Customer Reviews

Silent Thunder

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Marine architect Hannah Bryson is on top of her game when she's contracted to inspect the Soviet submarine, Silent Thunder, which has recently been acquired by a U.S. maritime museum. Her task is to ready the nuclear attack sub for public exhibition. Hannah's brother and frequent partner, joins her to complete the project.

It's a simple stop-gap job meant to fill a couple of weeks before she moves on to something else. Simple. Until it goes horribly wrong when Silent Thunder and all souls aboard suffer a deadly attack.

Determined to discover the identity and deal with whoever is responsible, Hannah finds herself straddling a fine line between Russian connections and the CIA, wondering who she can trust.

The mother-son Johansen writing team has put together an engrossing read. Detail and action, together with a solid plot, bring this well written co-effort together into a story that will absorb you. A few wonderful twists keep the forward propulsion working, and the interaction between Hannah and a dangerous, driven man with no compulsion to follow the rules, keeps the reader wondering.

Silent Thunder should be on everyone's reading list. It's sure to be on the New York Time's list.

Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended.

Iris Johansen fans know her for the Eve Duncan suspense thrillers and for the blistering reads she delivers with every book. I have to mark time on my calendar to sit down with a new book because I know I won't want to have to get up. SILENT THUNDER proved to be another grab-you-by-the-throat dash that pulled me along on a frantic chase for a deadly puzzle piece.

Although novelist Roy Johansen teamed up with his mother for this one, I couldn't tell much difference. Evidently Mom's taught son a lot of her moves and he can step right in without missing a beat.

I was intrigued by the choice of subject matter in the novel. I wouldn't have figured the author for having any real interest in or knowledge of nuclear submarines, but they obviously did their homework and had worked out they wanted to do. Johansen has researched many fields for her books, so this one shouldn't have come as a surprise.

Hannah Bryson is an architect specializing in marine vessels. Her work on the TITANIC brought her to national attention and catapulted her career into an international theater. The work she was doing on SILENT THUNDER, a decommissioned Soviet-era nuclear attack submarine, was supposed to be a short gig and didn't involve anything big. She finds out too late that the mystery and danger that followed the submarine and its commander through the last years of the Cold War haven't been completely eroded by time. That lesson costs Hannah more than she ever would have risked had she known.

Now, instead of walking away from a simple job, Hannah goes over the submarine with a fine-toothed comb and ferrets out crumbs of the much larger secret held within the craft. On the run for her life, not knowing exactly who she can trust, Hannah seeks revenge on the people that brought pain into her life.

As usual, Iris Johansen's characters are a little on the thin side, but evolving them any more would have slowed the breakneck pacing that moves from event to event and from locale to locale. She writes books that hammer her readers with curiosity and tension, driving them to keep turning pages.

My wife and I both read this one and enjoyed it a lot. The characters were fun, and we didn't mind Hannah's superhuman photographic memory (though she and I haven't met anyone with that ability yet). And we both stayed with the book until we turned the final pages. That's about the best compliment a reader can offer an author.

Roy Johansen is an established, Edgar Award-winning author in his own right, and Iris has delivered a steady stream of NEW YORK TIMES bestsellers. Iris usually writes a couple novels a year, one of them sometimes featuring series regular Eve Duncan. It'll be interesting to see if mother and son continue to write together, but if they do, they've definitely got a winning blend.

What could be held on an old Russian submarine that could be worth killing anyone who got in the way? That's what Hannah Bryson has to find out for herself, even if it put her in mortal danger. Her desperate search leads her on an adventure that keeps her heart pounding 24/7. Readers who love fast-paced mysteries and international espionage will really enjoy this novel.

Hannah is an intelligent and driven woman. She has a photographic memory. She uses that skill and her deep interest in submarines and other water vessels to create a unique niche for herself and her business. Her work on the wreckage of the Titanic caught the eye of the State Department when the Maritime Museum purchased Silent Thunder, a decommissioned Russian sub. When is accepts the job of verifying the safety of the sub to hold museum patrons, she's not given any idea of the danger that would surround her and her team. When tragedy strikes, Hannah turns her rage into action. she's not going to let the United State's government prevent her from seeking justice. She doesn't accept the State Department's warning when she teams up with the mysterious Kirov. She trusts her instincts and won't let anyone stand in her way of solving the mystery of the Silent Thunder.

Silent Thunder is written by a mother son team: Iris and Roy Johansen. I had never heard of these authors before receiving this book. I can't recall ever having read a novel written by multiple authors and I was intrigued to see how they would pull it off. I also made it a game for myself to try to discover parts of the book written by one versus the other. I can honestly say that there wasn't one part of this book that didn't fit with the rest. I was impressed by how they came together to write this story. I am also now looking forward to reading their solo work. I hope that those novels are just as much fun.

It took me less than 48 hours to finish this novel. The world of submarines and the former Russian navy came alive. This is the book for you if you are interested in mysteries involving political intrigue. If this isn't something you generally choose to read but you enjoy reading novels with strong female lead characters, don't let this book pass you by. Hannah is a wonderful character and I hope to meet up with her again in the future. I think you will, too.

Mother and son did an excellent job of collaboration. Johansen is trying a slightly different tactic and is succeding. I enjoyed the book (kindle edition) and recommend it to those of you who like action with just a hint of romantic tension.

Absolutely excellent! This really surprised me from Iris Johansen. Precise, concise and powerful. Thoroghly enjoyed and hope for a sequel!

This book was certainly a change from the other Iris Johansen novels that I have read.

In my opinion it tried to cover too many topics, murder,mystery,romance, etc. without doing any of them real justice. I have always enjoyed Iris Johansen as a writer but maybe it was the combined contributions of her and her husband that changed the outcome.

An easy read but I am not sure I would read another book written by both of them.

If you like lots of essentially meaningless chatter between sisters-in-law, one of whom (still, of course, in her 30s) is a designer of super-special submarines, who strives always (the book's authors remind us time and again) to project an alpha-female image despite her (seemingly endless occasions for) self-doubts as she seeks (following a failed marriage) to find the man of her dreams, who will be (as her beta-male brother tells her, before he is early-on murdered) an older man, who will thus fulfill her need (the brother tells her) for a father-figure male in her life, well, then--if this is what you like--this is just the book for you! (You will probably enjoy the book even more if, at the time you read it, you happen to be enrolled in an introductory level psychology course; for in the pages of this novel you will find cookie-cutter characters to match the types who are described in the pages of your textbook.)
Should you think that I exaggerate, and that the book must surely be better than I suggest, then do be sure to read it! I (not knowing what sludge I would be getting into, having never before read anything by Iris and Roy Johansen) foolishly bought and read the book; you (despite forewarning from myself and several others who have given the book a single star) have every right to do the same thing.

Okay, basic synopsis: Marine architect (one who designs underwater vehicles and the like) Hannah Bryson has been contracted to inspect and overhaul a decommissioned Russian nuclear sub, the Silent Thunder, for the U.S. Maritime Museum. Working with her brother, Connor, she begins the routine check of the sub's systems. During this process, an enigmatic set of metallic plates, inscribed with seemingly nonsensical symbols, is found. Tragedy strikes, however, and a mystery unfolds. Hannah, though warned by the U.S. government against involving herself any further in the situation, stubbornly searches out the truth behind Silent Thunder's history and how it pertains to the ruthless man masterminding all the recent death and destruction surrounding the sub. With the help of a enigmatic and charismatic mercenary, their search becomes a race to find the prize Silent Thunder's secrets leads to before anyone else dies.

Like any Iris Johansen book, this one is fast-paced, thrilling, and tautly told. The added bonus is NO SEX! Yes, that's right, no throbbing loins or hanky-panky between the sheets. Lots of sexual tension and hints of a budding romance, with some smoldering looks and innocent yet electrifying skin contact, but that's it. It was quite refreshing. Of course, the lack of sex may have been due to Iris's collaboration with her son, Roy; mother and son may be close, but not enough to write sex scenes with each other. Yuck! But I digress. Is this deep and lasting literature? No. Is it a quick and thrilling read, something to while away the hours with? For sure. Although, and it may only be me and my dirty mind, but does anyone else get the giggles when they read the title? Silent Thunder. *snicker* Sorry.

I've never read a book by Iris or her husband but their current thriller that is in hardback drew my attention. Since I knew nothing about them I decided to try the cheap route and get this paperback instead.

Overall, this is a decent thriller. It starts out at a snail's pace as the MC and her brother go through a bunch of personal feelings and banter and it seems nothing actually happened until I was at about the 50 page mark. However, things pick up and the story progresses at a much more rapid pace.

The story has all the elements of a good thriller and for the most part delivers. The chapters are sometimes long but are broken up with scene breaks and the writing style is third person. However, there were a lot of first person style author intrusion moments throughout the story. I don't think those introspections by the characters were in quite the correct point of view. It was like the authors adding in personal first-person commentary, interpreting what the character was thinking, rather than the character actually thinking it. However, that was a minor quirk.

Also, the MC is almost over-the-top stubborn, to the point where it was almost annoying. I know she should be suspicious and as it turns out, she is right most of the time. However, her stubbornness got to be a bit much at times.

The two authors have drawn in a new fan. Despite a few irritants to the story, it was a great read. If you are not bothered by the things I pointed out, I highly recommend this.

I had a good laugh at the reviewer who didn't buy the idea of a deactivated nuclear sub as a museum exhibit -- I've been on two such subs in the past few years (the Nautilus in the U.S. and the HMS Courageous in England), so however expensive it may be, it's definitely possible. I found "Silent Thunder" to be an exciting can't-put-it-down thriller, and though I would have enjoyed reading more Clancy-esque technical details, I still thought it was a lot of fun. The story is packed full of interesting twists and turns, and the characters are very appealing. I definitely recommend it.