I bought this book because the premise behind it seemed like a good plot. I wasn't mistaken either. I read it in one sitting last night in about 4 hours.
The author guides you straight into the leading character Tommy's life and skillfully constructs very believable characters around him. His two friends John and Sherm are so like many people that I have met over the years that the relationship between the three is compelling. The lifestyle that Tommy and his friends have is so ordinary in so many ways that as a reader I found myself sympathising with them all and this is even though I found some of their character traits unappealing. There is wonderful pathos and even some laugh out loud humour in one or two areas of the book, which gives it a well rounded feeling. I laughed and I actually cried a couple of times and I haven't found a book that has made me do both of these for a while.
I would have loved to have given this book five stars, my reasons for only giving it four are as follows. I feel that the author didn't give enough attention to fleshing out the character of Michelle, Tommy's wife. Given that we should feel extreme empathy for her situation too, unfortunately she appeared a little too two dimesional. Also, I loved the supernatural angle, but I don't think that enough description was given to these areas of the book. My last reason is that I didn't feel the book was long enough, but that could just be because I found it so gripping (which isn't a bad thing), but if a little longer had been spent on Michelle's role and the supernatural side to the story perhaps I wouldn't have this complaint.
Despite my last couple of comments, I would still highly recommend anyone that likes human drama, thrillers and/or the supernatural to give this book a go. I think its a highly enjoyable read.