Lee Goldberg's True Fiction is a fun little thriller, fast-paced, entertaining, and exciting. It has an engaging premise: as a way to anticipate future terrorist attacks, thriller writer Ian Ludlow, and a few other popular fiction writers, are hired by the US government to imagine possible terrorist plots against the US, so government agencies can better keep an eye out for actual future threats. The problem is, one of those fictional imaginings- the one in fact proposed by Ian- happens for real.
Shortly after the horrific terrorist event, Ian's fellow authors on the government committee start turning up dead, and attempts are made on Ian's life. Things move quickly from there. Who wants to act out terrorist scenarios that were never meant to happen? Why are the authors who dreamed them up (again, as a way to help the government anticipate actual threats) being eliminated? It's all imaginative, interesting, and thought-provoking. And, believe it or not, fun.
That's because even though True fiction is a pretty straight-up thriller, there's frequent humor to lighten the mix. In particular, there are several instances of dumb luck that keep Ian alive as highly-trained killers try to take him out while he's on the run trying to piece things together. There's also a lot of cleverness in the area of technology and gadgets. One can tell Mr. Goldberg is the self-professed James Bond fan he admits to on social media.
True Fiction is a fast, entertaining read, so I don't want to tell you too much more now that I've recommended it. I'll let you discover the action scenes, supporting characters, and revelations (all three of those things are good) for yourself. It's basically a fun thriller that was constructed with some seriousness, but doesn't take itself too seriously. I had a lot of, well, fun with it.
True Fiction is available in print and on Kindle.
