Watch Them Die

This book had me on the edge of my seat. Unable to predict the ending, so many twists. Great read with unexpected ending!

I'm not a big fan of serial killer books or movies, but I am a fan of Kevin O'Brien's version of the genre. This is the third of a series, following The Next to Die and Make Them Cry. The settings of the three stories are very different: one is set in Hollywood, another in a seminary, and this latest in Seattle. All three books share O'Brien's trademark features. Fast pacing that is pulse-quickening but not so fast that the reader is left at a sharp turn or ceases caring about the central characters. The characters are down-to-earth-people that you can imagine bumping into in real life. His books read like well done movies. I certainly hope that screenplays are circulating.All in all, a great page turner that I found hard to put down. Highly recommended!

This is the second book I have read by Kevin O'Brien. The first one (The Next To Die) was so good, I bought this one which is his latest release. This story covers characters from all walks of life, professors to video store employees to film makers to artists.The main character already has problems because she is on the run with her 4 year old son from her highly abusive husband. She can't divorce because her husband comes from a powerful and wealthy family. Now she is viewing murder victims on video tapes and she dosen't know who to trust and what to do. I totally empathize with this lady because of the estangement issue as well as her being the stalked and chosen witness. I won't say anymore about the story itself, because I think everyone should read it.I also like the references to all the old movie classics. All these movies are my old favorites. It was a trip down memory lane for me. I knew right away that Kevin O'Brien did all his homework. He had all the scenes down to the last detail. Also Kevin O'Brien knows how video store employees get treated and what goes on in the back office. I could tell since I used to work in a video store way back when. Also Kevin O'Brien has the courtesy to acknowledge all the movies at the end of the book.This book is a definite page turner and stay up allnighter. There are a lot of twists and turns. Just like the last book I read by this same author, there are a lot of characters and not only the plot stays solid, but it thickens. Some suspense writers use a lot of characters and then they can't keep the reader's attention because of this. With Kevin O'Brien, it is different, he keeps the readers glued to the book. I see a very talented suspense writer that I hope will write for many years to come.

This is the third book in this series and I have read the other two. I bought this book because of my love for the others. I know that I am not an avid reader by any means. The reason I mention this is that it took me about three weeks to read this book cover to cover. Which means there is something there to keep me reading. I enjoyed reading this particular novel because of the movie twist. I thought it was a brilliant plan to have the killer use plots from movies. It a very believable plot in every way. The characters act very well together and are very well spoken. I really enjoyed the interaction of the main character and her co-workers. Kevin has provided the reader with a lot of details and interesting dialogue. I also love his page turning style, you just have a hard time putting the book down (you should see the bags under my eyes!). If you haven't read the other two books I recommend that you pick them up as you purchase this one. I think you will be incredibly impressed with the way he keeps you hanging till the end. He also provides a list of the movies used in the book, and that sparked a new love for older movies that I haven't seen. I now have a reason to watch them and see what the character in the book means when she watches them die. And this will not be the last Kevin O'Brien novel I buy, because as long as he writes them i'll keep reading them.

I am an avid reader of this Author. I own all of his books and found this one to be just as wonderful as his previous ones! He caught my attention from the first paragraph and held it all the way thru until the end. Needless to say, once I started it, I could not accomplish anything else until I was done with the book. Kevin O'Brien kept me guessing until the very end. His writing ranks way up high on my list of favorite authors. He far surpassed his previous books with this one. I will wait anxiously for his next one !

Rae Palmer knows she is being stalked, but no one believes her. When her boyfriend fell from a rooftop, the police ruled it an alcohol induced accident, but Rae knows better. The killer ultimately films his murdering her during a sexual encounter. He leaves the video of the snuffing in the return box of Seattle's Emerald City Video. Employee Hannah Doyle takes it home only to believe she has seen a real murder imitating a scene from the film Looking for Mr. Goodbar.Hannah panics when she realizes that someone accessed her apartment after finding a copy of Rosemary's Baby in her VCR. Later she learns a customer, who was recently nasty towards her, fell from a window just like a scene in Rosemary's Baby. Hannah already worried that her abusive husband, whom she fled, will find her and their four-year-old son, wonders what to do. She believes that the killer plans to murder her and perhaps her son soon. She speculates that the killer is a student or professor both coming on to her in a film study class.Though there is too much baggage hoisted by the heroine, readers without a shadow of a doubt will appreciate this taut serial killer thriller. Each prime player seems real from Hannah whose fears geometrically increased to the professor hitting on her to her fellow student and finally those working with her at the store. Readers never quite know who the killer is and why he fixated on Hannah until the end as Kevin O'Brien does what he does best: keeping the suspense at unbelievably high levels.Harriet Klausner