Today, in the latest installment of my BAD BOOKS PODCAST, we will be reviewing “Atomic Duet – An FBI Story.” This atrocity purports to be a “cozy thriller” by a former “FBI Guy” if I may wax colloquial. Well, Mr. Guy, let me be the first to tell you: there is no such category. How dare you, sir, attempt to rip apart the fictional boundaries we have all worked so hard to erect!
This fellow, whose name I shan’t utter, lest I render it easier for listeners to locate his tawdry product, has the audacity to suggest that the sanctified thriller genre can be ameliorated by reducing body counts, explosions and fatal fist/knife/gun fights to what he dares to term “an acceptable minimum.” In this instance, there are only two explosions – yes, you heard that right, ONLY TWO – and less than a dozen fatal encounters. UNACCEPTABLE! Moreover, the threadbare descriptions of oozing wounds and severed body parts left me oozing with severe disappointment.
Now let’s move on to the most deplorable example of how the invisible sacred bond that exists between the thriller reader and writer is so casually yet cruelly sundered by this Guy: there are no sex scenes…I have to pause here for a moment to catch my breath and prevent imminent rage-induced palpitations! Oh yes, there is a tease here and there that some hanky-panky might erupt in the erotic fulminations that make the thriller genre such a delight. But even the teases are bereft of mammaries! DOUBLY UNACEPTABLE! Also missing: torture, impossible physical feats, and fast cars.
Need I say more? Yes.
The title refers to a “duet,” which Webster defines as “a performance by two people.” And yet, there were no such duets! There were, however, many references to “atomic” things, which I suppose is why this BAD BOOK is being discounted as a tie-in to the premiere of “Oppenheimer,” which I will be reviewing next week on my BAD CINEMA PODCAST.
Don’t forget to click LIKE and SUBSCRIBE. Also, because his publicist paid me for it, I am compelled to display an image of this “work,” and links to its availability…which will obviously not last long. Many reviews nastier than mine can be found by click-inating here.
Atomic Duet – An FBI Story is available on Amazon.
Joe Enright Views the Passing Parade
Atomic Duet - An FBI Story 