Being a fan of thriller-type detective books, I was intrigued when a co-worker suggested this to me. It sounded like an interesting book and the fact that the author was a retired police detective seemed like a good mix.

The story centers around a series of homicides in a small Iowa town. There is a lot of involvement with a satanic cult and the action and storyline are fairly fast paced. While Harstad definitely seemed to know what he was writing about intimately, his police background was also the weak point of the book and a major portion of why I only rated the book a six.

My major problem with Harstad's writing style was all of the technical police jargon. I personally don't need to read through an entire police radio conversation that consists mostly of codes. It was ok to get a look at a policeman's life through the eyes of the main character, but I found some of the mundane stuff to get kind of boring.

All in all, this was a decent book with a strong plot and good story-telling. I felt the characters to be explored fairly well and they seemed believable. I wasn't really too thrilled with the ending, but it didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the novel either. ( )

2e; fl. 24,95; Verboden Rijk oosterhout; 03.06.99; donderdagmiddag 16:15 uur.