by Dickie's ambivalent affections for Marge, a charming American dilettante, and Ripley begins a deadly game. "Sinister and strangely alluring"ā¦