Hideaway by Dean Koontz

Hideaway by Dean Koontz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 4 days

Pages - 413

Publisher - Mass Market Paperback

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Strange visions plague a man after he survives a near-death experience in this chilling thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.

Surviving a car accident on a snowy mountain road is miraculous for Lindsey Harrison, but even more so for her husband, Hatch, who was clinically dead for eighty minutes.

After experimental procedures bring Hatch back to life, he awakens with the terrifying feeling that something is it out there . But it soon becomes apparent that the evil stalking Hatch is within him—a dark force of murderous rage that hides within us all...


My Review

Lindsey and her hubby Hatch are plunged into a freezing river, Hatch is clinically dead for eight minutes. However a doc has been working on Resuscitation with his specialised team to bring back people after they have been clinically dead for longer than the normal resuc time. Hatch is a perfect candidate and things are looking up. There is a sadistic depraved killer on the loose, not only is he killing and desecrating the bodies but he believes he is more than human and desperate to get back into Hell. When Hatch is back living his life he starts getting horrific and terrifying visions, seeing through the eyes of the killer. If Hatch can see into the killer, can the killer see through him and is he and or his family at risk?

The book is different, the resus stuff was interesting to read and different. The killer is a shocking vile creep, zero regard for human life and the more he desecrates the body as an offering to the devil the more chance he feels he has getting back into Hell, the only place he feels he has ever really belonged.

It is a different type of book, a mix of medicine and revival (only for the start of the book really), the sadistic serial killer and his killing spree, the visions between the two. Hatch trying to get back to normal, both him and his wife had been lost in grief and now they have a new lease of life & look to bring another into their family who btw I absolutely loved, sassy.

Bit of a mixed bag but I liked it, creepy, eerie and a bit of everything mixed in, 4/5.

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The Woman in Silk by R J Gadney

The Woman in Silk by R.J. Gadney
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 5 days

Publisher - Quercus

Pages - 472

Blurb from Goodreads

Captain Hal Stirling is flown to England from Afghanistan after a roadside bomb renders him battered and broken.
Once home, he retreats to his ancestral family seat of Stirling Towers--a gothic mansion that dominates the landscape near the remote Scottish Borders--for a Christmas of quiet recuperation. But on arrival he discovers that his mother, a fanatical spiritualist, has died and been hastily buried.
Isolated from the insular local community, Hal finds himself at the mercy of his mother's two mysterious nurses, the harshest winter on record and, before long, the horrific visions; experiences he attributes to his heavy medication. Yet as the December weather deteriorates, so does Hal's certainty that his home is a place of safety.
Who, or what, is trying to frighten him to death?


My Review

Oh I really hate to give a book 1 star rating and it is rare that I do but I honestly couldn't give it any higher. Captain Hal Stirling is going home to England, from Afghanistan after a roadside bomb goes off and he is injured. Hals home is a Gothic mansion, isolated and his mother and two nurses await him. However upon arrival home, his mother has passed and been buried, the weather is getting worse and Hal is at home with his two nurses and some horrific visions. Are they a result of his injury, is it his medications, do the nurses play a part in it or is it something else, supernatural in his home?

The book is very disjointed, it jumps around and to be honest I think this does add to what Hal has been through and gives authenticity to his experience. However, as a reader I was so confused to what was going on, was it real or was Hal imagining it? The themes didn't work for me, you had religion, animals being killed, a patient being drugged by nurses and sex all over the place. The issue of the nurses behavior and how it would fair with their governing body, like realistic things with unrealistic actions. Spirits, supernatural, disjointed visions and then introducing but what would their governing body say if they knew of their behavior. I honestly had a headache trying to keep up with it all and digest it.

Hal is a complex character, he has clearly been traumatized by what happened to him and in love with his girlfriend yet he then proceeds to sleep with almost everyone he comes into contact with. I really didn't like any of the characters in this story, I couldn't work out their behavior and even when I finished the story, I was left with more questions than I started with. 1/5 for me, some people did like this book so if you like a challenging read this would be a good one for you to try.

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