The only reason I didn’t finish ‘In Cold Blood’ in one sitting:
Reading it for a class, I actually fell asleep with book in hand. I was exhausted. I awoke some time later–in the wee hours of the morning–to the sounds of my youngest child screaming. When I went to his room (where he slept with his older brother, for security’s sake) I found him covered in blood. His brother lay next to him, also covered in blood, but didn’t move.
First thing I thought–some crazed killer had crept into our home and begun slaughtering my children.
When I put my glasses on I realized that my youngest had a bad nose bleed. Older son just slept through it.
Yuck. Scared the you-know-what out of me. Couldn’t pick the book back up for a couple days.
I agree with Jeffrey Archer. He’s so good, but since those books were published a while ago, he doesn’t get the attention he deserves. I’ve loved all his books.
For something recent, I found I couldn’t down “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
Carl Hiassen’s books are hard to put down, although they all run together after a while (in my mind).
For chick literature, I find Maeve Binchy’s storytelling is so good, I’m reluctant to stop reading any of her books until the last page.
Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth was also a damned good book.
I’m a little surprised no one’s mentioned James Ellroy yet. LA Confidential, American Tabloid, White Jazz, quite a few more. I’ve been avoiding him recently because I know that if I start one of his novels, I’m not going to be able to stop until I finish it.
How about The Secret History by Donna Tartt or Zodiac: An Ecothriller by Neal Stephenson?
Most people know Stephenson for Snow Crash and the Diamond Age, and they’re great books, but for sheer what-will-happen-next plot exhilaration, I always re-read Zodiac.
I stopped everything until I finished The Secret History.
Page-turners I’ve read in the past 2 years:
“Hannibal” by Thomas Harris.
“Sieze the Night,” “Fear Nothing,” & “False Memory” by Dean R. Koontz.
“A Free Man of Color” & “Fever Season” by Barbara Hambly.
And if we aren’t sticking to crime novels, The Harry Potter series.
I polished off Terry Goodkind’s Temple of the Winds in record time. I could have finished it in 2 days if only I hadn’t had to go to this terrible place called WORK.
Aside from a bunch of titles already mentioned here, other page turners for me would include:
White Oleander - Janet Fitch
Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk
The Bonfire Of The Vanities and The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
Eureka Street - Robert McLiam Wilson
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
Various Tony Hillerman titles
Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon
Bombadiers - Po Bronson
Preston Falls - David Gates
Nobody’s Fool and Straight Man - Richard Russo
Mr Vertigo and The Music Of Chance - Paul Auster
Thank You For Smoking - Christopher Buckley
Various Elmore Leonard titles