5 comments about 27.

1. I love books about spys, Nazi Germany, Hitler, etc. This book was a real find. I thought I had read them all. If there were a higher rating than Excellent, this book would deserve it. Recommend it extremely highly for great entertainment.



2. William Diehl has written a bestselling novel called "27" or "The Hunt"."27" is a no longer known or copied name for this bestseller, it is now printed as "The Hunt".
   
   This book was published in 1990, and sold began having major sales in '91.Mr. Diehl has written many bestsellers including "Thai Horse","Show of Evil", & "Sharky's Machine".I read all 3 & Diehl is an extrordinary author.None disappointed me.
   
   One of the main charachters' names is Hans, who is finishing up his movie "Der Nacht Hund" or "The Night Dog".Afterword,he is asked to work for Adolf Hitler's personal army as an S.S. Colonel. He agrees & then it gets good! The other character is named Keegan, he is a rich american who works for the embassy in berlin.He gets caught up in Hitler's business when his girlfriend Jennifer Gould is murdered, by Hans or siebenundzwanzig (which means "27"), and Keegan vows revenge on 27.The story takes place in germany during the late years of WWII.The most expected place for this isn't it??? The best too.
   
   Mr. Diehl is a genius with literature he takes Irony & makes his own type of element.Irony is the comparison between reality and appearance.He twists it & makes it the comparison between reality & what reality is wanted to be by the people in the novel, which influences the reader to feel the same for the time being.It's sort of a painful, & suspenseful feeling, but at the same time it's a thrilling page turner.

   I personally think William Diehl is an extrordinary author. This book encouraged me to read more books.Not only books like it but, many different kinds of novels.I've read all of Tom Clancy's books, these 2 are the best authors I've read from so far.Other good authors are Robert Ludlum, Dean Koontz, & John Sandford.Read any of these authors books & its for sure you will not want to put it down for a while, & after reading it you will most likely read it again.I did & always do,sorry I didn't want to tell the story, If you want to know read it for yourself. You will like it I PROMISE!!!




3. First one question: Would you trust an author to write about Adolf Hitler who doesn't know his birthdate? I wouldn't, and he didn't.
   
   Then, are you going to wade through pages and pages of build-up for a nothing ending? I did. This 27 fellow, he's a murderer for sure, but his role in America is not believable.
   
   Do you like retribution books? Where the so-called hero (who gets the girl, or at least one of them) shows all the bad guys, and I mean all of them, just who's boss? Then you'll love this book. It's one big retribution fantasy. Like the "hero" says, and he's quoting an Irish proverb supposedly, "Forgive, but get even first." Wow! What good advice! Good for Mafioso, terrorists, gang members, and abused spouses.
   
   Who else wants on the retribution band wagon? Sidney Sheldon may, I guess, though I've not read his books. He liked this book, according to his blurb on the jacket, so I think he likes, and I guess he writes, similar "manly" retribution novels. Probably the authors who practice this genre think it's manly to kill the evil anti-hero. Maybe it is, but I've never tried it, so I wouldn't know. As far as reading about it, it's a total bore.
   
   But...on the positive side, meriting a two, Diehl does weave in a lot of history, from Roosevelt to Hitler to J. Edgar Hoover to John Dillinger and the whole scene of the world in the 1930s, and Germany's pain during that time, and the German prisoner camps. In this, he does a good job. Maybe young people studying history would enjoy this book more than a textbook. The history Diehl reports is generally accurate except as mentioned above.
   
   Diximus.



4. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although it takes place in a time well before I was born, Diehl is very detailed in his character development and historical background.
   
   I love a good spy novel and Diehl would definitely be near the top of my list of favorite spy authors. If you enjoy Ludlum, you will love this book.
   
   This was my first William Diehl book but it certainly won't be my last.



5. This was my first (and last) Wm. Diehl. I liked the premise, and the first 50 pages were good-- then the long exposition of our protagonist's life and past, clumsy foreshadowings of plot twists, and embarassingly lame coincidences slowly deflated the whole thing. I read the last 200 pages without interest. As a thriller-writer, I'd place dozens of other practitioners ahead of Diehl, including Turow, Perry, early Ludlum, LeCarre, Iles... the list goes on and on.

5 comments about Thai Horse.

1. The plot line, story and characters were good I just couldn't get into the book due to the writers (Diehl) style of writing. I had first read 'The Hunt' by Diehl and noticed it then but I thought I would give Diehl another chance especially with the plot line which interested me enough to try it. Diehl goes off on tangents and has very long sentences.

   Very tough to read. I will not read another Diehl book.




2. The plot line, story and characters were good I just couldn't get into the book due to the writers (Diehl) style of writing. I had first read 'The Hunt' by Diehl and noticed it then but I thought I would give Diehl another chance especially with the plot line which interested me enough to try it. Diehl goes off on tangents and has very long sentences.

   Very tough to read. I will not read another Diehl book.




3. Interesting characters but drawn out without much plot and a lack luster ending.



4. This was the first Diehl's book I bought at college bookstore when I was a college student in late 80's (since the book was written in 1987, I probably bought it during that year or after). After I finished the book, I just loved it! That lead me to buy and read all of Diehl's books afterwards. All of his books or most were good. I bought a used Thai Horse book at used bookstore today because I wanted to read it again. I guess I just love Hatcher's character and perservence and that he never gave up hope.



5. A great read. From beginning to end it just kept picking up speed. Couldn't put it down and sad to see it end. This is three for three with me with William Diehl.I rate The Hunt and Eureka as really terrific reads as well but Thai Horse was best.

5 comments about Eureka.

1. This book is the novel that any author would have loved to write, with much more than just the police procedural or romance to hold our attention. I read Eureka when it was published, and now again before giving it as a gift, and the story just gets better with each reading. Eureka to my eyes is the best William Diehl has ever written! It requires craft to convey a sense of time and place, and yet Diehl has captured turn of the century California, World War I, LA prior to Zeke Bannon's enlistment, and then both the wonderfully noir settings as well as the upbeat confident boosterism of the post-war period. I found that I cared enough about all of the characters to need to know the outcome followed by the final resolution of a mystery. This story cares too much for its characters to be an "LA Confidential." But, what a movie script it could yield, and why hasn't Robert Redford noticed how well he could play Thomas Cullhane!



2. For those with a moderate knowledge of American history, the mistakes and inaccuracies will drive you nuts. Someone puts an LP on the phonograph --- eight years before the long playing record was invented. William Diehl is clearly not big on research, quickly destroying the mood of this riff on noir mystery.
   
   It begins in 1945 and then flashes back to 1900. Eli Gorman and Shamus O' Dell own a good bit of land south of San Francisco. Unable to get along, they play a (totally unbelievable) poker game to see who gets control. Ben Gorman and Brodie Culhane, close friends, watch hidden in the loft. O' Dell loses but he has had his revenge already selling a local town, the Eureka of the title, to the evil Arnie Riker.
   
   Culhane, an orphan, leaves town for highly predictable reasons, becomes a hero in WWI, returns and becomes the deputy lawman until a shootout claims the life of the highly unbelievable Buck Tallman, an old-style Western town marshall.
   
   Tallman dies in a shootout at the local high-end brothel.
   
   Jump ahead a couple of decades and a woman is found dead in her bathtub. It seems accidental: a radio had fallen into the tub, electrocuting her. But the erstwhile detective Zeke Bannon is on the job. My, my: doesn't take long before the apparent accident is found to be a murder!
   
   And off we go back to Eurkea where secrets want to be kept. With Zeke Bannon on the job? Perish the thought --- though you may perish by the time you reach the end of this formulaic potboiler.
   
   It's not all that bad. Just riddled with factual errors, paper thin characters, a Tinkertoy plot that requires one small miracle after another to keep things going, a lot of totally unnecessary sex scenes and a surprise ending that is just plain silly.
   
   Perfect reading for a long flight or a rainy afternoon, but not much else to recommend it.
   
   Jerry



3. When I was younger I read a book that left me mesmerized. It was named "Primal fear". After that, I read other books by William Diehl, but none of them came close to that first one. "Eureka" doesn't come close to "Primal fear" either, but it's a different style.
   
   Set in the early forties, it deals with the apparent suicide, in Los Angeles, of a woman with no past. As Detective Sargeant Zeke Bannon and his part Ski Agassi investigate into the matter, they find out suspicious ties with the tiny rich-people paradise of Eureka, where a tough sheriff will do anything to stop the big-city cops to knoe the truth.
   
   While Diehl is effective on creating the noir atmosphere, the story is simple and the book is overlong. Mixing politics with murder and beautiful women, Diehl makes no big mistakes in this book. As I said, the book is long, but totally enjoyable. Anyway, is good to hear from the author of "Primal fear" after his last release, five years previously.



4. I bought this book and held back reading it as once it is gone, it is gone. I love Diehl's writing and this book is huge. Well-developed, believeable characters and a well-developed plot line that kept me guessing. I was sorry to see the book end. This book is so very masterful in all regards. I hope he writes another book soon.



5. It all begins innocently enough (doesn't it always) with a supposed accidental death that after the post-mortem is proved to be a murder. Why would someone want to murder a mousey, reclusive, tax auditor? Well how about the $100,000 in her bank account. This relatively anonymous woman had been receiving $500 a month (when most people in 1941 earned less than $50) for the last 17 years. When detective try to find out who she is, it turns out that she has no history before 1924.
   
   The search for the real identity of the woman leads Sgt. Z (Zeke) Bannon to the town of San Pietro (nee Eureka) and a web of cover-up, murder, money, sex, gambling, etc. But before Zee can find the answer and the killers, he goes off to war. Now he's back and he re-opening the case. Follow the trail with Zee through a gordian knot that he may need a ax to unravel.
   
   It's a great story told in the best of noir style. Read it.

5 comments about Show of Evil.

1. "Show of Evil" is the sequel to the novel "Primal Fear". In that first book, the morally ambiguous defense attorney Mart Vail saves from an almost certain conviction a young man who murders Chicago's archbishop. In the face of an almost certain conviction, Vail managed to squeeze out an insanity plea based on the youthful defendant's split personality - normally he's the sweet and unassuming Aaron Stampler. When aroused or angered, he becomes the cruel and sadistic Roy, neither one able to recall what happens when the other takes over. At the end of "Primal" Vail is convinced that Aaron/Roy's disorder is invented - but by then, he's won and Aaron/Roy is institutionalized and immunized from prosecution. "Show picks up 10 years later. Vail is now Chicago's No. 2 prosecutor, the head of a gang of rapacious homicide ADA's who show no mercy. While his office juggles two high-profile homicides, Vail is forced to confront the impending release of Aaron. Hardly convinced as his doctors are that Aaron/Roy is cured (and has shed both previous egos for a new honest one named "Ray"), and learning of a string of copycat murders in which Aaron's former friends have become victims, Vail is determined to crack Aaron/Roy/Ray.

   This was a pretty shallow story - with Aaron barely making a dent in a plot that spends much of its time concerned with the two other murders being prosecuted by Vail's office. The events of "Primal" mostly arise as a consequence of "Show"'s focusing on Vail's renewed romance with Jane Venable, the prosecutor in "Primal" and - to complete the reversal of roles here - the defense counsel in one of Vail's homicide cases. (When the hints prove insufficient, Diehl just drops Aaron's name in spots of narrative that have nothing to do with the case). Finding improbably close links between Aaron's handiwork and that of a serial killer who claims two of Aaron's former friends, Vail struggles to tie the murders to a man who's been institutionalized for a decade. Diehl, like Aaron, doesn't know when to leave well-enough alone and, once Aaron returns to the novel, he quickly and unceremoniously spills the beans. Suffice it to say that those looking for a real twist will go hungry (I thought Aaron, Venable and Vail would team up and implicate a high-level Chicago fixture much as they cooked the archbishop in "Primal", or otherwise link the copycat crimes to the other seemingly unrelated ones ala "Hollywood Confidential"). The mystery of Aaron's power to manipulate from beyond the walls of an insane asylum isn't even a mystery (although it might have been to some in 1993, only a couple of years before Netscape's legendary IPO). Instead, "Show" is incredibly fake - everything from the ambitious and merciless ADA's who run Vail's office (as if the Cook County DA's Office existed to prosecute only a few homicides) to the pseudo-hardboiled dialog of his cops ("look, we ain't lookin' to cause the lady no grief.") Even the setting seems unreal - Diehl's Chicago lacks the verisimilitude of the fictional Kindle County of the Turow novels. That "Show" is supposed to be a mystery is undermined by how little detail Diehl gives us to work with. (After the climax, Vail's team turns up details that explains everything - ala "Scooby Doo". What really kills me is that this is supposed to be a legal thriller and, despite pumping us up to the legal talent available, very little of "Show" takes place in a courtroom, and Diehl's ADA's talk about "maxing out" the people they prosecute without doing much to prove they could prosecute a shoplift. (The cops, on the other hand, are dismissed as inept apes, who parade the prisoners they collar like war-trophies, without much regard for their possible innocence.) Had he taken the defendant in one of "Show"'s subplots to trial, Diehl could have substantiated his opinions about his prosecutors and his cops in one swoop, but that's obviously more effort than its worth.




2. Fast forward ten years from Diehl's excellent novel, Primal Fear. Main character Martin Vail previously a premier, unrelenting, sharkish Chicago defense attorney has undergone a metamorphosis. Disillusioned soon after his most famous and demanding litigation, the Aaron Stampler murder trial, Vail chucked it all. He signed on as chief prosecutor and assistant D.A, of Chicago. Vail recruited a carnivorous band of legal eagles he affectionately calls the Wild Bunch to handle the plethora of crimes passing through the D.A.'s office. They are presently up to their necks with investigations when a series of brutal crimes become uncovered that have similarities to the Stampler case.

   Aaron Stampler, a country bumpkin from rural Kentucky with a genius IQ was serving as an altar boy to Chicago archbishop Rushman. The exalted cleric was actually a closet pedophile and Stampler brutally slashed him to death as well as two other altar boys. Vail defended him and using a strategy based on Stampler having a multiple personality disorder succeeded in saving his life. Stampler was remanded to a mental facility for the criminally insane where he has been incarcerated for 10 years. When several murders crop up with the same M.O. as the Rushman murder the fur really starts to fly in the D.A.'s office.

   It seems as if Stampler is somehow involved in this latest rash of killings but how can he be if he is interred? Vail with the help of his Wild Bunch and Jane Venable, former asst. D.A. and prosecutor of the Stampler case and now corporate lawyer commence investigating these horrific crimes.

   Diehl does a masterful job in expertly picking up his Primal Fear story 10 years down the road. Show of Evil is a fast moving, hard hitting and worthy sequel.




3. A one-two punch with Primal Fear. Make sure you read the super Primal Fear first then enjoy the continued story...it just keeps getting better. Left the door open for a continuance with another unexpected ending. I hope there is more!!!!



4. I encountered this book by simple and plain old luck. In my college reading class my Teacher Mrs. Hamilton was having a book sale of pre used books that where from her own collection. These book's where truly a good bargain so I didn't let the opportunity pass. So I looked over and glanced at some of the books on the rack for sale, at first it didn't seem there was anything of interest for me to purchase. To my surprise however I ran across book that seemed intriguing so I picked it up and read the back. To be truthfully honest at first I didn't realize what it was until I completed reading the back of the book. After realizing what it was I didn't hesitate for a second to purchase it. While reading Show of Evil I received a lot of joy and ended my curiosity of what happened after Primal Fear. The book was Excellent and well written and kept me suspense from beginning to end. Thus I recommend this novel for all to read



5. This was the first time I read Diehl,s work. I thought it was suspenseful and it kept my interest. The author left a lot of room for a sequel. It is worth the time.

5 comments about Reign in Hell.

1. Did you love the movie (or book) Primal Fear? If so, you will love the book Reign in Hell. In this story, Vail has the government backing him up. Stampler (who has changed his name and appearance) is "religious" leader of an army of militia. They go head to head in this war for power and peace.

   Great characters, great story, and a great read.




2. Was very excited to finally get to read the third book in the Martin Vail series and was very disapoited in the long story, which seemed to go nowhere (Except exaclty where you thought it would) and surprisingly enough did. Glad I got it used.



3. Apparently, Aaron Stampler is a big deal serial killer who escaped from Martin Vail (the greatest prosecutor on earth) in another Diehl novel. Well, I didn't know that when I picked this novel up. Unfortunately, this novel suffers from lack of in depth characterization. Many characters are colorful, but few have much to do. For those that were wondering, Stampler is masquerading as a hate-spitting, blind preacher, and killed in the final pages of this mess.
   
   The rest of the book is about Martin Vail's pursuit of the Sanctuary, a God and country loving, Montana militia group, who have killed, robbed, and stolen military weaponry. Vail is approached by the US Attorney General and begged to take on a RICO case against the Sanctuary, as a favor to the President himself. Unfortunately, presidential politics get in the way and the army is called out to kill them all.
   
   It's unclear if Diehl is making an antigovernment statement to protest Ruby Ridge and Waco, or manifest a call to arms against dangerous militias. In a way, he backs himself into a corner and seems to do a bit of both, but neither well. When Vail gets warrants to search Sanctuary properties, Diehl gives a taste of how tough it is to be in the government's position sometimes.
   
   Interesting characters built up but never utilized to their potential are General Engstrom, President Pennington, and AG Marge Castaigne. None are essential to the plot as it is written. But we are sure reminded how great Vail is.



4. Though slow to start whilst setting the (complex) scene, Diehl brings us an intricate legal thriller. Whilst comparisons with Grisham could be made, this is no courtroom-based tale of "small-time lawyer takes on big bad law firm / pharmaceutical company / tobacco baron and wins". Here the players are all big time: Vail, master prosecutor; a right wing religious fanatic leading a militia of 1000s; and the President of the United States himself.
   
   Vail, reknowned trial lawyer who has brought down massive companies and politicos before, is challenged by the Big Man himself to find a legal case against a religious-cult-leader before he starts a war of anarchy against the United States, and before the President comes up for re-election. With intimate knowledge of RICO legislation and all the backing of the FBI, Vail is set a task somewhat akin to taking the Mafia down for fraud.
   
   In the meantime, a hostile army is being trained in guerilla warfare; banks and arms shipments are being raided; anonymous assassins are tracking key informants, witnesses, and Vail and his loved ones.
   
   Apparently, the key players have featured in previous Diehl books. They bring their past with them, and for fans, Vail is the key player in this plot, but this book just as comfortably stands alone as a thriller in its own right.
   
   The race is on for Vail and his team of "Wild Ones" against the militia and against the President's agenda.



5. Does he ever die? Great book. Not for you if you have a weak stomach.

5 comments about Primal Fear (Bookcassette(r) Edition).

1. This book is my favourite novel of all time. The story line is fantastic and the ending is simply chilling. The complex and descriptive paragraphs are completley stunning. The way Diehl can keep the story flying along with unbelievable speed and excitment is a rare and raw talent and is a joy to read. Also, as well as being fantasic read, it is also fasinating-it reveals the world of the court room in all its glories, as well as looking in to the human brain. Fasinating! If you haven't read it shame on you! Read it, you haven't read a thriller untill you read a novel by William Diehl!



2. I read this book a few years back and could not get it out of my mind. The ending was just such a surprise. I read it and immediately had to rent the movie. The book was better, although I thought the movie was very good and true to the novel. Edward Norton played his character wonderfully.
   
   This is my favorite all-time suspense novel.



3. William Diehl, Primal Fear (Villard, 1993)
   
   As I continued on through this book, discovering its many flaws, I wondered more than once if the reason I kept reading it was, at least in part, my extreme regard for Gregory Hoblit's amazing film adaptation. It's one of those rare cases (Psycho and Silence of the Lambs are the most obvious examples) where a director took a mediocre novel and really made it his own, with the resulting movie being better than the book could have ever hoped. And yet, a day after I started reading Primal Fear, I was three hundred pages into it.
   
   There's a difference between an author who can write and a book that's well-written. I've been thinking about this over the past few days. I think the distinction, ultimately, derives from what's important to the author. A well-written book is in love with language. It is painstakingly checked for errors, each word has been chosen with care (there are some books, such as Wendy Walker's The Secret Service, where I've actually wondered, idly, how much time the author spent considering the placement of each "the"), the book was written with an eye to the overall beauty and mellifluousness of the words just as much as to plot, characterization, pacing, all that sort of thing. But a book does not have to be well-written to show evidence that an author can write. (When reading this, imagine emphasis on the word "write," in kind of the same way you might say, "dude... that guy can drink", after the guy next to you at the bar has just put back his fifteenth shot of Yukon Jack and shows no signs of disorientation.) It is possible to have cultivated a fantastic feel for one or two of the major structural components of a novel without having quite grasped the rest. I'm not exactly sure how such books actually get published (this may stem from my just having finished Noah Lukeman's excellent The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile, which assures the avid reader/writer that stuff like this gets tossed out the window unless you're, say, Danielle Steel), but man, someone, somewhere, had to okay The Da Vinci Code.
   
   Not to say Primal Fear is as flat-out bad as The Da Vinci Code. Diehl, while seemingly uncaring about the language itself-- while the phrase "riddled with clichés" has become something of a cliché in itself, it's quite an apt description of the writing here, and that's only the tip of the linguistic iceberg-- knows how to plot and pace. When an author doesn't spring the big twist on you until halfway through the book, and you don't care, that's pretty impressive.
   
   In case you've been living under a rock since 1996, the plot: a sleazy, but very good, defense attorney, Martin Vail, wins a big case against the city of Chicago for police brutality against a minor mafioso. In revenge, they set him to defend Aaron Stampler, accused of killing the city's most beloved Catholic cardinal, found shivering in the confessional with the cardinal's blood all over him, the knife in his hand, wearing the cardinal's ring. An open and shut case, right? Well, you've seen Twelve Angry Men...
   
   Unlike most courtroom dramas, this one spends most of its time outside the courtroom, with the first three hundred or so pages of the book devoted to Vail and his team trying to unravel the mystery of who really did kill the cardinal. (That's the big twist I mentioned before.) Once that's out of the way, then we get to the courtroom-drama bit. And, along with the language, that's Primal Fear's biggest failing: this is a very linear book, almost videogame-like in its insistence that we have to solve problem A, fight the boss battle, and then go on to problem B. Even though it's an old cliché in itself that (unless you're Law and Order) the basic piece of mystery-flavored entertainment will have two threads of mystery going at once-- only to be wrapped up into one at the end, of course-- utilizing that particular cliché at least shows that the artist doing the creating is capable of juggling such things in such a way that it keeps you entertained. Diehl is either beyond that or simply not capable of it, given the linearity here. He's just not interested. He's relying on the big reveal to throw the reader off. And it does, somewhat, but the linear nature of the narrative makes him reach for stuff that comes naturally to authors who do it the other way (dramatic tension being the main example).
   
   In any case, the short answer, though it's already far too late for that: eh, not awful. But the movie is much, much better. Not terribly often I get to say that. ***



4. This was a marvelous read. Fast, frenetic--- keeps you on your toes. I would recommend this to my friends who love thrillers.



5. I have never written a review of a book before, but I was reading a review of another book I had just read and the author of that review said if you want to read a true legal thriller you need to read this book. I could not find it in the bookstores so I ordered it via amazon.com.
   
   I thought the book started out kind of slow and I did not care for the use of the "F" word a few times at the beginning. I like to recommend books to my mother in law and that might stop me from recommending this one, but maybe not. Once I got into the book there was not an excessive amount of profanity and I could not put the book down.
   
   I really like John Grisham books and this one ranks up there with Grisham's best. I highly recommended it if you have not read it already.