Thriller Thursday

Ah, I made it on a thursday, things must be improving.!
 The latest thriller/action book I finished was Blindfold Game by Dana Stabenow. Pirates hijack a freighter and head toward the western coast of North America. At the same time, a CIA analyst in Washington, DC, traces the sale of some black market plutonium. He puts the puzzle pieces together and realizes that he might be looking at a terrorist attack. Enter the US Coast Guard cutter Sojourner Truth, patroling the Maritime Boundary Line in the Bering Sea, and the action heats up even as the weather turns cold and stormy.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It is a good thriller with a good plot and interesting characters, but what took it above the norm for me was all the information and the scenes set on the Coast Guard cutter. I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to books and shows that go behind the scenes and show how something functions. That's what this books does, without sounding like a lecture or a "look at all the research I did" dump of info. I had never read a book of any genre that involved the Coast Guard, and that made this book different and interesting.
There is a loose sequel to this book, Prepared For Rage, with many scenes taking part on another Coast Guard cutter. I read that book first, then discovered Blindfold Game, but the sequence in which I read these books didn't make a difference. I might go back and reread Prepared For Rage though as there are two characters who show up in both books. I don't know if Ms. Stabenow is going to write any more books like these but I hope she does. Her website is worth a look and she blogged about the time she spent with the Coast Guard while doing research for these books. Great reading.
Bye