Are Stephen L. Carter thrillers really thrillers?

Stephen L. Carter novels have always seemed to me, based on my idiosyncratic method of sourcing reading, to be those general fiction novels that masquerade as ‘proper’ thrillers but lack that genre’s tension. So I’ve never read any. But his fourth, Jericho’s Fall, has garnered so many fine blurbs (I know, I know, blurbs are a fool’s way to buy books but sometimes they ring true and are true) that I’ve decided to try it.