Punish The Sinners

The book takes too long to get started. The first book (The Saints of Neilsville) plods along with a laughable predictability. The second book (The Society of St. Peter Martyr) picks up the pace and things really start to get creepy and strange. This section unfortunately relies too heavily on descriptions of all sorts of sexual acts. I'm not sure if I should laugh or be insulted. The two books take the plot on an unexpected tangent. Just as things seem to be petering out (excuse the pun), it picks up speed with the same frantic pace of some Stephen King novels. The last twenty pages then take a huge and wonderfully surprising tangent, earning this book a higher review than I otherwise would have given it.

Peter Balsam (a psychology teacher) goes to Neilsville when an old friend (Monsignor Peter Vernon) asks him to come and teach psychology at St. Francis Xavier's school. When he arrives, he feels an aura of evil within the town. He eventually takes the position as teacher and finds his old friend to be quite a changed man. From an easy-going guy to a cold, stern, fanatic when it comes to religion. He wonders what happened to his old schoolfriend. Then, strange things are happening in town. Deaths, suicides… And who is this St. Peter Martyr in which the Monsignor holds in such high regard? Is it time for Peter to leave Neilsville?

I really enjoyed this book, I just wish it ended differently. The storyline was interesting. The cast of show more characters had a mixture of likable and unlikable people. Monsignor Vernon was forbidding, with erratic behavior. His group, The Society of St. Peter Martr, was pretty strange and creepy with a bunch of old priests doing unthinkable things. Some teenagers at school were quite annoying, especially a clique of girls who kept picking on an unattractive, shy girl. I didn’t like Jim Mulvey (one of the girls’ boyfriends) either, who seemed like a jerk. Peter Balsam was a likable lead character.

Another entertaining read by John Saul. show less

This book had potential, but it never really panned out. Not even one of John Saul's best. It could have been so much better, were several aspects of the plot developed - and, in my opinion, with a different ending. On the other hand, if you view it as a slasher movie in book form, it IS entertaining. It fulfilled its purpose - gave me that unsettling feeling that makes you check inside the closet door as you turn off the lights before bed - just on the off chance.

The story was even-paced all the way through. I wasn't entirely sure who or what was the antagonist or antagonists until close to the end, but there was a dark element that kept me glued to the story and guessing throughout. This story shows how things from the past can come back to haunt you.

Classic John Saul book, set in a small town's Catholic high school experiencing a rash of student suicides. It definitely keeps you reading with all the foreshadowing and prevalent sense of menace but it did leave me feeling troubled as it did not have the ending I wanted.

Although it gets off to kind of a slow start compared to some of his other work, this is still an interesting book.

Normally I include my thoughts with a rating, but I read this book prior to joining LT. I just remember I really enjoyed it.