Desert Places [Paperback]

Andrew Thomas is a successful writer of, what else, thrillers who has just completed his latest novel and is living his dream life. All that changes when he receives an anonymous note that directs him to the body of a missing teacher - who is buried on his property and covered in his blood. What follows is a descent into desperation and murder that will surely chill you. There is also an interesting subtext about the difference between the desire to kill that is in people's hearts and the people who actually commit the murder that's in their hearts.

While there were some horrifying scenes of carnage in the story, it is the randomness of the victims and emotions of the captors that will make you want to make sure you're locks are bolted. The only complaint I have is that the ending was a little too pat...while reading the conclusion, I could definitely envision the story as a typical Hollywood slasher movie.

Other than that, if you are looking for a book to raise your hackles, then look no further. The scariest part is that this is a book of potential reality - and the fact that there really are sick people capable of committing these crimes out in the world is what chilled me the most.

Is it me, or does the name "Blake Crouch" just scream nom de plume to you? One almost wonders if Mr. Crouch hasn't cooked up a little semi-autobiographical tale here. But that aside...

Desert Places, Blake Crouch's debut novel, shows us an author with a great grasp of character, pacing, and plot, and perhaps not enough of an editing team. The novel roars to a start when successful thriller novelist Andrew Thomas gets an anonymous piece of mail telling him a body's buried on his property, his blood is on the victim, his fingerprints are on the murder weapon, and he has twenty-four hours to verify all this and call the real killer. This done, said real killer leads him into a rather ingenious trap, from which Mr. Thomas must escape in the most interesting of ways.

And so far, so good. We've covered about half the novel. There's also another really strong section at the end. But, just like Saving Private Ryan, you get stuck with this middle portion that drags. It's the shortest part of the novel, but it's also the most interminable. To Crouch's credit, he does wait for long, tedious setup until after the reader is already hooked, but it's still there, and could probably have been compressed into fewer pages than it actually took.

That said, the stronger parts of this novel are well worth reading, and they go by extremely quickly. That it dips in quality halfway through can be gotten past, if you're expecting it. Definitely one to check out, and an author to keep an eye on. ***