Perfect Nightmare

It's been a long time since I read a John Saul book...but i believe I have now read everything he has ever published. His books are supernatural in content but has enough of a non-ghostly story to satisfy almost everyone. I don't want to even imagine what it would be like to have a child go missing but John Saul did an excellent job of portraying a mother who does not give up regardless of what everyone is telling her. This creepy stalker story becomes a shrewd whodunit that will appeal to mystery fans, suspense fans and supernatural /horror fans alike.

Lindsay Marshall (from Camden Green, Long Island) has one more year of high school and then she graduates. But her parents want to sell their house and move to New York City because Lindsay’s father’s job is there, and her parents are seeing less and less of each other since he has to stay at a small apartment in the city. Lindsay is upset to leave all her friends behind, and she hates the city. When their house is opened to prospective buyers Lindsay feels her room has been invaded, it has a strange smell and she thinks someone was lying on her pillow. It is giving her the creeps. But her parents brush her fears aside. The next time their agent holds an open house for them, Lindsay vanishes, never to be seen again. It is later show more revealed that this has happened to a few other females after they had open houses. Is there a connection? Is someone abducting these girls?

A totally scary story about a crazy kidnapper who gets access to his victims through visiting the open houses of the homes they are selling. I really felt for Lindsay’s mom (Kara) and everything she went through, along with the victims. This book had lots of tense and disturbing situations. A creepy, dark, and captivating read by John Saul. show less

"Perfect Nightmare" by John Saul starts with a nifty premise. A kidnapper targets victims by stalking open houses and homes for sale on the internet. Great idea, and one that hasn't been done yet, to my knowledge, or done to death (no pun intended). The main and core characters are likable, sympathetic and realistic. You can relate to them and you care about what you just know is going to happen.

But starting about midway through the book, I felt that Saul began to lose his focus. Maybe it was the introduction, or reintroduction, of some secondary characters - - mostly thrown in for red herring purposes. But I felt the book lost some of its snap.

The seemingly pointless and senseless death of a major character threw me for a loop - - show more and not in a good way.

The "big reveal" at the end of the kidnapper was no surprise, as the signs were much too obvious much too early in the book.

The story seemed to end rather quickly, as if Saul himself got tired of the characters and the story.

That being said, although I like Saul's other works, I felt this was formulaic (for him) and seemed an almost phoned in effort. For a new writer, or one less prolific or proven, it might come across as a better effort, but I expect more from Mr. Saul. show less

Distressing that this guy has such a following. I guess he used to write supernatural stuff, and he is praised as a story-teller. I guess…thinking about the plot, if someone else had written it, it might have been compelling. Dead girls disappearing, villain turns out to be the hero, etc. But it was so bland, full of flat characters and flat dialog, and missing motivation. I REALLY objected to the characterization of the teenage girl’s relationship with both her parents and her friends, and her dialog. SOOOOO off the mark….sort of circa 1950s, with very little angst with the parents. And the villain? First person does NOT work with a psycho!!!!

I have to start off by saying that after reading Black Creek Crossing, I was a tad leary of reading another Saul book. However, this easily exceeding my expectations by a long shot. This was back to good old John Saul.

The book tells the story of a girl who disapears right before her family is planning to move from the suburbs of Long Island to New York City. I don't want to say much more about the plot, as I don't want to give anything away.

I did figure out the ending pretty early on, but it was okay, because there was more depth than I originally thought. A nice quick read for the horror/crime fan.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I usually read all my books on an ereader but this one I got from my daughter and is a hardcover. It was a wonderful book with all the twists, turns, nail biting, edge of your seat, who done its ever. I expect nothing less from Saul than a wonderful book.
In this one you really do get caught up in the lives of Kara, her husband and their daughter who goes missing. Just vanishes into thin air along with two other people.
All the kids from school come together to help Kara find her daughter and she feels so alone because her husband and Lindsey's dad is not there. But he has a reason. You will feel so sorry for Kara. She feels that she has lost everything but she still will not give up on finding her show more daughter alive.
Lindsey is a smart and strong teenager who begins to think she will never be found and endures so much. Then an older woman is abducted and there are three of them now.
The villain is really very sad. He endured such torture as a very young boy and in a way I felt it was not him there but the crazy part of him only. I had him figured out only in the last half of the last chapter. It did take me a while with this one. I thought it was someone else but then it hit me. I didn't expect it to be the way it was though and there was a lot of twists and turns, edge of your seat and sadness in the story. You didn't know what to expect when Kara kept thinking she was hearing her daughter crying, singing, yelling and just things that a distraught mother would hear if her daughter just went missing and you could not get the police to believe that she had not run away because they were moving during her senior year of high school. But even though in the end all did not go exactly as you might like it was a wonderful book with a wonderful ending. Some people got exactly what they deserved, but others.... not so much. Great book. I love John Saul's books and now can't wait for a new one to come out.. Read if you like scary, not horror but intense scary reading. show less

John Saul is probably my favorite author of all-time but this book was rather disturbing. It was more psychological than his typical scary ghost type of story. It kind of left me with a sick sort of feeling, kind of like after I watched the movie "Seven" or "Saw". Not one of his better books in my opinion.