Review: A lot like a Nelson DeMille thriller... and that's good!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 21, 2011
Overall:  5 starsPlot/Storyline:  5 starsWhat would you do if you read obituaries for you and your spouse in the newspaper? If you're Peter Talbott, you would go to your own funeral, of course. Little did Peter know that that act of satisfying his curiosity would lead to a terrifying cross country chase with people trying to kill him everywhere he went.The Undertaker, like most good suspense thrillers, hooked me on page one. And that was where the character known as the Undertaker was introduced to the reader in one of the most chilling opening scenes that I've read in a while.I've read a number of action thrillers that were first rate until they ended with a disappointing climax--it was either too easy to see where the story was going, or the climax was too convenient or too contrived. But I enjoyed the climax of The Undertaker. It caught me almost completely off guard, and it was a satisfying end to the build-up of the story. Granted, the revealing of one character's true identity was somewhat improbable, but this was fiction, after all, and it did make for a great story.One of my favorite big-name authors is Nelson DeMille, who is a master at ramping up the tension to gut-wrenching levels. In my opinion, William F. Brown is very nearly in the same league with DeMille for writing taut, suspenseful scenes.Character Development:  5 starsThe story was narrated in the first person by Peter Talbott, a software engineer who had recently lost his beloved wife and soul mate Terri to cancer. Talbott was a smart, likeable character. Still in mourning for his deceased wife, he was trying to get on with his life, but with little success. Everything changed, however, when he met Sandy Kasmarek, a sassy lady whose no-good, cheating husband had been murdered. Although the two had absolutely nothing in common, the chemistry was there, and with Peter's dry wit and sarcasm and Sandy's tough cynicism, it was fun watching the sparks fly as an unlikely romance blossomed amid the chaos and carnage of the pair's desperate flight from the people who wanted them dead.Peter and Sandy were the good guys. There were plenty of bad guys--frighteningly evil and absolutely ruthless--but it wasn't always obvious which side of the law some characters were on until the dramatic climax.In my mind, I kept visualizing younger versions of Harrison Ford and Holly Hunter playing Peter and Sandy. And yes, The Undertaker would make a great movie.Writing style:  5 starsThe Undertaker was a near-perfect combination of suspenseful action and colorful, often witty dialogue. The descriptions of the various locations and people encountered by the on-the-run Peter and Sandy were vivid and realistic.I noticed a number of punctuation and spelling errors in the version submitted for review, but they weren't frequent enough to distract from the writing.The Undertaker is a novel with 6,333 Kindle locations. Lending and text-to-speech are enabled.