Open house turns into nightmare. Who is kidnapping the girls and why? What about the Marshall family and why does Patrick Shield help Kara to get Lindsay back? This John Saul will run shivers down your spine. The way the maniac is described is absolutely haunting. Will the police find the perp in time? The novel evolves like a movie. At parts you can't stand the descriptions of mad action and the misery Kara Marshall has to face. Psychological horror at its best in the typical John Saul manner. Well drawn characters and deep insight into a mind gone mad. There are only a couple of his novels left I didn't read. This one didn't disappoint. Straight to the heart. Highly recommended!

Am citit această carte în 2 zile. Mai bine zis, am devorat-o. John Saul a intrat oficial pe lista autorilor mei preferați. ❤️
Nu aș zice că e horror cartea, ci mai degrabă thriller. Avem parte de niște răpiri care au de-a face cu niște evenimente numite vizionări publice. Persoanele care vor să își vândă casa, apelează la această metodă unde potențialii cumpărători vin la tine în casă la anumite intervale orare, ca niște intruși dacă mă întrebați pe mine.

This started out as a very promising book, and left me full of suspense. It is a real page turner, you can't help but keep reading to find out what happens. Unfortunately, it kind of goes downhill at the end. It was good the first half but the second half got a bit tedious. I think the death of the husband was a bit of a filler plot since it didn't really go anywhere. There were lots of bits that just weren't important to the plot itself and it got to be a bit much. Also, the end was good but not great. It was a fascinating ending yet it lacked explanation and depth. It felt rushed, like the author just wanted to finish the book. I felt like there were several strings left untied at the end. I wish it would have gone more into what exactly happened and the resolutikon of the characters. I was surprised that there wasn't an epilogue or something just to show what the survivors felt and what they were doing now. It was disappointing in that respect.

High level suspense about a parent's worst fear. Classic John Saul and very good storytelling. . . but if you have kids, you might want to try another one of his books. I've never been disappointed by anything he has written.

John Saul can't write. He can tell a long-winded story full of cliches and predictable plot devices, but he can't write. I've only ever read one book by Saul before this one, back when I was twelve, and I thought it was okay but that's probably because I was twelve. Saul doesn't know how to write teenage girls, everything that is meant to be witty fails, the flat characters grated into my head until I was ready to quit halfway through, the killer ended up being a jip, and there's an abundance of weak plot twists. I'd also like to mention that the first-person narrative of the killer is terribly written. I'd love to elaborate, it's just that I don't care enough to do that.

Not my cup of tea for a book

Ok, John Saul literally plucked every fear I have from watching true crime shows and out them in this book. It opens with a killer standing in a girls room before it goes up in flame. Throughout the book you get sections from the killer’s POV, as he stalks his victims through Open Houses. Don’t like the idea of strangers in your house, going through your things? Get ready to not like it even more.

The ending seemed a bit rushed; there were a few loose ends that weren’t tied up, things specifically mentioned but not found by police or explained away. The signs of who the killer is are scattered throughout the book, so it wasn’t a huge plot twist. But it sure did creep me out!

Great!

This is a really good book. Holds your interest immediately and lands a couple of shocking blows throughout. I read a lot of these type books and this is one of the best ones I’ve read.

I loved this book I was hooked! Tried to piece it together and work it out all the way through and I was so wrong with the twists at the end! Highly recommend, was the first book I’ve read from this author and now I’m searching for more.

Somehow I ended up with an abridged copy of this audiobook. I don't like abridged because I always feel like I'm missing something super important, usually characterization, but this abridgement wasn’t too bad.

This story is about a psycho attempting to create a family by abducting women through open houses. It has tones of that horrible triple abduction story in Cleveland, where the monster kept three women imprisoned for his own selfish needs for over a decade. Truly a horrible, nightmarish true-crime. But this book was written years before Castro was exposed as a rapist and kidnapper which makes reading this all the more horrifying. This version doesn’t linger too much on the damage inflicted on the victims and for that I am grateful. I had enough of that after watching Lifetime’s “Cleveland Abduction”. I can’t speak for the unabridged version, however, so beware.

When teen Lindsay is abducted, her mother Kara, distraught and heartbroken, takes action. When things go from bad to even worse for Kara she doesn’t dissolve into a puddle of self-pity but keeps on keeping on with the search. As admirable as that is, it felt a little unbelievable and unnatural but I’ll chalk it up to the four hours that were cut from this version and give it a pass. Kara quickly ends up joining forces with a man named Patrick, a widower and brother of a friend, and I found that bit rather strange and unnatural too considering the previous turn of events which I will not ruin.

It should be noted that I figured out who the killer was pretty early on. It should also be noted that I am not at all good at these things. I can only assume that it was pretty darn obvious.

The narration is done by Dick Hill and Susie Breck. I liked the fact that there were two narrators but Dick Hill’s voices weren’t very distinctive and his males all sounded like the same man, except for the killer. His killer voice was over the top, bordering on silly. Still, the story was definitely creepy and it was a page-turner so I’ll give it a solid 3.5 stars.

Perfect nightmare door John Saul

Finally one close-to-realism book of John Saul.