Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century's Biggest Bestsellers

by James W. Hall

  During that time, his mother develops an unhealthy obsession with Christian fanaticism, Sarah marries another man, Walt Hazlett, and bears his child, and the Castle Rock Strangler (a serial killer) continues to add victims to his growing toll.

  As soon as Johnny awakens, his power is fully evident. By touching people, he can see into their future. He warns a nurse that her house is on fire and tells a doctor that his mother, who he presumed was dead, is actually living in California. Stories leak out about Johnny’s paranormal powers, and soon the national media arrives.

  His mother watches a live interview with her son and is so shocked, she suffers a stroke. Before she dies, she insists that his power is a gift from God and he must, above all else, “heed the voice when it calls.”

  When it does call, it’s in the form of Sheriff George Bannerman from Castle Rock. He and his detectives have exhausted all options, and even though he doesn’t completely believe Johnny’s brand of hokum, he’s willing to try anything to locate the Strangler. And they do, if a bit late.

  By the time Johnny and Bannerman locate him, Frank Dodd, trusted officer on the force, is already dead of an apparent suicide—a note tacked around his neck that reads, “I confess.”

  Soon after, Johnny moves in with Roger Chatsworth, a successful businessman, to tutor his athlete son, Chuck. Johnny enjoys his anonymity, and as a hobby, he begins attending political rallies throughout New Hampshire. Johnny makes it a point to shake hands with each candidate to sneak a glimpse behind the political veneer. But all that changes when he encounters Greg Stillson, a dangerous megalomaniac running for the House of Representatives. When Johnny shakes his hand, he sees visions of a nuclear holocaust.

  Johnny feels he has no choice in the matter. He writes two letters, one to his father and one to Sarah, explaining his actions, and sets out to assassinate Greg Stillson. Johnny fails, but in the ensuing chaos, Stillson grabs a small child to use as a human shield. An eyewitness snaps a picture of this outrageous act, effectively crushing any hopes Stillson had of a career in politics. Johnny is shot and killed, but before he dies, he reaches out and touches Stillson’s ankle and sees that the world is safe.

  THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, Tom Clancy, 1984

  It is 1984, the height of the cold war, and Captain First Rank Marko Ramius sets sail from a Soviet submarine station deep in the Arctic. In his charge is the Red October, Russia’s newest top-secret nuclear submarine. His orders are to perform a two-week training exercise in which the Soviet fleet will attempt to locate him while he avoids detection using the sub’s experimental new propulsion system.

  Soon after leaving the base, Ramius murders a political officer in his wardroom and replaces the official orders with a set of forged documents. Ramius informs the crew of the horrible “accident” that claimed the zampolit’s life and delivers the bogus orders to the crew. Their mission, Ramius explains, is to head to Cuba, the home of their socialist brothers, and avoid detection by American and British ships alike, thereby establishing the dominance of the Russian navy. The crew rallies around this objective, while one crewman, a cook, feels something is amiss with the commander’s orders.

  Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, an author of naval histories and part-time information analyst, arrives at CIA headquarters with photographs (taken by British agents) of the Red October. Ryan requests permission to show these images to an old friend and mentor in order to figure out what the new features on the sub are capable of.

  Skip Tyler, Ryan’s former teacher at the U.S. Naval Academy, figures the Russians have developed a silent propulsion system similar to a version the United States fumbled with in the 1960s. Ryan relates this information to the CIA and outlines a disastrous scenario where the Russians could use this propulsion system to sneak as close as the continental shelf and attack without warning.

  Back in Moscow, a high-ranking political official receives a letter from his nephew Ramius detailing his intentions for the Red October. Within a few hours, the Russian navy is ordered to locate the Red October and sink it.

  Unbeknownst to Ramius, the sonar man for the USS Dallas, Sonar Technician Second Class Ronald Jones, has picked up his frequency. Soon after, Jones hears a number of Russian subs speed up in unison, signaling the beginning of a major operation.

  The CIA is aware of the activity at sea but is unsure why it is taking place. Ryan deduces that the Red October is about to defect. He explains his theory and then advises that the United States welcome her with open arms and that they should keep the Red October. There is some dissension among the ranks, but there is also an interest in the possibility of obtaining the experimental submarine.

  One of the Red October’s chief officers (also involved in the conspiracy) provides the sub’s doctor with a series of contaminated radiation badges. The officers immediately begin to check for leaks and determine that most of the systems are working properly.

  Meanwhile, Yuri Padorin, a high-ranking Soviet official, faces the members of Moscow’s Politburo, the Russian parliament. Padorin assures them that the agent embedded on the Red October has strict orders to sink the sub himself should anything go awry.

  The USS Dallas finally makes contact with the Red October and informs the Soviet commander of the plans to help him defect. The Red October continues to suffer from a series of “malfunctions,” and Ramius announces to his crew that the work of a saboteur is now evident.

  Ramius tells his crew that it is much too dangerous to continue to operate the Red October and that they must abandon ship. Together with his high-ranking officers, he will scuttle the sub once the crew has been safely transferred.

  Meanwhile, as the plan to help the officers of the Red October is under way, the helicopter carrying the agents charged with completing the ruse suffers a malfunction and crashes into the sea, leaving no survivors. As a result, Jack Ryan, now aboard a British carrier, is ordered by the president to make direct contact with the Red October himself. Ryan boards the Red October and begins removing the crew, not realizing that one crew member has suddenly disappeared.

  When a gunshot is heard aboard the Red October, Ramius and Ryan go to investigate. They find one Russian official dead and an American severely injured. Ramius himself gets shot, but Ryan is able to kill the embedded agent only seconds before he can destroy the ship. The Ethan Allen, a dated American sub, is then scuttled and everyone is led to believe that it was the Red October that was detonated.

  The hunt for the Red October is called off, but as the subs are being recalled to port, Soviet Naval Command orders a few submarines to linger behind to possibly recover intelligence on the Americans.

  As the Red October makes its final attempt to reach an American naval base, Viktor Tupolev, one of Ramius’s former students, discovers the Red October. Tupolev attempts to destroy the submarine only to be rammed by his former teacher. Its hull ruptured, the sub sinks to the bottom of the sea.

  Ramius and his conspirators are welcomed to the United States, and Jack Ryan is finally able to fly back to his family for the holidays.

  THE FIRM, John Grisham, 1991

  Mitch McDeere is the one and only Harvard Law School grad that the tax firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke is interested in hiring. He’s young, brilliant, and married (a must), and he was raised in abject poverty, which makes him a perfect combination of talent and appetite. He’s already had offers from three of the most prestigious law firms in the country, but the representatives from Bendini, Lambert & Locke make him an offer he can’t refuse. With a phenomenal starting salary, the promise of a low-interest mortgage on a home, and a BMW in the color of his choosing, Bendini, Lambert & Locke’s offer seems too good to be true. And it is.

  Unbeknownst to Mitch and his wife, Abby, the head of security operations for the firm has had them bugged from the moment their plane touched down. The limo is wired, their phones are tapped, and their house is full of listening devices, all in the interest of protecting the firm. It’s bad enough that Kozinski and Hodge, two of t
he firm’s lawyers, are already talking to federal agents and some of the firm’s more “senior partners” are asking for a contingency plan to silence the men, should they not listen to reason.

  Before long, Kozinski and Hodge are killed in a scuba-diving “accident” while on a business trip in Grand Cayman. As a result of the firm’s tragic loss, Mitch will have to pick up their slack, and he proves to be every bit the workhorse they hoped for.

  During a brief break in his hectic routine, Mitch is approached by Agent Wayne Tarrance, FBI, and the lawyers at the firm press Mitch for details of their conversation. He wisely says little. Still, to be safe, Mitch consults a private investigator named Eddie Lomax, an old friend of his brother’s from prison. Mitch asks Lomax to look into other suspicious deaths of the firm’s lawyers and to see what he can dig up on Tarrance. Mitch isn’t sure whom to trust.

  Soon after, Mitch travels to Grand Cayman on company business and is seduced by a local prostitute. Later, he learns that this was a setup by the firm to gain leverage over him. After his visit to the islands, he travels to Washington for a tax conference, and in a clandestine meeting, he’s told by FBI agents that the firm is a front for the Morolto family, a large crime syndicate based in Chicago. The FBI, of course, wants him to help take them down.

  After much soul-searching, Mitch devises a plan that, if it works, will satisfy the FBI and free him and Abby from the grip of the firm. Together with Abby and Lomax’s former secretary (“former,” because Lomax has been murdered), Mitch begins to make countless copies of incriminating documents (it’s a lot more exciting than it sounds).

  He and Abby escape to Panama City Beach, Florida, to meet up with Mitch’s brother, Ray, whose release from jail they’ve stipulated as part of the deal with the FBI. The three hide out in a motel room while the cops, the feds, and the Mob comb every inch of the beach looking for them. Abby sets up a video camera, and Mitch, quoting from the illegal documents, goes about making a deposition that exposes the firm’s activities.

  By the time he finishes, it has taken Mitch sixteen hours and fourteen cassette tapes, but the evidence needed to convict the Moroltos is finally ready. Mitch puts in a call to the feds, tells them where they can find the tapes, and he and Abby escape to a tiny Caribbean island.

  Not long after they’re settled, they receive a package of newspaper clippings relating the indictments of over fifty members of Bendini, Lambert & Locke and over thirty members of the Morolto clan. The McDeeres are safe and happy. For now.

  THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY,

  Robert James Waller, 1992

  It’s early August 1965, and Robert Kincaid has been assigned by National Geographic to photograph the covered bridges of Madison County, Iowa. An outdoorsman and a well-seasoned traveler, Kincaid is lonely and spiritual, loveless and romantic. He’s fifty-two years old and a divorcé.

  After a week on the road, Kincaid arrives in Madison County and has no trouble finding six of the bridges. It’s the last one, the Roseman Bridge, that proves difficult to locate.

  Lost on the backcountry roads, Kincaid comes to the Johnson farmhouse and finds Francesca Johnson sitting on her front porch. As Kincaid asks for directions, she senses something sensual in him. She tells him the bridge isn’t far and she’d be happy to show him where it is. Richard, her husband, and their two children are away at the Illinois State Fair and will be gone a week.

  After some initial scouting of the bridge, Francesca invites Kincaid to the farmhouse. Francesca soon admits that when she was growing up in Italy and imagined life in America, this Iowa farmland wasn’t what she’d had in mind. Kincaid tells her he understands, and sensing the stranger in the pickup truck may already know more about her than anyone else in her life, she asks him to stay for dinner.

  As they prepare dinner together, Kincaid waxes poetic about his ex-wife, his job, his travels, and his dining habits. His level of sophistication is a marvel to Francesca, and she, trying to impress him, cracks open the seal on a bottle of brandy she’s been saving for years. After Kincaid leaves for the night—he does have to shoot the bridge at dawn—Francesca sneaks out to the Roseman Bridge and tacks a note on it, inviting him back again for supper.

  The following night, Kincaid accepts the invitation. He showers while Francesca bathes, and when they reunite in the kitchen, they realize that they have fallen desperately in love with each other. They dance, kiss, and make love, an event so marvelous, Kincaid recites lines of poetry and recalls the sight of dolphins swimming off the coast of Africa.

  For the next few days, Kincaid abandons photography and Francesca abandons her chores. Instead, they while away their days together tangled in each other’s arms. Inevitably, their conversation turns to the fact that Kincaid will soon leave and Richard will return.

  Francesca is the rational one. She says that she can’t tame the wild force that is Kincaid, that he must be allowed to roam free. She also admits shame at the thought of humiliating Richard and her children. Both she and Kincaid are heartbroken but recognize that she’s right and go their separate ways.

  Richard and the children arrive. While Richard and Francesca are driving about town, they pull up behind Kincaid in his truck. Francesca bids the long-haired photographer a private good-bye and begins to cry. Francesca tells Richard she’s okay, and Richard, satisfied, tunes in to a livestock report on the radio.

  In 1975, Kincaid stops appearing in National Geographic. Four years later, Richard passes away. In 1982, Francesca receives a package from lawyers informing her that Kincaid has died. In his will he left her his bracelet, his chain, and the letter she first tacked onto the Roseman Bridge, where he had his ashes spread. Francesca dies in 1989, and she also has her ashes spread at the Roseman Bridge.

  Soon after, her children uncover the truth about her relationship with Kincaid. As the novel comes to a close, they sit at the kitchen table in their old home in Madison County, Iowa, absorbing these revelations about their mother and drinking what’s left of her special brandy.

  The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, 2003

  Jacques Saunière, head curator at the Louvre in Paris, is murdered in the middle of the night by Silas, an albino monk searching for a powerful secret. In his final moments, Saunière realizes that if he dies, the truth will die with him, so he scribbles out an elaborate set of riddles in his own blood and leaves a message to contact Robert Langdon.

  Langdon, an esteemed Harvard symbologist, arrives at the scene and is met by Sophie Neveu, a French cop and cryptographer. She warns him that the police are trying to pin the murder on him, and together they divert the authorities and are left alone inside the Louvre to study the clues. It turns out that Saunière was Sophie’s grandfather. She loved him dearly but hadn’t spoken to him in years, not since she had witnessed him engaged in some sort of mysterious sexual ritual.

  Langdon and Sophie flee from the Louvre with an item they discovered during their search, a key that bears the initials of the Priory of Sion, an elusive organization that Saunière was apparently associated with. Langdon suspects this key is somehow linked to the secret of the Holy Grail. The key leads them to a Swiss depository where they find a coded cryptex, a small combination vault that if forced open will destroy the materials inside. Langdon and Sophie then hijack an armored truck and head straight for the home of Sir Leigh Teabing, the foremost expert on the subject of the Grail.

  Teabing explains to Sophie (and to the reader) that the Holy Grail is really a metaphor for Mary Magdalene, the wife of Jesus, the mother of his child. He explains that this is a secret the Catholic Church has been fighting for centuries to suppress. The Priory’s job is to protect it. Jacques Saunière, we learn, was the grand master of the Priory, which explains the bizarre sex ritual that Sophie witnessed.

  Silas breaks up the conversation but is soon overtaken, bound, and gagged. It’s much too dangerous in France, so Teabing advises that they take his private jet to London. On the flight, they decode the cryptex, only to reveal a sm
aller cryptex. While in a creepy London church, Teabing’s manservant, Rémy, frees Silas and the two men kidnap Teabing and steal the cryptex. Turns out Rémy is working for the Teacher, the mastermind behind the entire plot. The Teacher congratulates Rémy with a drink from his flask, and wouldn’t you know it, the flask is poisoned. (Actually, it was just peanuts, to which Rémy was allergic.)

  Yes, Teabing is the Teacher, and yes, he was responsible for Saunière’s death. At their final encounter, Teabing threatens Sophie’s life and Langdon threatens to shatter the cryptex. When Langdon tosses it in the air, Teabing stumbles after it. As he realizes it’s empty, he turns to see Langdon holding a piece of papyrus in one hand and a gun in the other. The police rush in and arrest Teabing. By novel’s end, Sophie learns she is a direct descendant of Jesus and Mary, and Langdon realizes that the Holy Grail is buried underneath the Louvre’s inverted pyramid.

  HIT LIT

  Cracking the Code of the

  Twentieth Century’s Biggest Bestsellers

  James W. Hall

  A Reader’s Guide

  QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

  FOR DISCUSSION

  1. Are you less likely to read popular novels or more likely? Or does popularity even enter into your selection process for choosing what to read?

  2. Why do some books grab you and others don’t? There are many possible reasons you might choose to read a particular novel, but what’s the number one aspect of a story that reliably and regularly hooks you? Why does it have so much appeal?

  3. Which of the novels you’ve read lately, either popular or literary, contain some of the ingredients detailed in Hit Lit?