Rating: 
Summary: What A Great Start
Review: In his debut novel, Blake Crouch has produced one of the most compelling opening chapters that I've read for a long time with the tension level turned all the way up virtually from page one.From a calm, almost idyllic setting in North Carolina, bestselling author Andrew Thomas' world is thrown into utter chaos when he receives what he first believes is a hoax fan letter. The letter explains that the body of a missing woman has been buried on his property along with enough evidence to implicate him as the murderer. He has no choice but to obey the ensuing instructions given to him for fear that the police would be tipped off. At breakneck speed, Thomas is sent west out into the desert to a fate unknown but powerless to disobey the orders given to him. What he finds when he arrives at his destination is a horror beyond his imagination and evil beyond his understanding. A warning to the easily disgusted, the scenes from this point on in the book may be a little too graphic for some. The set up is top notch, but from the point where Thomas meets his tormentor, the story tends to run out of steam a little. As I said earlier, the scenes in the desert are graphic and particularly gruesome, but after awhile I started to feel a little bit numb to it, which was a bit of a worry. Nevertheless, I still couldn't turn the pages fast enough in getting to the big showdown of an ending and will be looking forward to Crouch's next thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: Thrills? Maybe. Story? No.
Review: It's a sad day when an author like Blake Crouch has a quote on his book jacket comparing him to Stephen King. King is nothing if not a master storyteller. Crouch, on the other hand, has come up with a lame story and a plot full of holes and illogical actions. This reeks of an author who thinks he has a cool idea and forces every element in the story to yield to that idea, whereas great authors realize as they write that the idea will have to change to make the story work. As for the thrills, they rely on over-the-top sadistic acts to work. Crouch should read King's "The Ledge" to see that suspense is not necessarily violent.
There are a couple of things Crouch does well. One is create suspense, finding constant ways to keep the action high. The problem is the suspense is almost laughable because of the convenient ways it plays out. And the constant action sometimes works against him--he needs to study the masters of suspense to see how a little inaction can be more suspenseful, and more realistic, than a constant drone of improbable thrills. The other thing I will grant Crouch is that he can write, which isn't as pervasive a skill in the mystery/suspense/thriller market as one might hope.
I'm sorry Crouch is working on a sequel. It tells me he is deluded enough to believe it worthy of one.
Rating: 
Summary: Leave the lights on
Review: Relaxing on the deck of his secluded, wood-bounded home after a long day at the keyboard, successful author Andrew Thomas goes through his mail--a phone bill and a stampless envelope which he suspects may be fan mail, delivered by hand. It isn't. The envelope contains a typewritten letter, only one paragraph long: "There is a body buried on your property," he reads, "covered in your blood." Thomas is directed to dig up the mouldering corpse and retrieve something from the dead woman's pocket. If he doesn't, whoever wrote the letter will feed information to the police that incriminates Thomas. A bad end to a productive day, but things get much worse for our hero from here. Desert Places starts with a bang and doesn't let up for the next hundred-odd pages, at which point there is a section break and the reader can start breathing again, check his or her pulse, and assess the likelihood that the closet door is ajar because a psychopath is hiding behind it with a serated knife. (Probably not, but you never know.) The book is gruesome in parts. If you don't like the occasional brain-splattered windshield in your reading, as well as cruelty toward men, women, children, and animals, you may not want to pick this one up. But if you do open the book--if only to get that scary-looking guy on the cover to stop staring at you--you won't be able to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Intense
Review: Robert Frost's poem provides a title and an epigram to this engrossing first novel, the pulse pounding tale of an outwardly civilized man forced into acting in an uncivilized (to say the least) manner. That man is Andrew Thomas, best selling author of suspense novels with titles like Blue Murder and The Scorcher. Thomas lives the good life until the day he receives a letter in the mail, telling him that a woman's body has been buried on his property, a body soaked in the author';s blood. Confirming this sad fact, Thomas is forced to play his tormentor's twisted game, one which requires him to make a journey to Wyoming, where he ultimately must confront his own mortality, and question his morality and sanity. Thomas confronts a question most never have to face: just how far is he willing to go to survive? The answer is as disturbing to him as it will be to readers.
Desert Places is one of those books that you don't discuss in detail with those you recommend it to for fear of diminishing the impact the book will have on them. It's also the kind of book which induces those who have already read it to stand over the shoulder of current readers, asking, ""Did you get to the part where...?" Because of that, it is almost criminal to reveal further plot points. Suffice it to say that Crouch successfully manipulates plot elements previously explored in such classic thrillers as James Dickey's Deliverance and David Morrell's Long Lost, producing a novel whose intensity is sometimes almost too hard to take. Fast paced, surprising, at turns tragic and graphic, Desert Places will take readers to places that, given a choice, they'd probably avoid. Finding themselves in those places via Crouch's surprisingly accomplished prose, however, they can't help but linger a bit, looking over the grim landscape in morbid fascination.
Rating:
Summary: Very exciting and adrenalin pumping
Review: The letter informs popular horror-suspense author Andy Thomas that the butchered corpse of missing schoolteacher Rita Jones is buried on his lake front property with all evidence proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Andy is the culprit. The correspondence contains a threat to abide by its instructions or the Charlotte police will be informed of the homicide. Andy assumes that the note is a prank from a crazy fan especially with how melodramatic it sounds, but still, he checks. To his horror he finds Rita's body and that he is set up to take the fall. Andy has not seen Orson in over a decade. When they were roommates at Appalachian State University, Orson one day disappeared. In the ensuing years while Andy wrote novels that have been turned into movies, Orson randomly killed twelve people, cut out their hearts, and sent the collection of hearts to the White House once he achieved his objective. Now Orson challenges Andy to play a game of cat and mouse with the stakes being the elimination of a twin. This seemingly Cain vs. Abel thriller is very exciting and adrenalin pumping, but lacks credible explanations re Orson's behavior until the very end and even that "elucidation" uses too much too late implication. Andy will receive empathy as he appears as a victim of his sibling's malice. Still readers who take delight in a taut war of survival with plenty of blood flowing and a twist so that nothing is quite like it seems will appreciate this high octane suspense tale that never slows down until the epilogue. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: A desert of talent in Desert Places
Review: The true terror of this book is that it got published. Desert Places is a dumpster-full of slasher, mindless violence upon which the thinnest of innconceivable plots is superimposed. The author and his publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, have confused gore with merit, betting that the book's sadism would pay off in the marketplace. But really, to be more honest next time, the author should dispense with writng that has no merit and simply draw pictures of bloody, tortured captives, guaranteeing immediate appeal for those who liked Desert Places while saving those who found it repugnant, or enjoy reading well-written prose, time.
Rating:
Summary: Desert Places
Review: This book is excellently written. The author is able to make you feel, hear and see everything that is happening. For people who like thrillers, this is the best one to come along in a long time. It's the the kind of book you want to continue reading, in order to find out what happens next. I guarantee you won't be able to figure out how it ends.
Rating:
Summary: A good book to skip
Review: This book was recommended on a lot of Amazon lists so I read it. I'm sorry I did. It was sadistic to no good purpose and it made one wonder why the hero didn't take the note right to the police. I can't begin to explain how stupid the ending was--you'd have to read it yourself. I wouldn't read the sequel if someone put a gun to my head.
Rating: 
Summary: Fair
Review: This is a fair debut thriller.
I like the premise of one twin tormenting and basically manipulating his brother via horrific murders. I also enjoy the main character who is written with intelligence.
However, this thriller is EXTREMELY descriptive when it comes to the violence and kind of turned me off a little bit. I am not sure there was such a need for detail after detail about the actual murders.
Still, not a bad read for a first time author.
Rating:
Summary: Is it Crime Fiction or Horror? Both!
Review: Thriller Writer Andrew Thomas goes out to his mailbox and finds a note that had not been delivered by the postman. The note tells him that there is a woman's body buried on his property and that there is enough evidence to convict him of her murder. He also learns from the note that in there is a phone number in the pocket of the woman's jeans. Andrew, of course, is supposed to dig up the body, get the note and call the number, or else life as he knows it will be over. He does dig up the body and even so, life as he knew it, was over.
For sure this is a dark and disturbing, oftentimes gross out to the max novel. That said, it's a good and teriffic story. There is plenty here for both fans of Stephen King and Michael Connelly to sink their teeth into. Yes, if you are squeemish, you might want to read with the lights on, but it's worth it. Mr. Blake Crouch builds a solid foundation, strong characters, then blows up the foundation, leaving the characters to flounder in a sea of violence. There is suspense here, plenty of that. Terror too. There are plot twists galore in this fast-paced ride that will leave you aching for more. Well, if the ride doesn't scare you to death first.
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