Gordaen's Blog

When I actually manage to get a reasonable amount of sleep, I am able to stay awake on the bus and do quite a bit of reading. I recently finished the book Silent Thunder, written by Iris Johansen and her son, Roy. It’s about a lady named Hannah Bryson who is hired to prepare a decommissioned Russian submarine (named “Silent Thunder”) for a maritime museum. So, she has to carefully inspect the entire submarine for safety hazards and quickly stumbles upon an obscure message that results in a murder and sets up the rest of the novel.

I typically read books by male authors about men (meaning, at least in their 20’s) because I can relate to them more. Action and violence usually serves as the main course of the books I usually read with perhaps a dash of romance as a side dish. Add in some intellectual pondering and a bit of technology for dessert, and I’m set. Yet, Silent Thunder is about a female lead character (Hannah) and written in part by a female. Early on, Hannah is nagged by her brother about getting into a real relationship, and I was thinking of putting the book down at that point. I have to connect with a character before I care about his/her personal life, relationships, etc. But, I was on the bus with time to kill, so I kept reading.

Fortunately, the novel becomes a lot less about relationships and a lot more about the mystery of the message Hannah discovers on the submarine…. and the deaths that go along with it. I give this book three stars out of five. There is a bit of excitement and some cunning, but there are also times when I questioned the personality of Hannah and the explanations for certain parts of the plot (like the entire submersible section…).

The book is probably available in your local bookstore; otherwise, you can buy the hardcover edition of Silent Thunder ($10.78 as of this post)
or the paperback edition of Silent Thunder ($7.99) on Amazon.

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