![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Lightning-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>The good news is Brad Meltzer writes a big book containing lots of characters, all with interesting back stories, and plot twists and turns galore<\/p>\n\u00a0The other good news is that his books don\u2019t read long, he writes in short chapters that keep us interested, and he moves around the story without confusing the reader.<\/p>\n
In his latest, he features two of the most interesting characters in current thriller literature, Zig and Nola. Zig is former head mortician at Dover Air Force Base, where they bring all the banged-up bodies of military fatalities to get fixed up for their families. He\u2019s now in private practice. Nola is a military artist-in-residence, traveling wherever there\u2019s a story that needs artistic interpretation. Nola and Zig have a history\u2014she was in his daughter\u2019s Girl Scout troop, and she saved his life in the first of the series.<\/p>\n
In this installment, Zig, now in private practice, is called back to fix up someone he knew. He\u2019s not sure why until Nola shows up, and he realizes he\u2019s been used as bait. Nola is running to or running from something. When she shows up, it\u2019s not a good sign. As one of Zig\u2019s colleagues says,\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re like the number thirteen\u2014or a lightning rod:\u00a0 you attract bad things.\u201d\u00a0 Sure enough, as Zig tries to parse what the murdered man has to do with Nola, she turns up either just before, just after, or during the many places Zig explores. Meltzer heightens suspense by hiding the event that lies at the heart of the murders until three quarters of the way through the book.<\/p>\n
Meltzer doesn\u2019t stop with that reveal. In the last quarter of the book, he whirls through plot twists that produce one revelation after another, yet never really shed light onto Nola\u2019s search. That hunt is not revealed until the very end of the book, and it joins a passel of surprises that keep us turning pages. It also provides a springboard for what will certainly be Book 3 in the series. Be on the lookout for another big book. Soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bob Moyer reviews a new thriller that sounds like a great choice for those long winter nights \u2013 or any time you want to lose yourself in an entertaining book. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE LIGHTNING ROD. By Brad Meltzer. William Morrow. 419 pages. $28.99 The good news is Brad Meltzer writes a big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1290,489,1291],"class_list":["post-2984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thriller-suspense","tag-brad-meltzer","tag-crime-thriller","tag-zig-nola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2986,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions\/2986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}