4 Stars:
What it's about: A successful author, Cullen "Cubby" Greenwich, receives a poor review of his newest book. The critic writing the review, Shearman Waxx, is seriously creepy. Things get really weird when the critic shows up in Cubby's house in the middle of the night and uses a taser on the author and his wife while they sleep.
Apparently, Waxx doesn't just hate his book, he hates Greenwich too. As soon as they find the strength to get up from the taser assault they discover two bombs have been hidden in their house. Cubby, his wife, 6-year-old son Milo and dog Lassie escape the explosion and from that point on are on the run. Shearman Waxx is definitely more than just a book critic.
“Relentless” is certainly the way to describe the sociopathic murderer. He stalks the Greenwich family with sometimes bazaar abilities. After some digging, Cubby and his wife discover they are not the first author and company to be terrorized by Waxx. In fact, there's a trail of death left by the critic. It's a cat and mouse chase to the very end. All the while you're also wondering what's going on with Milo, who's beyond intelligent for his young age and their dog Lassie. Both these characters turn out to be pivotal at the end of the book.
What I liked about the book: the suspense weaved in with humor. Take this line by Cubby for example: "I began to wish I'd spent the past 10 years writing thrillers, because then perhaps I would know something useful about tracking devices, electronic surveillance, phone tapping and techniques of evasion when pursued by psychopathic book critics." It's not just a thriller you're reading it's a bit of a comedy and until the end you're wondering if it might end up a tragedy too. It doesn't end tragically but it wasn't the ending I expected. It was almost like Koontz had dug Cubby and his family into such a deep hole that he couldn't figure out how to write them out of it. And I suppose that's what I didn't like about it.
Other thoughts: At first I thought to myself, what a stupid idea? A book critic who kills what he thinks are bad authors? Then I thought about that and realized if someone who just reviews books can find a way to become a really freaky psychopathic murderer, so could anyone. And that's the part that freaks me out. Shearman Waxx seems like nothing special except that he can hunt you down and ruin your life using unimaginable methods. What's to say the local shoe salesman couldn't hone the same skills? This makes me think twice about who I piss off! Because at first glance there's nothing impressive about Waxx, he's just a grumpy guy with bad syntax. To quote the wise Transformers: There's more than meets the eye.
Final words on the book: I loved 90% of it. I read it fast (and I'm a slow poke). As with most books you'll more than likely want to talk about the ending with someone else who's read it. It's an intriguing idea but not the most obvious. (I'm trying to keep it a surprise for you). Read it and decide for yourself. But it's not the ending I wish he would have chosen. They don't ride off happily into the sunset and I like my heroes to do that in the end.
BYLINE:
Bry Schulz is a writer, photographer, and mother who really hates squash. Not necessarily the game but definitely the vegetable.
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