Spooky from the first page (Walkers - Graham Masterton)

Member Name: kes33

Product:	Walkers - Graham Masterton
Date:	17/11/01 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Chilling, Gripping

Disadvantages: none

Jack Reed is driving on a wet night when a blurry shape in the road causes him to crash. There begins a chase with that same blurry figure which he thinks is a child......it leads him to the Oaks, a huge gothic building nestling in the woods. Very soon he finds himself seduced by a very old and alluring lady; albeit a building. He wants to restore the Oaks, turn it into a country club, and give it the grand appearance and standing it deserves.
But something lurks in the walls of the old asylum, a past that was anything but idyllic. Sixty years ago it had been a home for crazed psychopaths who one night disappeared, never to be seen again. Whilst viewing the building, Jack's son, Randy disappears and soon Jack is desperate to find him. He tries to keep the boy's disappearance from his estranged wife and things become more mysterious; meanwhile, Jack' relationship with his secretary, Karen hots up. It eventually unfolds that the psychopaths are within the walls of the old building; they hoped to make their escape by travelling along the leylines that cross in the building. Quintus Miller was the leader of the insane, now he has Jack's son and is holding him hostage unless Jack helps them to escape by breaking the blessing that a priest placed around the building.

This book will lift the hairs on the back of your neck from the very first page. The action enters very early into the book and continues to the very last page, with no real pauses for breath. The book is pacy and well written; the characters likeable and believable. There is plenty to keep the reader hooked, the central character faces many challenges, at first there are times when he is a little too unlike able, but this changes as the book progresses, Jack progresses well as a character. Jack often seems to have so much to deal with that at times you really have to wonder how Master ton is going to manage to pull it off; he does, Masterfully!
Masterson has a knack of making the impossible
seem probable; he sticks to his genre of knowledge and makes it plausible. The use of 'earth magic' and 'ley-lines in this book pull the plot together very satisfactorily and are explained enough to the reader to keep it 'real'. Jack meets people along the way who help him reach his conclusions and turn his mind to the fact that something supernatural is at work, these people in turn, help the reader to understand.

Suffice to say that this is enjoyable book for horror and science fiction fans and even those who aren't. Though I have read many of his books, I wouldn't recommend them all, but I would this one!

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