Customer Reviews

The Weatherman

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

First of all, this novel is not for the occasional book reader. That could be why some of these reviews are so negative. The Weatherman is a very well written, engrossing book with a lot of back-story that adds subvertly but ingenuously to its progress, so that all of a sudden the characters are REAL! It's a mystery and so much more at the same time, including a realistic look into newsroom politics and meteorology. Few authors, today, attempt to write about such a large, unwieldy cast of characters as Thayer does almost effortlessly in this book. Rich Beanblossum ,a disfigured, yet brilliant Viet Nam vet, emerges slowly and unexpectly as one of the most original protagonists we've seen in a while. You may not enjoy every page of this grand mystery, but as you read it, the realization it's actually an incredible book will dawn pleasantly on you and you'll sense what a rarity it actually is.

I just read "the Weatherman" after having it hyped to me by a friend, and was keenly disappointed. Given the paucity of any compelling proof of Dixon Bell's guilt, the "mountain" of circumstantial evidence (that never placed him at the scene of a crime, a partial fingerprint that failed to meet even a minimum standard of proof, a diary that never mentioned any of the victims or hinted at murderous impulses) would have never convicted this man, let alone called for the death penalty. But far worse than these failings were the simply unexplained mysteries Thayer left behind. The last victim scratched her killer, leaving tissue and blood under her nails. The type O blood (the most common type) matched Bell's. But who can ever forget Detective Anglebeck's observation while interviewing Bell that he had no scratches anywhere on his hands. Apparently, Thayer did. This, unlike the circumstantial evidence against Bell, is forensic evidence that in any court would exonerate him. But it was never mentioned again. Neither was there any explanation of the origin of the "I'm going to ice you, Weatherman" messages Bell received, although there is a vague hint they came from Andy Mack, his jealous predecessor and temporary successor. And the mysterious meaning of Mack's dying words, "tell Dixon I'm sorry about those women," that at the time elicited such a strong response from Rick Beanblossom, disappeared from the story without a trace. ... My final complaint is not about "the Weatherman" itself but about writers who choose poor Minneapolis-St.Paul as the site of horrific serial murders. Between John Sanford's "Prey" series about serial killers in the cities and Thayer's "The Weatherman," I think I have counted somewhere close to one hundred victims since the mid-90s. Minnesota has changed.

Charles Whitaker

I've just finished reading this book for the third time, and generally by the time you read something that often the impact of it on you lessens. With the really good books, however, it doesn't, and it doesn't happen with The Weatherman. It's not a comfortable read and if it bothers you to read about state executions then this might not be the book for you, but it simply is a book that's very hard to put down. I finished it this time at 2:30 AM and when you have to work in the morning this is not exactly smart, but that's the kind of hold this book can create when you get deeply into the later chapters.

Reading the other reviews there is a lot of variation on what people like and dislike about this novel. Some like the plot, others think it's weak, some like the characters and some don't. It seems to pull people different ways more than most other books and that in itself is interesting. No matter what way you look at it, it's excellent writing and that is another reason to take a look at it.

Someone else mentioned The Green Mile. To me it brought up the memory of Dreiser's An American Tragedy. There are definitely some powerful and emotional scenes here.

If you want light and cozy, don't touch this one with a ten foot pole. If you want something that makes you think long after the book is closed, then this might be something you want on your bookshelf. This one is on my own keeper shelf and in another three or four years I'll probably lose another night's sleep over it. :)

There are two main reasons why I picked up this book to read. One being that I enjoy thrillers. The other being, it's set in my home state.

This is my first Steve Thayer novel and I'll be sure to pick up his others.

From the beginning I figured out who it was. Which was a disappointment in a sense but as I read the book, Thayer made me second guess my opinion. Which is what, indeed, made it an excellent book.

I was getting worried and frustrated towards the end, as I felt that the killer wasn't going to be identified. But at least, he was in a creative ending.

Overall I felt that I got to know the characters as well as the setting. The ropes of newscasting & the weather-Thayer researched a long time about the roles to be informed of what he was writing about. Which gives him 5 out of 5 stars!

This is the kind of book that sticks with you. I finished it three days ago, and I've thought back to it many times since, and even dreamed about it!

Thayer does a wonderful job here. He spent five years on this book, and it was well-worth the effort. The depth of the book comes from the depth of the characters...Dixon Graham Bell, Rick Beanblossom, Andrea LeBore...which are finely drawn, intimate portraits of people so real that you feel you can reach out and touch the page and feel their hands pushing back from the other side.

The Minnesota weather is another character in the book, and just as finely drawn as the human characters are...obviously, Thayer knows the state well. Another non-human character is the television news business, and Sky-High News in particular. Thayer worked at a TV station in order to research the book, and his knowledge of the ins and outs, highs and lows of the TV news game is obvious.

And the plot is full of twists and turns, more than enough for the most adventurous thrill-seekers. And then it comes to an end in such a way that it leaves you breathless, satisfied and yet hungry for more, almost to the point of going back to the beginning to read the whole thing again, in your thoughts and dreams if not in reality.

This is a great read. It is my first book by this author, but I will seek out even more of his work.

I picked this book up in the airport and found myself drawn in from page one. This is an outstanding, original thriller. Just the creative thought of a possibly murderous Willard Scott-like "Weatherman" is worth the cover price. The character of Rick is incredible. I thought odd and disturbing, but, unlike one of the masterful Dean Koontz' recent books, here is a character with problems that might outweigh the plot or the other characters; but he works anyway! I don't know what it is about the frozen North that spawns these fantastic thriller writers, like Chuck Logan, also, but whatever it is - snowshoes, beer, brats . . . the weather? . . . I hope it keeps up. This is tightly-written and above all, constructed, with plot twists that astonished me - all rooted in these twisted, bizarre, yet ultimately compelling characters. It's not a "nice" book. We've all seen the guys fry at the movies in THE GREEN MILE, but if you've got a weak stomach, probably this isn't for you. However, if you're strong of stomach and heart: buy it and read it now. From one writer to another - Steve, you've got the goombah. Thanks for an original and humane book.

Halfway through this book I would have given it a higher rating; an interesting and generally original plot with intriguing characters (even if handled a little heavy-handedly). But during the final few chapters, when you'd expect things to start 'coming together' and the characters to be fully developed, the plot seems to lose cohesion and comes to a somewhat loose ending (but by then I had lost much of my interest in whatever became of the main characters). Well, I enjoyed the book - but I think it could have been a much better one.

If anything makes a great novel, it's character development. The Weatherman has the most interesting cast of characters I've come across in a while. It's also a hell of a story. Someone is committing a murder once a season before a major weather event. Very well done, keeps you guessing until the end, and the suspense is relentless. A MUST READ! I can't wait for Thayer's second novel!

My rating is based on a combination of two factor.

Steve Thayer obviously did a very thorough research about news casting, police inverstigation and meteorology before writing this book, and it shows.

On the other hand, the story line isn't very good. I'm not sure whether this is a murder investigation story involving a news station or a story about the dynamics of a newsroom with a background story of a serial killer, but the 2 very prominent story lines doesn't give a feeling of a 'focused' story. The time gaps between the different parts of the book also makes it hard to read. We don't see the whole process of Rick Beanblossom and Andrea Labore's relationship changing from deep dislike to love and marriage, we only see segments of different stages of it. We witness atrial based on partial evidence, and a few pages the guy is sentenced to death, and is about to be executed after all his appeals and petitions weren't accepted.

I'm sure many people noticed the striking resemblence od the botched electrocution scenes in this book and the Green Mile - did one author get any ideas from the other, or did they both stumble of the same evidence / idea somewhere? I wonder...

Author Steve Thayer's first mainsteam success is a drawn out, yet riveting and enthralling tale with excellent characters, good dialogue, and gives great insight into the politics of a newsroom. "The Weatherman" is not only a suspense/mystery thriller, but it is also a forum for Thayer to promote his views on capital punishment, the Vietnam War, the glamorization and exaggeration of the media, and how women can be as deadly as the bitter cold.

Dixon Bell is a fairly ordinary meterologist from the south who happens to be working for a Minnesota television newsroom as their weatherman. He claims that he does not predict the weather, but "I read the weather". He struck fame when he boldly warned the twin towns of Minneapolis/St. Paul that a deadly tornado was coming even without the concern of the National Weather Service. Bell not only became a television figure; he was practically psychic. But what Dixon Bell wants most is the new, beautiful reporter Angela Labore. Meanwhile, women are strangled and killed for each weather season, prompting a media storm that Bell's Channel 7 News has never seen before. As circumstantial evidence compounds against Dixon and makes him a prime suspect, masked news producer Rick Beanblossom (he was injured at Vietnam) believes that Dixon is innocent and stops at nothing to prove it, despite the fact that he is obsessed with Angela as well.

Thayer does a great job of bringing characters into his story and allowing the story to fully develop them. Because of this; however, "The Weatherman" drags slightly in the first third of the book and may cause some readers to get anxious, but once Dixon Bell's trial begins, it is a rip-roaring suspense tale that will keep you guessing until the very end. Beanblossom is an exceptional character, who hides not only his grotesque face behind a mask, but also his true inner feelings and purpose. Angela Labore is slighly ho-hum, but her dialogue with Beanblossom is fresh and believable. Dixon Bell is a complete enigma throughout the entire novel--he is a sad man so possessed by the weather, his inner demons, and his past failures to allure women that he may have the capacity to commit these awful crimes--but did he?

"The Weatherman" is a complex, intriguing tale that was an extreme project for Thayer, taking him nearly five years to fully complete. His research of the newsroom and his experience as a St. Paul native makes this tale very realistic, diving into the politics of what is put on television and why, how people get what they want in show business, and how the weather is an essential ingredient to the lives of all those who live there. A murder mystery that is sure to satisfy if you can get through the first one hundred pages or so. Compelling, informative, and somber.