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ONE OF SAUL'S BEST.
--Publishers Weekly
HIS MOST EFFECTIVE THRILLER TO DATE.
--The Seattle Times
For five years Seattle journalist Anne Jeffers has pursued the horrifying story of a sadistic serial killer's bloody reign, capture, trial, and appeal--crusading to keep the wheels of justice churning toward the electric chair. Now the day of execution has come. A convicted killer will meet his end. Anne believes her long nightmare is over. But she's dead wrong. . . .
ELECTRIFYINGLY SCARY.
--San Jose Mercury News
Within days, a similar murder stuns the city. As the butcher stalks his next victims, creeping ever closer to her, Anne is seized by an icy unease, a haunting sense of connection to these unspeakable crimes. And, relentlessly, she hears the eerie echo of the dead man's last words to her: Today won't end it. How will you feel, Anne? When I'm dead, and it all starts again, how will you feel?
ONE OF SAUL'S BEST.
--Publishers Weekly
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Author Notes
Saul has several major themes in his horror fiction; children as victims, and sometimes perpetrators, of evil; technology used for horrific ends; and occult occurrences (is it something external or internal that causes the horrible things to happen to his characters?). While Saul's earlier work has been noted for its extremely gruesome quality, in his later writing Saul is trying to restrain that aspect of his fiction. Often his plots revolve around hidden, secret evil that is discovered by an innocent person, who must then battle against seemingly impossible odds to defeat the demon.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
YASufficient detail is provided to enable participation in this horror puzzle. The last person convicted-murderer Richard Kraven asks to see before dying is Ann Jeffers, the newspaper woman who had kept his name and crimes in the public consciousness for five years. ``Today won't end it...I'm sorry I won't be here to see you suffer when you finally realize you were wrong about me,'' he says. Brutal murders, perhaps copycat, perhaps at the hands of an accomplice, resume. At first, Ann accepts the changes in her husband following his heart attack. Gradually, they both begin to question what is happening. Soon readers will be more concerned with how things transpire than with who is responsible. Teens seeking a deliberately told tale that promises to raise them to the edge of their seats should find satisfaction in this story.Barbara Hawkins, Oakton High School, Fairfax, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fast pacing and skillful narrative misdirection make this supernatural thriller one of Saul's (The Homing) bestand 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. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; major ad/promo; simultaneous Random House AudioBook; simultaneous release of The Homing in mass market paper. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Bestselling horror writer Saul (The Homing, 1994, etc.) presents the serial killer you can't kill, even with 2,000 volts of electricity flooding through him for two minutes. When Seattle reporter Anne Jeffers attends the execution of Richard Kraven, she's given Kraven's last interview, during which the genius murdererwhose victims are numberlessswears he's innocent. Is it possible that Kraven was possessed by an evil entity, an entity passed into Kraven from his abusive father, who used electricity to torture Richard as a child? Author Saul does not spell it out completely, but when Kraven is electrocuted by the state, his soul leaps into the body of Anne Jeffers's architect husband Glen, who happens to die of a heart attack just then and is brought back to life. Kraven takes over Glen's mind and will ``prove'' to Anne that Richard Kraven was an innocent man. How? By performing new serial murders that, as before, leave a secret sign in the victims' pleural cavity, a pair of black lightning bolts, that only the police know about. At the same time, though, there's a copycat murderer abroad, who also eviscerates his victims as did Kraven. That turns out to be his very dumb brother Rory, whom Kraven murders along with their mother. Meanwhile, Anne gets gaslighted by threats that pop up on her computer, then disappear. Will Kraven/Glen murder her two children in his search for the Life Force? Well, there's no end to murder, since with a twinkle Saul indicates that even with the villain seemingly disposed of, the entityas in any number of taleslives on. Evil genius Kraven lacks the concrete weight on the page of Thomas Harris's serial killers, but no matter. However banal the plot, the suspense works, ensuring the readership of many. (Literary Guild alternate selection)
Booklist Review
Onstage, tramps wait for Godot. In real life, psycho-killer thriller fans wait for Hannibal Lecter. But Tom Harris takes his sweet time, which is one reason Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs stand head, shoulders, and lots of the torso above the competition. Somewhere near the belt line comes cut-rate horrormeister Saul's latest. It begins with serial killer Richard Kraven going to the chair. Just before he does, he has a last word with the reporter who led the cry for his execution, Anne Jeffers. He says he's not guilty and only regrets not getting to watch her die. Just as Kraven's croaking, Jeffers' architect husband, Glen, has a totally unexpected, near-fatal heart attack. And then, after two years' hiatus (the time between Kraven's apprehension and execution), murders awfully like the ones Kraven died for start up again. What's more, Glen's not the same as before the heart attack--he's colder and subject to horrifying, bloody nightmares--and Anne's getting some tre{{‚}}s creepy anonymous messages. Say, you don't think that something downright supernatural's going on? Well, this is a John Saul opus, and really one of his better efforts. Until Hannibal comes home, it's worth psycho-killer thriller fans' attention. (Reviewed June 1 & 15, 1995)044990864XRay Olson
Library Journal Review
While Saul's horror fiction isn't likely to be discussed in many graduate literature courses, odds are that each of his new novels will appear on the New York Times Best Sellers list. In his latest, a serial killer terrorizes Seattle. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.