I want to read some great blockbusters

[gastrognome]

Hello,
I'd love to hear some recommendations for fast-paced blockbusters. Plenty of action, good story, page turning stuff please! Oh, and the longer the better.

Have read and enjoyed Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth + sequel, various (but not all) Wilbur Smith books, a few John Grishams and Michael Crichtons, Kathryn Neville's The Eight, etc.

(Not a fan of the Da Vinci Code or Kate Mosse (Labyrinth, etc.) - I liked the premise behind the books but thought the writing was awful.)

Any ideas? It has to be fairly easy to get into and pick up/put down (two young DDs mean prolonged reading sessions are rare!), so nothing too slow moving...

Thanks :)

Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy? The first one takes a while to get going, but is excellent, the second one not quite so good. That's as far as I've got, but I've heard the third one is as good as the first (but very long).

Scott Turow - an American put me on to him as better than Grisham
Nelson DeMille - meet the fat paperback criteria !
Harlan Coban
Victoria Hislop - the spanish civil war one

Slightly more offbeat
www.amazon.co.uk/Sick-Puppy-Carl-Hiaasen/dp/0230765262/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341317764&sr=1-3

Try Company of Liars by Karen Maitland .. Medieval murder mystery, plague and lots of action also interesting historical detail.

Also the Shardlake series by CJ Sampson .. Tudor lawyer acting as detective .. Similar sort of feel.

Both well-written but involving and easy reads.

Maia by Richard Adams (the Watership Down bloke, but Maia is most definitely and adult book) - it's set on another world, but the actual story is a proper "epic saga" type thing, with revolution and mayhem and war, and is very exciting.
There's Harry Harrison's "The Hammer and the Cross" trilogy, it's an alternative history thing, with what happens when King Alfred shares the throne with a "slave boy who rises to power by his wits" and Christianity is all tangled up with the old Norse religions. It's very cleverly done and a great plot - lots of twists and turns, and a major surprise ending.

You should try The Passage by Justin Cronin. It is 1000 pages long and very hard to put down, and I was hooked within the first chapter, and its part of a trilogy with the 2nd book out later this year (I too hated Kate Mosse!)

Thanks all, lots for me to be getting on with there!
Just wondering though, are the Stieg Larsson books disturbing? Have steered clear so far as thought they might be too scary!

I've never read Larsson's books on principle so I have no idea if they're any good or not
I didn't realise The Passage was going to be a trilogy, I ploughed through it when it first came out - it was "good but not fabulous" I finished it because I couldn't bear to leave it unfinished, rather than because I was desperate to know what happened iyswim.

Second steig Larson. Also henning mankell.

On a very different genre, I lOved "the help"

gastrognome I didn't find the SL books particularly disturbing although the sexual violence in the first one is pretty graphic. In fact, there's a lot of detail about business corruption, people trafficking, neo-Nazi organisations etc which is informative and some would say a bit dry, but I found it an interesting comment on Swedish society. They are more than just who-done-its and the comparisons to Jo Nesbo are miles off IMO

PomBear - I've never read Larsson's books on principle - I'm interested to know why. Because the money is going to his father and brother rather than his partner? (I saw her talking at Hay book festival - v interesting) or are you like me with Lord of the Rings as a teenager stubbornly refusing to be the same as everyone else

I Know This much is True - Wally lamb - fat paperback, good story.

Because of how he came to be "inspired" to write them, and the way the press and that so called "best friend" who is trying to cash in have attempted to hound his victim all these years later. He was a despicable person and just because he was quite young at the time it doesn't make it ok. A rapist is a rapist. If all the money went to a rape counselling charity then it would just maybe go some way towards helping "redeem" for want of a better word him, but it doesn't and never did. Even when he was alive, he had no intention of it doing so and that poor woman must now be suffering all over again, every day, dreading someone from the press tracking her down and dragging it all up again. She could be married with a family now and not have ever told anyone or anything.

Thanks for the response .. I get it now. His partner did allude, in her interview, to what happened at a campsite when he was 15: three of his friends raped a young girl and although he didn't participate, he did nothing to stop them either, if I have it right :(

I do agree with you that some money - and there's plenty of it - passed on to a rape counselling charity would be a good move. There are so many millions but his father and brother do seem determined to hang on to it all.

The Song of Ice and Fire series - really good, absorbing story telling and there are thousands of pages!! I am not a fantasy fan but these had me hooked.

The Black Angel by John Connolly. It's a supernatural detective thriller with the best baddie ever. And the sequel, Wrath Of Angels, is out in September. Can't wait.

Give the Stieg L books a swerve. I read the first as our bookclub chose it. It's a not a great read. I think people misread Swedish for 'exotic'. Had the setting been London's seedier side with references to the BNP, the book would just be regarded as violent trash.

To answer your disturbing point, most of our bookclub thought it worth going on to read the rest of the series but none chose to go and see the film.

Second CJ Sansom - Shardlake series and George Martin - Song of Ice and Fire series and add:

Hunger Games trilogy
Lee Child's Jack Reacher books

Slightly less action but stories I enjoyed:
Philippa Gregory - The Constant Princess
Anything by Jodi Picoult
Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Shadow of the Wind

I second the Hunger Games, and Steig Larssen. I also enjoyed the George Martin series, but have slightly OD'd, and am taking a break after about 4 of them. Also love Ben MacIntyre - just read Double Cross, but try Agent ZigZag and Operation Mincement. Brilliant reads. Am trying to get into hilary Mantel, but not sure if I will succeed.

I'm currently reading Jeff Abbott's Adrenaline. It is certainly fast paced. Great if you like spy action thrillers.

Thanks all.

Have read the Shardlake series and loved them all, especially the last one. Didn't get on with Winter in Madrid by the same author, however.

Have started a Game of Thrones but am floundering after getting about three quarters of the way through. Everything seems so stilted, and I can't really bring myself to care about the characters. Plan to finish it eventually, however.

No one gets on with Winter in Madrid, for the simple reason it was slow boring bollocks! and this from a massive Shardrake fan.

Gastrognome, I'd recommend watching GOT before reading the books. I know that's topsy turvy, but it's the first time it has worked for me. Never found that before.
AndI agree with the Hunger Games. It's fab. You'll finish them in a week.

Oooh Ooooh Ooh!
Child 44. It's part of a trilogy. I loved it and have only read the first one, as yet. It's about a serial killer in Stalin's Russia and although that sounds foul, it's more about the complexities of having to work in a paranoid police state than the actual killings.

Susan Howatch, the Starbridge series. Followed by the St. Benet books.I

Just updating to say I read Company of Liars as recommended by highlandcoo and thought it was great. Really enjoyed the historical detail and the slightly spinechilling but not too scary plot. Have downloaded another Karen Maitland (the Owl Killers) - hope it will be as good!