The Scariest Book Ever?

[Jude Hardin]

If you're a suspense junkie like me, and you enjoy an imaginative pulse-pounding tale told expertly with 21st century macabre flair, then you can't go wrong with Jack Kilborn's Afraid.

Set in the small fictional Wisconsin community of Safe Haven, the novel opens with one of the most intense murder scenes I've ever read. Things grow progressively worse as we learn five ferocious technologically-enhanced supersoldiers have been unleashed to achieve an objective set forth by the mad scientist who "created" them.

Safe Haven's aging sheriff, along with a handful of ordinary townspeople, are left to fend off these murderous fiends.

But can any of them survive such an onslaught?

Make no mistake, this is a horror novel. Read it alone at night, or with a plate of lasagna in front of you, at your own risk.

Is it the scariest book ever?

You be the judge.

Afraid.

Coming March 31 to a bookstore near you.

So what's the scariest book you've ever read?

[Jon Loomis]

See, that's how out of it I am. Techno-horror? Who knew such a thing existed?

[Cynthia Rice]

I just read a Deaver novel, The Bodies Left Behind, which takes place in a small town in northern Wisconsin. (My WIP is based in a resort area of northern Wisconsin and I wanted to see how he handled the area.) He writes a suspenseful book and he definitely kept me reading. But he was trying to describe northern Wisconsin as this dangerous, wild and forbidding land, like areas of the Rocky Mountains or Patagonia. The character kept encountering hazards like blackberry bushes, buckthorn and poison ivy........

[I. J. Parker]

Hmm. That doesn't sound very scary. I have that stuff in my backyard.

[Jon Loomis]

Yeah, but if it was an old Indian graveyard, or the former site of an insane asylum or one of those places they used to send unmarried pregnant girls, or if the poison ivy was demonically possessed, or if they were the Blackberries of Death, you'd be terrified. Assuming you had the psyche of a ten-year-old, anyway.

[Cynthia Rice]

Honestly, the rest of the book was captivating. But I had a hard time with a full grown man (a landscaper, nonetheless), in a mad rush to save his wife from murderers, who debates about turning back because there's poison ivy in the way.

[I. J. Parker]

LOL! I love that.

[Jon Loomis]

Maybe he has a deep psychological fear of poison ivy, dating back to his childhood and the summer his oversexed, alcoholic aunt drank all the calomine lotion. Wow--I'm better at this than I thought.

[Cynthia Rice]

Jude - The book was worth reading and Deaver is definitely successful in terms of sales - the topic came up as to whether or not Wisconsin could be a scary place. And I vote yes.

[Jude Hardin]

Your criticism was informed and respectful, Cynthia. I have no problem with that.

[Jude Hardin]

Unfortunately, Jeffrey Deaver is unable to swing by and defend himself, because he's too busy counting all his money from BOOK SALES. :)

[Tom Barclay]

THE SEARCH FOR JOSEPH TULLY, by William H. Hallahan. Twist and twist and twist again; by the time Hallahan was done, the story was white-hot Damascus steel. I've rarely felt as alone and undefended as at the end of that read. The two big dogs wondered why I had them sleep inside that night.

[Jude Hardin]

Call me Chubby Checker. I like a lot of twists. Sounds like a good one, Tom.