Wow, 6 years since I updated my profile! Yes, still living in Manchester (which just gets better), ...
Wow, 6 years since I updated my profile! Yes, still living in Manchester (which just gets better), and yes, I am a still a United fan (which just gets better!)
Member since:26.06.2000
Reviews:51
Members who trust:7
To make sure you don't miss any of this fantastic novel!
For those of you who are fans of this guy’s books, then this is vintage Koontz. The writing style sees a return to his previous excellent standards in such books as Midnight, The Bad Place, Twilight Eyes and Lightning (to name but a few). I must admit to being kind of worried for a while when his books became predictable plots (weird things / bad person picking on an innocent person / family, isolated setting, but person / family always triumphed over any adversity – kind of ‘feel good’ books with a lot of flag waving). However, in this book Mr Koontz seems to have re-discovered his dark side, and then gone on to find hidden depths!
The story starts with an introduction to the main characters and gives a miniature story about the events that triggered the motives for these characters. You get to meet Junior, a sad, strange and very disturbed individual. Junior believes in a philosophy that you should attack life, experience every sensation
and live every day to the full (he’s got this from reading self-help improvements books by a guy called Dr Caesar Zedd). Unfortunately Junior has taken this to the extreme, and started to kill people (mainly due to the fact that he believes he is intelligent, very handsome – irresistible to women in fact – and that he can literally get away with murder). You then get to meet Barty (Bartholomew Lampion). You meet him by meeting his parents first, Agnes and Joey and Mr Koontz takes you through each agonising step on the day that Barty is born. We then meet Celestina and her sister Seraphim (or Phimie to her friends). Phimie has a problem and she turns to her sister for help. Her sister helps her, but doesn’t realise just what she’s getting into (trying really, really hard not to ruin any of the story for you!).
It’s no good, I’m going to have to tell you some of the story so that you’ll understand when I mention other things. Junior starts his killing spree by pushing his young wife off the top of a fire station whilst they are out for a walk in the woods. Once he has contacted the authorities about this ‘dreadful accident’, Junior then begins to throw up, and throw up and throw up and so on. He is rushed into hospital to be treated for this extreme bout of nausea. Whilst in hospital he meets Detective Vanadium (?), a strange policeman who seems to see through Junior’s facade of the grieving husband. Detective Vanadium torments Junior with this knowledge and tells him that he will prove his allegation. He also tells him about the name Bartholomew, of how he heard Junior crying out this name in his sleep. He starts to play mind games with Junior, games that involve tricks with quarters and playing cards left for Junior to find with the name Bartholomew written on them.
Junior ends up killing Detective Vanadium, but Junior carries on having nightmares about someone called Bartholomew, and someone keeps leaving quarters and playing cards with the name Bartholomew written in red on them.....
After Barty is born, Agnes has her friend Maria round for dinner and during the course of dinner, Maria reveals that she can sometimes divine people’s futures using playing cards. They decide to ‘read’ the baby’s future first, and initially it looks like a glowing future for little Barty, until the knave of spades appears 4 times in a row. The knave cards are particularly bad luck, but the knave of spades is the worst possible card you can get, to get it 4 times is worst possible luck of all. Maria confesses to Agnes that she has never seen this appear in a reading, and that it means that someone is going to bring violence into Barty’s life, that this someone is a ‘human monster’, worst than the devil himself.
Okay, I truly promise not to tell you any more of the actual story!!
Mr Koontz has not only written a superb, tense psychological thriller, he manages to wring every possible emotion from the reader during the course of the story. His characters are extremely well written (in particular, Junior who is one of the most disturbed individuals I ever read about in a fiction book). He weaves his characters’s stories together with a craftsmanship not often seen and makes the smallest, most insignificant conversation count at a later date.
I totally enjoyed reading this book, and if you fancy snuggling down with a good read that will last you a while, read this book.
It is published by Headline Feature and costs £6.99 in paperback (or £4.99 if you buy it in Sainsburys as they’ve got £2 off the price at the moment!).
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Excellent review, thanks! I have this book gathering dust on the bookshelf. Glad to hear it's back to the 'old style'. The reason I haven't yet read it is that I too was getting a little disillusioned - I'll definitely give it a go now, thanks again!
Guccilady 22.09.2001 16:32
I read a book roughly every week/2 weeks so I'm always on the lookout. Nice op, thanks Angie
ASIL1508 22.09.2001 16:29
Tesco's has it on sale for £3.84!!
Nice op...... Lisa :)
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the Corner of His Eye, which is chock-full of signs, portents, angels and one somewhat second-rate devil, a murky and under characterised guy named Junior Cain w...
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Horrormeister Koontz looks heavenward for inspiration in his newest suspense thriller, ... more
From the Corner of His Eye, which is chock-full of signs, portents, angels and one somewhat second-rate devil, a murky and under characterised guy named Junior Cain ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Horrormeister Koontz looks heavenward for inspiration in his newest suspense thriller,From ... more
the Corner of His Eye, which is chock-full of signs, portents, angels and one somewhat second-rate devil, a murky and under characterised guy named Junior Cain w...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Horrormeister Koontz looks heavenward for inspiration in his newest suspense thriller, ... more
From the Corner of His Eye, which is chock-full of signs, portents, angels and one somewhat second-rate devil, a murky and under characterised guy named Junior Cain ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Sep 22nd, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
