- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; (Reissue) edition (17 May 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006498280
- ISBN-13: 978-0006498285
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.4 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 382,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘Nail-biting suspense from the first page, masterfully extended to the last
‘ Kirkus Reviews
‘A knockout novel. With unerring pacing… Walker leads up to her superbly orchestrated final act, which will leave readers cheering, weeping and gasping for breath’
Publishers Weekly
‘An instant classic in mystery and suspense. The best chiller-thriller of the year’
James Patterson
‘A kidnap story of rare intensity and mounting tension’
Irish Times
Product Description
A chilling, only-too-topical thriller from the award-winning author of THE RED SCREAM and ALL THE DEAD LIE DOWN.
Eleven Texan schoolchildren and their bus driver are captured by a fundamentalist cult, taken to a fortified compound and buried underground, kept alive but only just. Negotiations lead nowhere. Enter Molly Cates, tenacious crime writer with the inside track on the cult leader. But time is running out…
Claustrophobic terror alternates with frenzied investigations as the sect’s deadline approaches. Post-Waco, post-Oklahoma, the nature of cults is explored to its grim, unrelenting limits in this terrifically paced novel of suspense.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fantastic book, Mary Willis Walker just keeps on getting better and better. You are drawn into the hostages' lives and feel every emotion along with them. There were not enough hours in the day to read this, it is a real page turner. You want to get to the end to find out the conclusion, but you also don't want the book to finish. Go and read this now!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have to admit that, from the start this was not the book for me. The synopsis lured me into reading it but, frankly, I just can't handle all this Christian fundamentlist clap-trap.
This is not to say the book is anything other than well written and does give a ghastly insight into the minds of some people who believe they have been chosen to lead the world into oblivion. Strange people who, regrettably and misguidedly, also leave dead bodies in their quest for...? Well, that's anybody's guess, hence my abhorrence of the language of the cult leader, not just in this book but in other real world scenarios (Waco, for instance).
If this appeals as a general theme then this book will keep you reading. I did finish it and liked the grande finale but I shall not be searching for any more religious twaddle!
This is not to say the book is anything other than well written and does give a ghastly insight into the minds of some people who believe they have been chosen to lead the world into oblivion. Strange people who, regrettably and misguidedly, also leave dead bodies in their quest for...? Well, that's anybody's guess, hence my abhorrence of the language of the cult leader, not just in this book but in other real world scenarios (Waco, for instance).
If this appeals as a general theme then this book will keep you reading. I did finish it and liked the grande finale but I shall not be searching for any more religious twaddle!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
42 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Logical, coherent and thrilling
3 Sep 2000
Format:Paperback
Anna Fields does an amazing job of reading the unabridged version of this Texas-based thriller. Actually, I suspect a born storyteller. The cast of characters is a most unlikely arrangement - our "Lone Star Monthly" reporter, involved with policeman ex-husband, a pyscho dog, a double amputee Veteran, an artist/poet/busdriver, a David Koresh style fundamentalist lunatic, a nun turned assassin, a homeless alcoholic, pregnant sorority girl, a requiste number of men in suits and some incredibly strong children -- somehow it works. The school bus is highjacked, and the clock is ticking. Suspenseful and very believable, full of Austin area landmarks, thoughtful commentary on religion (IMPORTANT, if true), and a bit of middle aged romance, this especially clever novel will not disappoint. I will definitely hunt down the other books written by this author. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Note: I really did not care for the name of the book, which surprisingly evolves from an Emily Dickinson poem - it seemed trite or silly until I got into the story.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Engrossing and scary.
14 Jun 2000
Format:Paperback
Mesmerizing thriller about a crazy cult leader and his followers who kidnap a bus driver and 11 of his young passengers (all under the age of 11) and bury them underground in a school bus for 50 days. The story has two setttings -- the outside world, featuring a reporter who is trying to find out as much as possible about the cult leader's past so she can figure out a way to convince him to let the children go -- and the world inside the bus, where the bus driver, a Vietnam vet with no experience with children, overcomes his own fear to try to keep the kids calm and safe. He starts telling them a story in installments, one chapter a day, and also begins working on a way to barracade themselves in the bus in preparation for the day he knows is coming, the day the cult leader will try to sacrifice them all. Something about these kids and that bus driver's story (about a turkey vulture named Jacksonville) really drew me in. This is probably the first time a stock thriller has ever reduced me to tears by the end (of course, I did have a fever of 102 at the time). Highly recommended!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Could not put it down!!
3 Oct 2000
Format:Paperback
This books amazing. The plot was original and the characters engrossing.
Molly Cates is back on the scene when her connection with Samuel Mordecai, a fanatical cult leader, becomes known. Molly, a reporter in Texas, wrote about Mordecai for her piece on religious cults. Now Mordecai has kidnapped a school bus with children, and the bus driver, and is holding them hostage on his compound.
This book should be read by all mystery and thriller fans. Mary Willis Walker has no parallel when it comes to involved plots that could become convoluted and ridiculous in less capable hands. She tells the story of a boy turned cult leader who was terribly abused as a child, but never uses that fact to excuse his behavior, rather to understand how a boy emotionally and physically abadoned comes to such a horrific and devastating point. The scences between the bus driver and the school children are some of the best in fiction. You feel their terror and resentment of Mordecai and cheer when they outwit him.
A great read!
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