choose two! an exercise

[Feliks, Moderator]

Name two thriller titles which you feel should always be read together. For 'best effect'.

You can cite any criteria you wish, based on the experience you had in such an instance where a chance 'two-fer' combination came out very fortuitously for you. The picks can be a source novel and its sequel; or a pairing of nonfic & fic together. You might choose two different authors, two different timeperiods, and two different settings. Whatever you feel worked to make a new perspective for you after setting them down.

For instance, I might choose Forsyth's The Odessa File and Wind Chill Factor because they both deal with underground neo-Nazis and both are set in the Scandinavian countries; northern Germany, etc.

Two books taken together which give greater impetus to the whole!

[Samuel]

These two books. both feature a love triangle between a Brit, a Yank and their mistress are set in an Asian nation and feature a CIA officer engaging in state sponsored terrorism, murder and conspiracy for idealistic and delusional reasons.

The one difference between them is that Fowler triumphs over his adversary and makes the best of an unpleasant situation while the Brit in the second book looses everything, having victory totally torn out of his grasp.

[Roger]

61 Hours and Worth Dying For by Lee Childs.

If only for the simple question to be answered, "How the hell did he get out of that?"

[Feliks, Moderator]

Good picks so far.

I'm prompted to pair these:
The Quiet American
The Ugly American

What would be good to pair with Greene's
The Comedians which is set in Haiti?

A variant on this exercise might be to take a strictly WWII book and pair it with a later (espionage) title which revisits the same setting or theme. Such as:
The Naked and the Dead
The Spy in the Java Sea

or take a 1960s work of spy fiction and pair with a 1970s title
or a 1930s title matched with a 1950s title

explaining the relationship in each case

Right now of course, I'm wrapped up in these two books
Memoirs Of A British Agent
Go Spy the Land
...which give two very distinct first-hand narratives of WWI in Moscow. Its great

[Dave]

and

[Samuel]

These two books center around a hostage taking of significant individuals. The first is basically Die Hard In The White House, with 200 staffers on the chopping block of an Islamic Extremist with only the company's resident hitman standing by to save the day.

The second book is a little more interesting. It involves every single world leader being taken hostage in Dubai by some depraved but well equipped Islamic extremists. Spoilers: A lot of them die. Attempting to save the day is a member of a fictional paramilitary division of the UK SIS.