Faceoff - Edited by David Baldacci

Back in 2013/14, the International Thriller Writers came up with a way to earn money to finance their organization and eliminate dues from members. The result is this first anthology of eleven stories, written by 23 world-class thriller writers for zero compensation. All proceeds of the sale of this book go directly to support the activities of ITW. The idea must have worked because they followed up with MatchUp in 2017.

It’s a cool idea. Each story pairs up two iconic characters from different series. Even though the title is “Faceoff”, they tend to work together during the story, almost always coming away with a healthy respect for the other. That’s good because I would hate to read a story where Repairman Jack actually works against Jack Reacher, for example.

I’ve read most of these authors and feel like I know the characters well. The few I hadn’t read…well, of course now I want to read them too. Most were pretty good tales although a couple of times the plot just to get the two characters to meet each other in the first place was a little too contrived. I listened to this one on audio while driving on a lengthy road trip this past week and the format worked well. Just one story or two at a time depending on what I was in the mood for. David Baldacci served as editor for the book and also read the introductions to each story for the audio version.

For completeness, here is a list of the stories, characters, and authors included in the book:

1) Harry Bosch vs. Patrick Kenzie in “Red Eye,” by Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane

2) John Rebus vs. Roy Grace in “In the Nick of Time,” by Ian Rankin and Peter James

3) Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy vs. Aloysius Pendergast in “Gaslighted,” by R.L. Stine, Douglas Preston, and Lincoln Child

4) Malachai Samuels vs. D.D. Warren in “The Laughing Buddha,” by M.J. Rose and Lisa Gardner

5) Paul Madriani vs. Alexandra Cooper in “Surfing the Panther,” by Steve Martini and Linda Fairstein

6) Lincoln Rhyme vs. Lucas Davenport in “Rhymes With Prey,” by Jeffery Deaver and John Sandford

7) Michael Quinn vs. Repairman Jack in “Infernal Night,” by Heather Graham and F. Paul Wilson

8) Sean Reilly vs. Glen Garber in “Pit Stop,” by Raymond Khoury and Linwood Barclay

9) Wyatt Hunt vs. Joe Trona in “Silent Hunt,” by John Lescroart and T. Jefferson Parker

10) Cotton Malone vs. Gray Pierce in “The Devil’s Bones,” by Steve Berry and James Rollins

11) Jack Reacher vs. Nick Heller in “Good and Valuable Consideration,” by Lee Child and Joseph Finder