Helpful Score: 3
"All the right scares in all the right places. Tension and terror....A suspense-filled and logical tale."
Helpful Score: 3
If the killer has been executed, why are the murders continuing? The journalist who attended the execution can't forget his words to her. Why did he believe it wouldn't end with his death? Because the murders have begun again. Scary stuff!
Helpful Score: 2
A bit hokey, as far as these kinds of books go. This is the first John Saul book I've read, and while it was a quick and enjoyable read, I really hope this isn't the best he's got. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a hokey horror story as much as anyone, and I don't mind the plot device being a little far-fetched, hard-to-believe, and never fully explained. But when the other characters in the book figure out the mystery that is so out there that the reader himself (that's me) doesn't buy it, that kind of ruins it a bit for me. Again, not bad, just a bit hokey. I think Dean R. Koontz did a better job with Hideaway. Did I mention that I thought it was a bit hokey? That's right. Hokey.
Helpful Score: 2
Fast pacing and skillful narrative misdirection make this supernatural thriller one of Saul's (The Homing) best?and one of his few not to focus on children in peril. Richard Kraven, the novel's heavy, is as nasty as they come: he eviscerates his victims before they die, in the misguided hope of learning the mystery of life. He also seems to be extending his murder spree after his execution in the electric chair. At least that's what reporter Anne Jeffers tries to prove to the incredulous Seattle police as the killings strike ever closer to her home and family, apparently in retaliation for her help in putting Kraven behind bars. Saul ratchets up the suspense by intercutting chapters told from the points of view of Anne, detective Mark Blakemoor and a serial murderer who thinks of himself as "The Experimenter." He complicates matters by introducing another murderer and by raising suspicions about Anne's husband, Glen, who suffered a heart attack at the moment Kraven died and now experiences blackouts that coincide with the killings. Saul depends on remarkably unobservant cops and a contrived occult explanation to tie all the subplots together, but he sustains the mystery of the killer's identity and motives throughout.
Helpful Score: 1
I adore John Saul and all of his work, but this book was below par. A bit too cheesy and unrealistic for my tastes.
