William Diehl: Hooligans

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Great no holds barred action-packed thriller
This is one of the best thrillers that I have read this year and although it was written in the 1980's I rate it higher than many of the best-selling thrillers released this year.  I loved the fast non-stop page-turning action, amazing characters and a plot with so many twists that it keeps you guessing up to the last page.

Jake Kilmer is a federal agent investigating organised crime who has been trying unsuccessfully for several years to make a case against a Mafia family known as the Cincinnati Triad. The Triad disappear for some time and then turn up again in Dunetown, Georgia where Jake spent his happiest teenage years. During the last 20 years since he left Dunetown, Jake has lived through the horrors of the Vietnam war and become a tough motivated cop determined to eliminate the Triad by any means.  Since Jake left, Dunetown has changed from an idylic backwater to a glitzy city where the Triad can  operate and profit openly.

Jake joins an unusual group of local crime fighters recruited from the dregs of police society to stamp out organised crime.  Because of their characters and appearance the locals call them the Hooligans.  When the Mafia leader and some of his top people are murdered, Jake and the Hooligans are the only chance that Dunetown has to stop the bloodshed and eliminate organised crime from the city.

William Diehl was a great thriller writer from the 1970's to 1990's who died in 2006  It is wonderful that his estate has released several of his books on Kindle at affordable prices, including the well known Sharkey's Machine and Primal Fear which were made into very successful movies.

I loved Sharkey's Machine, didn't understand or appreciate Chameleon and really enjoyed the pace and sizzle of Hooligans.  There are still 4 or 5 of Diehl's books that I look forward to reading soon.

William Diehl: Chameleon

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Disappointing after Sharkey's Machine
After really enjoying Sharkey's Machine I was disappointed with Chameleon. I read somewhere that some of Diehl's books were great and others not so great - IMHO Chameleon was not one of his best.

The first few chapters looked pretty good but after that the plot became devious, frequently unbelievable and difficult to follow. There were scenes and characters that didn't add to the plot, and baddies turned out to be goodies and goodies turned out to be baddies. The technology part of the story has dated a lot as things have changed greatly since Diehl wrote the book in the 1970's or 1980's.

William Diehl had a reputation as an excellent thriller writer and it is great that his estate is releasing most of his books in Kindle format. They do need to fix the editing where every paragraph has an extra line break which makes it hard to follow the story.

I still have a couple of Diehl's books to read and hope that they get better.

William Diehl: Sharkey's Machine

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What a great 1970's thriller -highly recommended
This really is a page-turning action thriller with everything - WWII ambush, gold theft, drug and vice squad, a Mafia assassin, reasonably steamy sex and even a Presidential candidate! What more could be included in one thriller.

Even though the book was written in the late 1970's (the cops have to stop to find a phone box) the action is not out of date. Some may remember a film version with Burt Reynolds, Brian Keith and Rachel Ward.

Once you start reading this book you will want to read straight through to the action packed conclusion.