Just when you think Stephen Leather’s thrillers cannot get any darker, he pulls a fast one on you. Triggers offers a peculiarly twisting narrative with an unorthodox protagonist with a caveat I haven’t read in thrillers so far. It’s an unsettling and awesome fusion of action and psychological thriller elements.
Marianne spends her days and nights planning out hits to exact brutal revenge on those who wronged her in a past life. Having trained herself in all aspects of living a dangerous life, she leans on the broken figments of her sanity, none more than the other personalities in her head who all serve specific roles in helping her survive. Her uncanny abilities bring her to the attention of a clandestine organization with a directive to surgically eliminate threats against British interests. As Marianne is looped in, we start to glimpse behind the façade that Marianne has so shrewdly hidden herself behind, one that you don’t see coming until it hits you fast and hard.
Stephen Leather demonstrates apt skill at writing an action-packed psychological thriller where the action is wild and the plot slowly unravels with a huge twist that flips the entire plot on its head. Marianne kicks ass, drives fast, and shoots straight in a barrage of technically-annotated action sequences that bear Stephen Leather’s trademark style of storytelling through unbridled violence. Not only do we get to see Marianne fight her way out of intense skirmishes, but we see the toll of all that Marianne faces chip away at her soul in a mind-shattering presence, the likes of which are not so openly explored in action thrillers. It also offers a differing voice from the action standpoint as Stephen Leather’s switcheroo of personalities living within Marianne, all fleshed out enough to feel like wholly different beings, depending on the situation adds a layer of stellar character development even in the midst of shootouts and fisticuffs.
Triggers is an innovative action-packed thriller that brings something new and raw to the table to help readers appreciate the power of vulnerable protagonists and the wounds they hide in order to survive. Thrillers like Triggers offer the most resonating protagonists, one whom we desperately wish to see succeed, simply because we see them as genuine people rather than words on paper.
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