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The basis for the action thriller Die Hard, a movie that, however tongue in cheek, consistently makes media lists of the top Christmas films of all time. This, it's fair to say, because in spite of getting the core of the story right, it doesn't end quite the same way, and that makes all the difference in the world. The book, Thorp's sequel to his own 1966 novel The Detective (which was also made into a film, starring Frank Sinatra), is the story of Joe Leland, a retired New York cop, who flies to California on Christmas Eve to be with his daughter and ends up trapped inside her skyscraper office building during a terrorist attack. It, too, is an action thriller -- Leland, who begins with one gun and no shoes, must outmaneuver and kill his opponents, all while trying to keep the hostages, including his daughter, alive -- but it is also filled with Leland's ruminations on a life not always well lived, particularly in terms of his failed marriage and the mistakes he made raising his child. (Knowledge of the previous book or at least the Sinatra film is not required, but certainly doesn't hurt.) Late in the story, it also becomes vaguely political. No wonder the prose is occasionally a bit choppy. Still, it's the action and the suspense that carry the day, and that make this book an entertaining read. Until the end, anyway, which hits a note so jarringly off-key that, if it doesn't spoil the book, probably will leave you content to revisit it at the movies.
The basis for the action thriller Die Hard, a movie that, however tongue in cheek, consistently makes media lists of the top Christmas films of all time. This, it's fair to say, because in spite of getting the core of the story right, it doesn't end quite the same way, and that makes all the difference in the world. The book, Thorp's sequel to his own 1966 novel The Detective (which was also made into a film, starring Frank Sinatra), is the story of Joe Leland, a retired New York cop, who flies to California on Christmas Eve to be with his daughter and ends up trapped inside her skyscraper office building during a terrorist attack. It, too, is an action thriller -- Leland, who begins with one gun and no shoes, must outmaneuver and kill his opponents, all while trying to keep the hostages, including his daughter, alive -- but it is also filled with Leland's ruminations on a life not always well lived, particularly in terms of his failed marriage and the mistakes he made raising his child. (Knowledge of the previous book or at least the Sinatra film is not required, but certainly doesn't hurt.) Late in the story, it also becomes vaguely political. No wonder the prose is occasionally a bit choppy. Still, it's the action and the suspense that carry the day, and that make this book an entertaining read. Until the end, anyway, which hits a note so jarringly off-key that, if it doesn't spoil the book, probably will leave you content to revisit it at the movies.
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