Carsten StroudRezensionen

Cuando Rainey Teague pierde a sus padres en circunstancias trágicas y misteriosas, Kate Kavanaugh decide acoger al pequeño pese a las objecciones de su marido, Nick, detective de Niceville. Los problemas de la pareja no se acaban aquí: también deben hacer frente a la desaparición del padre de Kate y acoger a su hermana Beth, que ha sido víctima de malos tratos, y a sus hijos. La ciudad entera de Niceville sufre una especie de plaga de desapariciones, mientras la conducta de Rainey empeora cada vez más, hasta hacerles sospechar que sus brotes de violencia puedan guardar relación con todos estos acontecimientos extraños.

I read this book (actually, audiobook) 5 years before this review, and I don't remember much about it, except that I liked it and wanted to read more by this author

You know what I like? Books about time travel. So, when I read the description of this book about a serial killer that can move through time, I knew I had to read it.

THE SHIMMER starts off strong with Sergeant Jack Redding of the Florida Highway Patrol and his trainee, Julie Karras, chasing a car that belongs to a family who has gone missing. When the woman driving the car takes off running from the car after it stopped, Jack is hot in pursuit. However, she manages to get away and Jack is left with a feeling that he has seen the woman before... but where? What he doesn't know then is that his grandfather hunted the same woman in 1957, but how can the same woman still be alive and look the same as she did back then? And, what happened to the family that owned the car?

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

So much is going on, bank robbers and a creepy little secret in a southern town.

Carsten Stroud can really write. His prose is excellent and his descriptions are really vivid, as are his characters. This literary/suspense/horror novel kept me interested throughout, and I didn't have too much trouble keeping track of the myriad plot threads, even though I was reading a couple of other books also. The ending didn't really leave me wholly satisfied, however, and I thought that some of the plot threads were left dangling. Other plot rhreads were left open to interpretation, which I enjoy sometimes, but in this case, I felt a more concrete resolution to certain things would have been more satisfying.

That said, I certainly didn't mind reading Niceville. I was entertained & there were certainly some deliciously horrific "Oh shit" cringe-inducing moments. I wouldn't be opposed to reading some of Mr. Stroud's other novels.

Five stars for the solid action at in the first third or so, one star for the time traveling stuff that marred it.

First things first, I love Carsten Stroud. I love his writing, and his Niceville trilogy is a freaking standout set of books that I devoured. I mean, where else are you going to get hard-boiled police procedural and action scenes that get your heart racing, while also diving into a southern gothic horror story?

I've also met the man, and he's a wonderfully humble and gracious guy.

So, of course I was looking forward to this novel. And for the first third, I was really digging it. Then...I was not.

Unfortunately, I simply couldn't buy into the whole shimmer thing to travel in time. I couldn't get behind Jack sort of not appearing in the past, then suddenly he's there.

Yes, it was neatly plotted for the most part, and yes, it was tied up nicely. But it was just a little too wonky to sit right with me. And there were times when the writing...how do I say this? ...the writing almost got too familiar. I can't explain it any more than it felt like Stroud was trying to talk to his readers on an individual and informal basis, as though he was sitting in the room telling you the story, but it was inconsistent enough to be jarring.

Overall, a good experiment, but ultimately, a failed one.

This novel took me a lot longer than it should have to read, and there's one very simple reason for this. I didn't want to finish the book. You're probably wondering why.

Because the writing, the characters, the story and the world in this last of three Niceville novels was so heartbreakingly beautifully realized, that I actually got sad at the thought of leaving Stroud's world. That doesn't happen that often.

I found there were times when I lost a bit of the plot, because I was caught up in the actual writing. I'd read and then stop myself and ask what it was that was that made that sentence or that paragraph so good. So, I often had to go back and reread it for the story.

The characters were as real as any I've ever read in fiction. And the story...As I've likely said in the previous two reviews, I've never read anything like this before. One part action thriller, one part mystery, one part gothic southern horror. It shouldn't work. But instead, it works wonderfully, and that's all because of the incredible skill of the author, Carsten Stroud.

Amazing writer. Amazing book. Amazing trilogy.

And yes, I'm absolutely bummed that it's at an end. I will definitely go back and reread this one.

I'm not a big reader of military thrillers. I got caught up in the Tom Clancy fever years ago, but had to walk away as his books became ever more bloated and platforms for his own political beliefs. I tended to avoid them after that, only really coming back through a side door with [a:Jonathan Maberry|72451|Jonathan Maberry|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1442453747p2/72451.jpg] and his phenomenal Joe Ledger series. I came for the horror element, but stayed for the military thriller element.

I had a very similar introduction to Carsten Stroud. I came across [b:Niceville|13151175|Niceville|Carsten Stroud|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333576687s/13151175.jpg|17891971], which I took for a somewhat Southern Gothic horror novel...which it was. But the military-grade bank heist portions took me by surprise, because of what I thought I would be reading, and because they were so damn well written.

So now I'm trying to dig up more Stroud novels. Cobraville is the first, and damn, what a great novel. There's no horror here, unless you include the horror that people in power do every day.

Stroud has a wonderful style. He's beautifully descriptive (perhaps a bit too much at times, but it's so well done, I can hardly complain), but when he gets down to the action, he's sharp, hard and precise as hell. But over top of all that, he writes stories that constantly defy the reader's expectations. It's hard to describe exactly what I mean, but the closest I can come to is Elmore Leonard. Leonard will write a crime caper where everyone is out to screw everyone else, and you can see the flow, you can see exactly where he's going to take it. But the characters reveal hidden depths that then change the flow of the story and take it into unexpected, but logical directions. Stroud does the same.

And he does it not with silly plot manipulations, but through his brilliant characterization. There's a scene, toward the last third of the novel, between Drew Langan and a cop investigating a murder and coming to him due to a call Langan placed to the victim. It's too long a scene to reproduce here, but when you read it, it shows Stroud's practiced, easy grasp of style and character. It propels the entire novel.

I thought I had this book figured out a dozen times. Stroud told me I was wrong all twelve times.

And then, there's these wonderful bits of wisdom that are scattered throughout the novel as well. I'll leave you with just one:

"We're told," said Strackbein, "that God requires the suffering of the world. In penance. And for the salvation of our souls."

"So we are endlessly told," said Desaix, nodding. "I often wonder why God is represented to us as a deity so addicted to suffering. God as a connoisseur of human grief. Such a God would truly be a monster, if He existed at all."

"That's not my God," said Cole, a lapsed Episcopalian.

Desaix made a gesture of resignation, sighing.

"Sometimes I am ashamed of what we Catholics have made out of our God, a brooding old dweller in the cathedral apse, a grudge-holder demanding our praise, our shameless supplications, these mewling, self-hating entreaties--the store-bought incense, our mumbled pleas... We are told we can only speak to God through the saints--through Jesus--that insipid cocotte with his simpering, vacant smile, those watery eyes--the cartoon heart crowned with thorns--entreaties channeled through the Cult of the Virgin--idolatry, abject submission, self-hatred. This farcical pope, preaching alms for the poor while he squats in his city of gold, his rancid soul bought and paid for by those fundamentalist thugs in Opus Dei."

I can't tell you how happy I was to see this, the followup to Niceville. I truly thought this was the end, but now I just found out there'll be a third novel. Fantastic.

Anyway, I said most of what I wanted to say in my review of Niceville. As far as I'm concerned Niceville and this book are one, a single entity.

Others seem to be either quite taken, or quite disappointed in the story's tone. There's a large chunk that's part police procedural and part action thriller. It feels a lot like a slightly less cynical [a:Elmore Leonard|12940|Elmore Leonard|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1240015224p2/12940.jpg] with the actiony bits written by [a:Jonathan Maberry|72451|Jonathan Maberry|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1275853898p2/72451.jpg]. But then there's the creepy horror stuff, Southern Gothic, and also well done. Think [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg] crossed with [a:Joe R. Lansdale|58971|Joe R. Lansdale|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1200406474p2/58971.jpg].

Seriously, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. I've never read anything else quite like it. One minute, you're speeding down the road in a 200 mph car chase, the next, you're dealing with dead people warning you of the malevolent Nothing, then you're back to seriously grounded reality again.

It's frigging brilliant.

At this point, I kind of don't care what else Stroud has written, I'll read it. The guy's killer.

In March 2013, I read this book and I loved it...until the end. Have you ever been reading a book, and hit that point where you realize, barring a miracle, there's no way the story will be wrapped up in the few remaining pages you have left?

I've had that happen on several occasions, but I had never been more disappointed than I was when I reached the end of Niceville. Why?

I loved this book. As I was reading it, I recommended it to anyone I thought might like its quirky mix of hard-boiled action and gothic supernatural plotting.

But when I reached the end, I literally read the last line and said, "There's no way. There's absolutely no way someone who wrote a novel this well done leaves it hanging like this."

And yet, there had been no more pages to read.

In my profound disappointment, I came here and grudgingly gave the book a three-star rating, simply because everything up to that crappy ending was phenomenal.

Over the next few months, this book stuck with me. There had been so much potential and it was over.

Then I happened to see the next book released by Carsten Stroud. It was call The Homecoming and, when I read the blurb, realized it was the rest of the story from Niceville.

I've just finished The Homecoming and, before I wrote my review of it, came back to what I'd written for the first book. I'd uncharacteristically written nothing. Just rated it and moved on.

I was that disappointed.

Now I can say it. Niceville and The Homecoming aren't first novel and sequel. They aren't the first and second half of a story. They are one story. You read Niceville then, without pause, immediately pick up The Homecoming and continue on. There's no pause in the stories, no break. It's one book, confusingly broken into two parts, with no real indication in either book that the other even exists, which, to my mind, is an absolutely stupid decision on the publisher's part. Anyone picking up The Homecoming is going to realize there's an entire story they missed. Anyone ignorant of The Homecoming and ending at Niceville is going to suffer the same disappointment I felt.

The two books are one. Read them both.

And bask in the glory of a phenomenal story.

Montana lawman investigates Indian shooting, fetal tissue scam at heart

Finally got around to rereading this after moving it 4 or 5 times. As good as I remembered, though I felt the ending was a little rushed. It is a complex story of a NYPD sniper who is framed for the killing of two other police officers and goes on the run with a suspicion of a connection to a case his father handled year before.

Wow, this novel is a real gem...! As soon as I started listening to the audiobook, I was sucked into this strange little town called Niceville and it's people. The narrator, Ann Marie Lee, is a consummate professional who was not only able to keep all the many characters straight, but they all had fully defined speech patterns, inflections, and voices. She was spellbinding! I'm going to have to find more of her audiobooks. Black stone audio, take note...!
The novel was something completely different from anything I've ever read or listened to. But in such a wonderful way...! All these genres mixed up together, with all these crazy characters, and it all worked so well, it was a joy from start to finish. And, the novel only left a couple of small threads hanging, but I'm sure they will be addressed in the second novel of the series....which I can't wait to get to! If you'd like to know a smidge more about the novel and its people, please read the Goodreads review below.
4.5 stars, and highly recommended to anyone who wants a great novel.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/615576667?book_show_action=true&from_r...

I really struggled to keep all these characters straight, and how they had fit into the first two novels in this series. Maybe it had been too long in between them, I don’t know. But it was annoying to keep getting people switched around, and what their relationships were to each other, throughout.
I still kept trucking through to the end, only to find that the author had fizzled out and (supposedly) tied it up - but not as smartly as I would have liked. And the six months later chapter at the very end? It just made it seem like there is another book, or maybe another series coming from these characters in Niceville. I don’t like the way this all ended, it seemed like Stroud got tired of this series and just tacked something on the end.
Also, the author couldn’t seem to stick with one genre alone, in this novel. I’d rather he had stuck with the supernatural storyline that seemed SO strong in the first two novels, instead of changing out to some kind of shoot-‘em-up-type of novel, here.
3.5 stars, and recommended only if you absolutely have to know what happened next.

Strange, odd, but just didn't do anything for me.

The Shimmer by Carsten Stroud is a very clever time travel mystery that is fast-paced and engaging.

In the present, Florida Highway Patrol Sergeant Jack Redding and trainee Julia Karras are involved in a high speed chase of an SUV. After the vehicle pulls over, the driver runs off into the woods with the police hot on her heels. Inside the SUV, Jack and Julia find teenage sisters Rebecca and Karen Walker bound in the backseat. While Jack tries to locate the driver, Julia is tasked with setting the sisters free. When the situation quickly goes south, Julia is forced to protect herself from the girls and after Jack returns to assist her, the mystery woman in the woods vanishes. Later that same evening, Jack and fellow officer Pandora Jansson uncover a stunning link between the driver of the SUV and a case his grandfather, Clete Redding, worked on back in 1957. What, if any, connection could there possibly be between these two cases that take place decades apart?

Jack is unexpectedly presented with the opportunity to find out how the cases intersect when he travels back in time to 1957. He arrives at a pivotal moment in Clete's investigation into the mysterious woman he knows as Selena and her ties with the Vizzini crime family. Working together, Jack and Clete try to uncover the truth surrounding Selena and their investigation then takes them to New Orleans, where NOPD officer Annabelle Fontaine bears a stunning resemblance to someone from Jack's life in the present.

The coincidences keep coming at Jack when his path crosses with yet another person who plays an instrumental role in his life in the future. Jack's knowledge about events from the past also torment him as he and grandfather attempt to find out the truth about Selena, whom Jack is certain is murdering her way through time. What will happen if Jack and Clete try to intervene with history? More importantly, what if Selena attempts to manipulate events to her advantage? Is it possible to change the past without affecting the future? And will Jack and Clete figure out who Selena is and what exactly she is attempting to locating as she travels through time?

The Shimmer is an innovative and riveting mystery that incorporates Florida's history with the Mafia into the storyline. The time travel element is quite fascinating and this aspect of the plot raises some very intriguing questions about the unintended consequences of altering events from the past. Carsten Stroud completely wraps up the story arc about why Selena is traveling through time and Jack exacts his revenge for her role in a tragic loss. The novel ends with a stunning plot twist that is completely unforeseen, somewhat ambiguous and a little frustrating. Fans of the genre(s) do not want to miss this enjoyable time travel mystery.

Well enough written and with characters that aren't quite placeholders, still there is a level missing in all aspects except pacing in this time travel via death (shimmer appears at death, how is that not going to lead to body count) to keep it from being special.½

Very different approach to time travel. Has romance... and blood and gore. I enjoyed it.

Carsten Stroud really knows how to write so that your chances of putting down anything he writes are next to nil. I immediately got swept up in this Southern Gothic horror mystery kind of like Stephen King's IT convoluted but compelling novel. I lost an entire day of potential cleaning and catching up on errands to this masterful, very very weird "Twin Peaks" ish world. Cannot recommend enough!!

Dang it! How did he... This story was zipping WAY TOO FAST.... I need to re-read... ****I won an ARC in a GOODREADS giveaway!

reminds me of Stephen King's The Stand in ways....
no, more like "It". Crazy messed up town w/ baaaad things happening.....

Wrapped up well. Tidy.

Primo libro che leggo di questo autore. I primi capitoli presentano i var personaggi e visto che sono tanti ci si puo'confondere, poi pero' si inizia a conoscerli e ci si fa prendere dalla storia. Un horror classico ma non solo, e' anche un libro di azione.
Purtroppo e' il primo di una trilogia bisognera' attendere per conoscere la fine.

Primer acto: Un niño desaparece como por arte de magia cuando está frente a un escaparate de una tienda; lo encuentran vivo después de 10 días dentro de la cripta de una tumba, sin señales aparentes de haber abierto los candados que estaban todos oxidados.

Segundo acto: Un personaje dispara contra un helicóptero en vuelo de la prensa; la bala le pega en el pecho al piloto y la nave se va a pique.

Allí terminó mi lectura de ese libro; página 40 de 440. Afortunadamente pagué $50 pesos por el libro en una librería de usados.

Meh.
It wasn't bad and I'm glad to finish the trilogy, but I thought it was definitely not as good as the first two, and there was a bit of a letdown in the pat conclusion(s).