Rating: 
Summary: A Good Yarn but...
Review: Midnight Voices is a slightly above average Saul novel. It's Rosemary's Baby meets Jackson's Hauting of Hill House. There's a lot that's good in here, and yet, I still wasn't fully satisfied with it as a whole. Maybe it was the paper-thin characters, or Saul's tendency to over describe emotions, but something prevented me from fully giving way to the story.And that's a shame, because the plot itself was quite good. After her husband was brutally murdered, Caroline thinks that it's the end for her. She's swamped with bills, with work problems, with personal problems and, to top it off, with two children who do not understand what she is going through. But all of that is about to change when she meets Tony, a rich man who lives in one of the town's most enigmatic, most exclusive apartment building: The Rockwell. Things, however, soon become stranger than ficiton. It seems that something's wrong with The Rockwell and its inhabitants. The too-good-to-be-true way of life is exactly that. Ryan and Laurie, Caroline's children, quickly realize that someone - or something - might be after them. But when Caroline finally begins to believe her children's accusations, it's already too late. I did enjoy most of the Rockwell's residents. They were colorful characters that actually felt unique and distinct from one another. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the main characters. It almost felt as if Caroline and her children were the ones dragging the story. I wanted to know more about the Rockwell, I wanted to know more about the horrible things those people have committed. Instead, Saul went the conventional way, using the damsel-and-children and distress storyline that is prominant in so many of his novels. Ryan aside, the main characters (Tony, Caroline and Laurie) felt like nothing more than stock characters, the kind of people that too often populate Saul's novels. At least the levels of suspense are sustained through most of the book. Although the story has a few brief moments where the plots does lag a little, I liked the way in which Saul kept building the suspense, always pushing things to the next level. And the storyline itself was quite intriguing. It reminded me of those old horror films that relied more on suspense and thrills than blood and gore. And this is exactly what Saul does with Midnight Voices. Although not a great book, Midnight Voices did offer some good entertaining moments. It's nice to see that Saul is trying to break away from the stories that made him so predicatble in the past. Maybe next time, he'll actually get to write the great suspense novel that is trapped somehwere in him.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable
Review: Halfway through the book (chapter 18) the author practically gives the ending. I had to read 22 more chapters thinking that something more or something else would happen but didn't. It was an interesting storyline but I don't know why the author didn't keep it suspenseful.
Rating:
Summary: Semi-Slow Pace, Not-so-great Ending
Review: This is the sixth John Saul novel I have read, and I would have to say this is my least favorite. Why? The pace of the story is good but can be slow at times. Never once did the book have me hooked. About the last fifty pages, it got VERY exciting but was turned down but the rushed ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Eerie, But May Be Saul's Best
Review: Elegant old buildings. Anyone who ever visited a major city knows them. They can occupy the corner of a street or be half a block long. They're usually sandblasted with gargoyles carved into the facades, have a doorman who looks like a hobbitt, and will often have the silhouette of a lone soul sitting in the window. Is this person guarding the gates of hell? Caroline Evans, the heroine of "Midnight Voices" is going to get the chance to find out. Following the death of her husband, Brad, who is murdered while jogging in Central Park at night - hey, you get what you pay for, right? - she meets Anthony Fleming. Fleming is everything a woman like Caroline could ask for: attractive, well off, eager to get her children to like him, and a resident of the stately Rockwell, a building that Saul thinly disguises as a Dakota-like wannabe, the building that was the home of the late John Lennon. But, once Caroline moves into the Rockwell she crosses the line between reality and imagination for everything in it isn't always what it seems. Why are there hardly any children in the Rockwell? Caroline's son and daughter increase the total of kids from one to three. What is the secret in her husband Tony's study? Do the dark rumors and children's stories about the Rockwell and its residents have any truth to them? John Saul has come a long way from his first novel, a psychological thriller called "Suffer the Children". In his earlier works, it is a child or a young person who recognizes the demons and has to convinve the adult community of their existence. But here it is the adults - Caroline specifically - who sees the demons and recognizes that she must fight evil over the battleground that will be her own children. Caroline is reminiscent, to me, of Nora in Peter Straub's "The Hellfire Club". Both women are on their own and must use their own wits against what, at times, appear to be insurmountable odds. For Saul slowly weaves the threads that are the death of Caroline's first husband with the death of her college roomate into a knot of evil that is hard to break. Anyone who ever attended a family reunion, looked at a box of old photos, or picked up a daguerrotype and said, "Gee, isn't Mary the spitting image of Aunt So-and-So?" will think twice after reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: After Midnight
Review: John Saul has been around quite awhile, his one-a-year approach to literature sometimes approaching a mechanical, assembly line construction. Midnight Voices is one of Saul's least creative efforts to date. In fact, Saul seems unable to determine whether he wants the voice of Hawthorne's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" or Stoker's Dracula. Regardless, the suspense involved in Midnight Voices is sadly nonexistent. Children once again haunt Saul's pages. Cheryl Evans is the mother of two and is struggling with her husband's recent murder. Her life is rather helter skelter until a magical man named Anthony Fleming waltzes into her life. Eventually, she marries him and moves into a rather formidable building called the Rockwell located on Central Park West. Weirdness begins to caper and eventually focuses on Cheryl's two children. Production of the CD audio was magnificent and Aasne Vigesaa's reading voice is a decided plus. However, the story itself can hardly merit more than a listener's passing fancy. Saul has written better.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT READ
Review: This is a good book to read. I read about 3 books a week and, it is hard to find a book this good. This completely held my interest, start to finish. You will not go wrong reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: DORIAN GRAY IN MANHATTAN
Review: Caroline Evans, recently widowed has a lot on her plate. Her two young children, Ryan, 11 and Laurie, 13 chafe at their financial reversal. They are no longer able to attend the private school where they had established peer relationships; at the public school they now attend they often feel slighted. Caroline's fortune appears to change at a chance encounter in a park. A casual conversation with a seemingly interested person leads her literally to love. She is soon introduced to Tony Fleming, a sophisticated gentleman who lives in Central Park West in a building many describe as being haunted. Shortly after their wedding, the family of four settles into the "haunted house" and frightening events become the norm. Only Ryan appears to be aware of the senior population and how they appear to be rejuvenating; even a portrait on the ceiling appears to reflect the ages of the established occupants. The quest for youth appears to be the priority of the building's residents. Children disappear and the question is who and what is responsible. Is Tony what he seems? And does he really know Caroline and her children before he married her? This chilling story will certainly keep readers engrossed until that last page is read.
Rating: 
Summary: A pretty good thriller
Review: I'm not usually much for scary-type books but I decided I needed sort of a fix. This is definitely a book that will keep you up reading into the wee hours of the morning. The beginning is a little slow, but when it picks up its pace, the story gets a lot more interesting and it's really worth the wait. All through the book you are sympathizing with Caroline and when her suspicions concerning her new husband and other residents at The Rockwell arise, your mind spins with potential explainations of the strange and creepy events involving her children, Laurie and Ryan, and continues to spin as Saul adds more ingredients to the recipe. I'd recommend this book to people who want a story that is sort of scary, but too gory or gruesome, like those involving murderous crimes and things like that. There were a few minor things that bothered me about the writing style in several parts, but it's still altogether really worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: A really polished formula novel
Review: Normally, I'm not a great John Saul fan. I don't think he has the breadth of Stephen King. However, he does spin a good tale now and then. This is one of his better ones. Saul does rely on a well worn formula: small family facing a hideous, supernatural foe. Unlike King, whose protagonists can come from any place in society, Saul seems to like all his characters to be graduates of Ivy League institutions and be upper middle class. I would like him to tackle a high-school dropout hero. Nevertheless, Saul does introduce several plot developments that make this a decidedly above average book. I particularly liked then ending. He does capture the feeling of Manhatten. Other touches shows that Saul has really grown in his genre. A book worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: midnight voices
Review: Not one of Mr. Saul's better ones but it is still a good read.
There is a lot of Rosemary's Baby in this one. Ending is pretty good and could almost be called a surprise.
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