Title: In The Night Room
Author: Peter Straub
Publisher: Books on Tape
Narrator: Scott Brick
Duration: 10 hours, 43 minutes
Copyright: 2004
Genres: horror, supernatural
Filed in: Audiobook reviews
Review copy provided by Carrollton Public Library.
THE GIST: Tim Underhill, popular novelist, is about to begin a journey into unspeakable terror. It begins with the emails. Messages bearing user names but no domains and ominous text such as “hard death hard” begin arriving in Underhill’s inbox. Some of the user names seem vaguely familiar to Tim, and a phone call to the secretary of his graduating class confirms his suspicions. The emails are from dead people. If that isn’t bad enough, Underhill also finds himself being stalked by a crazed fan. The lunatic, Jasper Kohle, asks Underhill to sign dozens of copies of his books, all the while condemning him for the mistakes he has made in his books.
To cap things off, while at a bookstore signing, a character from Tim’s latest book shows up. Underhill recognizes her immediately, he created her after all, and soon the two are on the run from a couple of hitmen who want her dead.
The upshot is that Tim made a mistake in one of his books and that mistake opened a rift between this world and the next. Tim must find out what the mistake was and correct it to set things right.
MY THOUGHTS: Peter Straub had me going for the first half of "In the Night Room." The emails from dead people were creepy, and Tim’s character, Willy, showing up was mystifying. After that, things got a little corny and predictable. Within a few hours of their meeting, Tim andWilly are madly in love and no matter where they go, the bad guys show up. This was an interesting story idea that just didn’t pan out.
NARRATOR: Scott Brick is the bane of my existence. I don’t care for his narration, but Recorded Books insists on giving him all the audio books I want to read. Brick reads well enough, his diction is very clear and concise, but he reads with no passion at all.
FINAL WORD: “In the Night Room” would probably appeal to a lot of people, but I am not one of them. A different narrator would have made the audio book more enjoyable.
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This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.
Audiobook review by Steven Brandt
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Why does the name Tim Underhill sound so darn familiar. I know Frodo was an Underhill in L.O.T.R., but it is just sounding too familiar. hmm. And the book was sounding interesting but then you basically say, "It stinks."
ReplyDeleteStraub is a co-writer with King sometimes, correct? I guess Kind doesn't where off! ha ha
*king
ReplyDelete(fixing typo)
King and Straub collaborated on a two book series, "The Talisman", and "Black House." I read the first but didn't bother with the second.
ReplyDelete