Nelson DeMille’s John Corey Series
The John Corey Chronicles
Nelson DeMille, a prolific writer if there ever was one and whom, I am given to understand, writes in longhand (for you millennials, that means he holds a pencil or a pen in his hand and uses it to create words and sentences on paper), has given us great pleasure in his novels about John Corey. Tapping into the current political and, well, terrorist, events of the days in which each of the novels were written (see list) , Corey is a former NYPD officer, shot in the line of duty and now semi-retired, who goes to work for the FBI and other “agencies” to stop terrorist plots.
Suspense thrillers like these and others, for example the Virgil Flowers and Lucas Davenport series by John Sandford, are often as enjoyable (or even more so) as audiobooks. I wrote about the John Corey series back in March (https://jackboston.com/the-seven-john-corey-audiobooks-of-nelson-demille/) and have now finished them all.
- Plum Island (1997)
- The Lion’s Game (2000)
- Night Fall (2004)
- Wild Fire (2006)
- The Lion (2010)
- The Panther (2012)
- Radiant Angel (2015)
Each one was excellent, up to an including the sixth. Like many followers, I was somewhat disappointed with the seventh work, Radiant Angel, mostly because it spent far too much time, for example, describing the Russian thugs killing a dozen prostitutes, and not focusing more on Corey. The plot concept was basically sound, but Corey and his anti-terrorist teammates, IMO, unraveled it a la deus ex machina, far too simplistically and quickly, as if DeMille’s pen had suddenly run out of ink. Hints that the author kind-of dropped about Corey’s marriage to the darling Kate having problems, sideways to his working with the hardly-darling Tess, just didn’t add up for me. Was he paving the way for an eighth John Corey novel? I thought he easily could have concluded with the seventh.
Still, I’m glad I listened to all seven books, not only for their pure entertainment value, but for the privilege of listening to Scott Brick narrate every one of ‘em. At the conclusion of several of the Audible versions, Brick interviews DeMille, offering a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at DeMille’s writing process and the relationship between author and voiceover artist.

Scott Brick literally is John Corey. It made me want to read, or listen to, anything Brick narrates, and to listen to more multiple-novel series on Audible.

July 18, 2020 @ 9:15 pm
And you get your money’s worth with DeMille, since his books are so long, generally.
July 18, 2020 @ 10:33 pm
Yup, that’s true, Dan! There’s long that’s filler and there’s long that increases suspense and DeMille is master of the latter.
July 20, 2020 @ 3:31 am
OMG! it’s no coincidence that I’ve have read everything in the DeMille series and am now diving into the latest, co-authored by his son. Perhaps Corey is a slightly different version of Dennis Driscoll.? You recall my first cousins the Coreys? Just a coincidence I suppose.
all the best wishes for your next literary contribution@ 🙂
July 20, 2020 @ 3:53 pm
Hey MD – thanks for sharing. I definitely agree that Corey and Dennis share some DNA, but I don’t think John is related to your Corey clan haha! I sometimes think I should return to the DD mysteries – I have one with some meat on its bones that could easily be resurrected. The short stories were always great fun to write, and I was fortunate to have Mary McCann publish most of them. Hmm m m . . .
Just finished listening to a novel set at Lake Tahoe, mostly https://www.janellebrown.com/pretty-things – you might like it. I really, really did.
Hope you’re taking good care of yourself amid all the viral espionage going on.
JBR