Rating: 
Summary: Doctor! Doctor! Give me another dose of Peter Straub!!
Review: "Mystery" was my first Peter Straub read and, as itwas billed a horror story, I was skeptical of beginning the book. Anymisgivings soon evaporated as I pored through this account of magnifincent characters. The story is at once, fantastic and realistic, and leads the reader through a labyrinth of detail and mysticism.
Although part of the trilogy including "Koko" and "The Throat," Peter Straub writes so well that each of the three titles can be read in any order without destroying the image of the others.
It's about time we do Mr. Straub justice and give him credit for crossing genre lines. Won't he be happy to see many new faces in cyberlines at Amazon?!!
Rating: 
Summary: What a let down!
Review: After Koko I was eager to start mystery. From the reviews and all, I thought Mystery would be a continuation of the Blue Rose murders, but not really. This was nothing but a mystery story of the boring variety; the kind where the main character goes around interviewing one person after another; what a yawn. Stick to Horror Mr. Straub you do that much better. Thank God its Value priced. Yes I bought the audiobook version but I don't think I missed much, perhaps the connection with Koko? Anyway, if you like a mystery read it but not for a horror fan like myself.
Rating:
Summary: What a let down!
Review: After Koko I was eager to start mystery. From the reviews and all, I thought Mystery would be a continuation of the Blue Rose murders, but not really. This was nothing but a mystery story of the boring variety; the kind where the main character goes around interviewing one person after another; what a yawn. Stick to Horror Mr. Straub you do that much better. Thank God its Value priced. Yes I bought the audiobook version but I don't think I missed much, perhaps the connection with Koko? Anyway, if you like a mystery read it but not for a horror fan like myself.
Rating:
Summary: Best ever!
Review: Contrary to the ratings of the Amazon list of Straubs books, these books, Mystery and The Throat I believe to be the best he's ever written. Sickeningly strong, the story gets under your skin like no other, and I thought I knew this little town with its secrets and horrors. Alongside the Blue Rose case, Straub paints a colorful picture of Pasmore and his sorry existence. His life is a real hell and as he dies and rises, just when he thinks things are brightening, they really get much,much worse. Without the ghosts of Ghost Story, these books are at least as scary! I was pleased to see an old friend from Koko return. Tim Underhill grows to be the real character he never got the chance to be before. With these books, Straub overtakes King, as he masters yet another genre!
Rating:
Summary: I Know What You Are...
Review: Every once in a while you read a book that absolutly floors you. Mystery, the second book in Peter Straub's Blue Rose trilogy, does just that. It starts out with an excellent opening, a near death experience to the book's main charechter Tom Passomre, and takes off. Tom comes out of this experience with a strange fascination for death and murder and is confronted by an old man named Lamont who shares his obsession. Together they begin to investigat two murders, one past and one present. What follows is an excellent tale of suspense, deceit, and of course murder.What makes this novel work so well is how intimatlly Straub understands his charechters. He's not satisfied to leave this excellent story with card board cut out charechters. Instead he breathes life into it and before long they are no longer just people on a page. Instead they are old friends who you come to know very intimatley. For me the main thing that makes charechters work in a novel is dialougue and Straub has no problem with this. He makes every word and emotion believable. He engulfs you into these people's lives and you genuinlly care about everything that happens to them. I don't dare to give away the end but let me say it will certainly come as a shock to even the most experienced readers of mystery novels. With this book Straub has catapulted himself to the top of my list of favorite author. Here's hoping for many more years of excellent writing just like this from one of today's best but least known authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite Poor...
Review: I did not enjoy this book. The characters are weak, the story line is unfullfilling and never really resolves satisfactrorly. A number of issues are never completely explained. Very difficult to empaphise with the main character. The island of Mill Walk in the Caribbean is completely unlike any island that exists in the region. A very poor try at a mystery, unimaginative, uninspired, watse of time.
Rating: 
Summary: one of straub's weaker efforts...
Review: I find it remarkable how wildly opinions vary on peter staub's books. for my money, koko and ghost story are classics, with hellfire club not far behind. at the opposite end of the spectrum, in my opinion, lie mr x and mystery. never has straub created a character about whom i cared less than tom passmore, unless it might be lamont cranston. only straub could make a caribbean island as dull and mundane as mill walk (an obvious allusion to milwaulkee, though the purpose of this little in joke is lost on me). The dark and terrible secrets of tom's family really aren't that damn interesting, and you have to traverse some awfully tedious turf to fight your way to this non-climax. Skip this one.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent read - Great setting!
Review: I found Mystery to be well written, good plotting, with one of the better treatments of setting I've come across. I wanted to find Mill Walk on a map and go there; or failing that at least find a travel book. This novel gave me new respect for Peter Straub and left me, for the first time, believing that he might have played a crucial, equal role in the writing of "The Talisman" (I'd always thought that King was the real author of that one).
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Trilogy
Review: I've never understood why Straub is considered a horror writer. His books can be arcane, mystical, compelling, and mysterious, but gruesome or frightening I've never found them to be. "Mystery" is his best, IMHO. Tom and his grandfather Lamont experience an immediate, subliminal meeting of mind and spirit, though Tom does not become cognizant of their kinship for quite some time. I have to confess to some confusion in some sections of the plot, but it plays itself out with subtlety and holds one's interest to the end. Intriguing.
Rating:
Summary: PERFECTION. a joy to read.
Review: In my opinion the Blue Rose Murders books, Mystery & Throat are PERFECT. (Koko, the first in the series, I didn't like) I enjoyed every minute spent with these two books tho. Just thinking back on them makes me happy! Tom Pasmore and his real father were beautiful characters. The reader below of April 3, 1997 puts it well. A Fabulous story that takes you many places in many times Mystery & Throat = perfection. Koko = illogical.
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