Wednesday 9 December 2020

Christmas Best-Sellers?

Taking a look at the Amazon Kindle Thriller/Adventure best-seller lists makes for interesting reading. Desmond Bagley is up there, along with contemporary Alistair MacLean. You can always rely on them both any time of year to carry the flag for the genre. There’s the ubiquitous Lee Child of course sailing high above everyone in first place, and the brilliant and consistent Jeffery Deaver too. What may surprise you is that Bagley protege John Templeton-Smith is up there alongside them, and beating some in the numbers game, with his John Winter trilogy and latest release Ghosts of Greenland. Just goes to show what enduring effect a good teacher can have!

Readers though, aren’t always interested in numbers. They are often more loyal to their authors and genres than publishers might expect. What is heartening to learn is that the thriller genre is going from strength to strength. People buy it, read it and love it. Maybe we are reading more at the moments to escape the worries and scares of the world around us. If that is the case there can hardly be a better medicine for the soul than escapism through the pages of a well-written book.