DESERT PLACES by Blake Crouch

Cover by Jeroen ten Berge

Ever since I read Draculas: A Novel of Terror, a totally balls to the wall, gore drenched adrenaline rush, I've been a Blake Crouch fan. After that I read Serial Uncut and a whole host of his short fiction. If you have not read either of the above linked books and you're a fan of thriller fiction you're missing out.

Those stories alone make owning a Kindle worth all the while (of course I believe both are now very available in traditional book format...you know, real paper and real ink).

DRACULAS was the main reason I bought a Kindle in the first place. The buzz for that book sunk it's teeth into me. Everyone who had an early peak was raving and there I was with no way of reading it. Luckily I had a birthday coming up. A few days later I had a Kindle in my hand.

If you have read SERIAL or it's sequel KILLERS - A Psycho Thriller you know a little about Orson Thomas and his macabre protege Luther Kite. And if you know a little about those two then you have to go back and start at the beginning:

DESERT PLACES: A Novel of Terror (Andrew Z. Thomas Thriller).

I'm a big fan of debut books. I usually find an author's first book brims with a raw energy that sometimes in not as evident in their later published works. Not that future endeavors aren't just as good. In most cases they're better. They just don't seem to have that "something" writers put in their first books (yeah, I know a lot of writers write a lot of books before being published but it still holds true, I find).

Alright, DESERT PLACES. I guarantee you right now this will be in my favorite five at the year's end. It's the story of thriller writer Andrew Z. Thomas getting a lesson in murder from a very unexpected source.

His brother, Orson.

Sick and depraved but highly intelligent, Orson wants to free his brother of the social mores that chain him to a safe and comfortable life. After several weeks of being held captive in a desolate desert in Wyoming and being forced to kill and mutilate innocent victims, Orson releases Andrew back into the real world with a warning. Tell no one or else...

But how can someone go back to their normal life after that?

The answer is obvious. He can't.

Haunted by the horrible acts he was forced to commit and the looming threat that Orson could strike anytime and anywhere, Andrew confides in his best friend, Walter, putting him and his family in jeopardy.

After Walter's children are threatened, he and Andrew decide to hunt Orson down and kill him. But how do you catch a man that has managed to stay hidden for decades? How do you stop a man who's own best friend is the macabre killing machine Luther Kite?

Find out by reading DESERT PLACES. It's smart, brutal, bloody, sick, and a damn good read.

If you need anymore convincing, head on over to Amazon.com and check out some of his "one star" reviews. If those don't make you want to read it nothing will.