Animal Hour (original 1994; edition 1993)

by Andrew Klavan

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145	2	188,324	(3.35)	1
Voices invade a young woman's head, compelling her to kill When Nancy Kincaid comes into work, an unfamiliar woman tells her to leave. This is Nancy Kincaid's office, the woman says, but you are not Nancy Kincaid. As Nancy protests, her memory grows fuzzy and her reason seems to slip away. None of her workmates recognize her, and she is distracted by a voice in her head that suggests she shoot them all. Ejected from her office, she collects herself in the park. A homeless man pesters her, mumbling that at eight o'clock--the animal hour--there is someone she has to kill. Over and over she tells him to leave, until she finds the pistol in her purse. She kills the bum and sets off a whirlwind of insane violence that will not stop until the animal hour comes to pass.… (more)

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Member:	englitchik
Title:	Animal Hour
Authors:	Andrew Klavan
Info:	Pocket (1993), Paperback, 352 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
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The Animal Hour by Andrew Klavan (1994)

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I'm not sure what I just read. I didn't like any of the characters and I didn't like the writer's style. The beginning of the book was good, the ending of the book was good (I didn't see the ending coming!) but the middle just dragged on. Somehow this book made me feel.. dirty. I'm giving it 4 stars because honestly, despite all I've mentioned above, it was a surprisingly good book. I think. (

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Carnal.Butterfly | Jan 3, 2024 |

Halloween in Manhattan. Everyone has their bad days, but for Nancy Kincaid, this will be the worst of her life. Arriving at her office, her colleagues insist they have never seen her before. The only clue she has is a voice that whispers someone will be murdered that night--by 8:00, the Animal Hour.

An opening that instantly draws you in by curiosity about the "what" and the "why" of the story and a breakneck pace kept me turning the pages. And while it's fun to be somewhat frustrated while reading a thriller - because that frustration stems from not knowing all the answers and having to discover and decipher clues and evidence - this one pushed me to my limit.

Then the big reveal in which we're given the answer to not only the main mystery but a secondary mystery we didn't even know was a mystery until its big reveal at the end. Plausible within the story itself but a bit convoluted for my tastes.

Plus, there was something that just rubbed me the wrong way about how the women were portrayed in this book.

Recommended only if you're instantly hooked by having to know what's going on and what really happened even if you couldn't care less about any of the characters.

2.5 stars (

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flying_monkeys | Oct 19, 2016 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Andrew Klavan	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Brewer, Séan	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Larsen, Dag Heyerdahl	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Canonical title

The Animal Hour

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1994

People/Characters

Nancy Kincaid

Oliver Perkins

Important places

New York, New York, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

The notion that each person is himself and can be no other, is that anything more than a convention, which arbitrarily leaves out of account all the transitions which bind the individual to the general?--THOMAS MANN

Dedication

This book is for Spencer

First words

It was going to be a lousy day. She was sure of that, even before she vanished.

Quotations

Where am I going? I don't quite know.
What does it matter where people go?
--A.A. MILNE

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Kellerman, Jonathan

Hillerman, Tony

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

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▾Book descriptions

Voices invade a young woman's head, compelling her to kill When Nancy Kincaid comes into work, an unfamiliar woman tells her to leave. This is Nancy Kincaid's office, the woman says, but you are not Nancy Kincaid. As Nancy protests, her memory grows fuzzy and her reason seems to slip away. None of her workmates recognize her, and she is distracted by a voice in her head that suggests she shoot them all. Ejected from her office, she collects herself in the park. A homeless man pesters her, mumbling that at eight o'clock--the animal hour--there is someone she has to kill. Over and over she tells him to leave, until she finds the pistol in her purse. She kills the bum and sets off a whirlwind of insane violence that will not stop until the animal hour comes to pass.

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