Rating: 
Summary: Quick ending...
Review: I enjoyed this book for the most part. I could not put it down, and read the last half of the book in one sitting. I felt the end came abruptly, but I find that a lot in the horror genre. I thought there was good character development, and Mr. Saul had me liking and hating characters at his whim. Not much for thrills, but rarely do I find them in books as much as I do movies, others may disagree. Overall, I enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend Creature and the Blackstone Chronicles as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great.....
Review: I am not fond of reading but for school i have to read. When I went to the library I noticed this book. It looked OKAY so I checked it out along with Black Lightning. I was surprized at my reading of this book. In a matter of only 10 days I was swept throught the entire 40 chapters. John Saul grabs hold of you and sucks into the book I was excited to read the next chapter. Another good facter is short chapters. It it weren't for John having short chapters I'd still be reading it right now instead of reading Black Lightning, which is also turning out to be pretty good as well.
Rating:
Summary: Typical John Saul--too typical, in fact
Review: Saul's The Right Hand of Evil left me rather unmoved. It's a fairly enjoyable read, but it cannot be called highly original, scary, or awe-inspiring. This is pretty typical John Saul. A dysfunctional family of five-an alcoholic father, rather weak mother, a pair of adolescent twins, and an infant-faces desperation when Ted loses yet another job as a hotel assistant manager due to his drinking. Then comes a call that Ted's aunt, shut up in a sanitarium for decades, is dying. Suddenly, the family inherits a large, old house which Ted decides to make into an inn with the money left to him by an aunt he cared nothing about. Of course, trouble begins brewing immediately. The close-knit townspeople of St. Albans do not want anyone living in that evil house, abandoned for forty years-especially not another Conway. Conways in that house have always meant big, big trouble for the town; stories of murder and evil surround the old house, as do hidden eyes watching and biding their time. Hated and shunned by the whole community, her husband drinking more heavily than ever, Janet decides to take her children and finally leave. Miraculously, though, she finds that her husband Ted seems to have finally changed completely and given up alcohol. For the first time, the family begins to enjoy a normal life of sorts, but burgeoning happiness soon recedes back into terror as Jared, the first-born son begins to change, seemingly taking on all of the bad qualities his father has just overcome. There's a story behind the history of the house, of course, one going back over a century (no surprise here; the whole ancient curse theme is Saul's trademark plot point). We gradually learn exactly what has taken place in the house, but this particular puzzle has few pieces missing to begin with. The tenor of things to come is never really in doubt, although I have no real criticism of the conclusion, which Saul pulled off fairly well. Saul goes all the way this time to give us the ultimate Evil, but his efforts were not quite up to the lofty challenge. There are some suspenseful moments, but Saul replays them often enough to make them rather banal in the end. Character development is rather interesting, particularly in terms of the Catholic priests. My impressions of the priests were made to change a little too quickly and easily, prompting me to wonder just when it had happened. As for the Conway family, I liked daughter Kim, but I could hardly have cared less about the others, particularly Ted and Jared. Since I didn't invest a lot of interest in Saul's characters, I never really cared how the novel might end. There are a few scenes that are sure to bother animal lovers such as myself, so I want to mention that fact here. I always cringe when I see an animal in a Saul novel because animals rarely fare too well in this writer's narratives. Ultimately, I will say that this novel is just a little too derivative of Saul's other fiction, and this time around there is no real zing that certain other of his narratives have. If you've never read John Saul before, you will probably enjoy this novel a lot more than those of us are familiar with his work. John Saul is a talented writer who knows how to tell a story well, and that counts for a lot, but this novel, which aspires to much, falls short of its mark and never really sinks its claws into the heart and mind of the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Leaning towards mediocre
Review: I would definitely not say this book is horrid but not one of those books where you say bravo. It's simply mediocre. The first 200 or so pages I was entranced by the book, but then the story progressed. This story left some unanswered questions plotwise. John Saul bringing up pentagrams showed he did not do his homework. Pentagrams are part of the wiccan religion, which preaches love, humanity, etc. Inverted pentagrams are part of the whole "Satanic movement." An almost joke was how he described the lord of hell himself.
-pustules on the face, maggots crawling from within, a slithering tongue-
That's not a direct quote from the story but that's basically the description. Even though parts of the story were simply ridiculous, believe me there are too many to laugh at, there are some turns and scares along the way that keep you reading. Especially when you realize a character you have so much hatred for, deserves the complete opposite and that shifts again.
All in all, hilarious details embedded in the story but parts of the plot and story are entertaining but not overly scary, just gruesome.
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