A Conspiracy of Tall Men

By Noah Hawley

Book Overview

The debut literary thriller that launched the career of the bestselling author of Before the Fall and the creator of the show Fargo.

Linus Owen is a young professor of conspiracy theory at a small college just outside San Francisco. His marriage is foundering and his wife, Claudia, has gone to Chicago to visit her mother. But if Claudia is in Chicago, how is it that two FBI agents show up at Linus' office and inform him that Claudia has been killed in a plane crash on her way from New York to Brazil? And why did a man named Jeffrey Holden, the vice president of a major pharmaceutical company, buy her ticket and die beside her?

Enlisting the aid of two fellow conspiracy theorists, Linus heads across the country in search of answers. But as their journey progresses, it becomes frighteningly clear they've left the realm of the academic and are tangled up in a dangerous, multilayered cover-up. Finally, deep in the heart of the American desert, stunned by an ominous revelation, Linus sees he has a new mission: to try to stay alive.

Part Don DeLillo, part Kurt Vonnegut, with writing that is electric, whip-smart and suspenseful at each turn, Noah Hawley draws us into a deliciously labyrinthine world of paranoia and plots. "Energetic and funny...an engrossing debut." -- The New York Times

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1538746506
• ISBN13: 9781538746509
• Release Date: June 2018
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Thriller/ conspiracy-theory satire will keep you up nights

This book defies genre. It is at heart, a thriller in the manner of a Hitchcock man-against-dark-forces movie, but at the same time it is a satire of the 90s tendency to see conspiracies everywhere while at the same time a chilling & credible vision of one possible conspiracy. It is also a well-written book with a lot of funny observations about our culture & insights into human relationships.To say this book is like a bad X-files episode is, I think, to miss the point - like criticizing Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein" for being like a bad monster movie. As satire, it necessarily takes the elements of the conspiracy thriller and exaggerates them. What is so unique about this novel is that at the same time as it skewers this paranoid mentality, it sucks you into believing that the conspiracy played out in the book could/does really exist.The book has a very postmodern feel, so if you like your fiction to be more traditional in writing style, this rapid-fire present-tense perspective-shifting style may turn you off. Given the subject of the book, I thought it worked.

Excellent

Breath-taking, witty and very well written. And the love scenes between the college boy and the filipina maid left my book group and I smoldering in our seats. My friend Dorothy ignored our debate and stared out the window. When we finally asked her what she thought of the confrontation in the garlic field, she sighed and said, "where did that boy learn such steamy writing?" All I can say is "Noa Hully, you've got a fan club in Bakersfield!"

Lot's of fun!!

This book was great! If you like the three "Lone Gunman" from The X Files, you'll love this book.

Suspense Plus!!

I loved reading this book. Great story, great writing. I don't want to give anything away though because the twists and turns in the plot are amazing. Not to mention, that's a great title.

Carefully crafted modern mystery novel.

Well written and timely mystery novel that weaves fact, modern myth and fiction into a thick story. The best intellectual mystery I have read in a while. The author uses a hyper-thread story development style that richens the plot with short metaphoric rants. I was lucky enough to read a pre-release copy and would highly recommend it for it's progressive writing style and timeliness. I cant wait for the next book!