Smith intends to scare the bejabbers out of you, and succeeds .... Does for Mexican vacations what Jaws did for New England beaches in 1975.

The suspense novel of the year. This is compulsive reading. Scott Smith sets out to frighten and he succeeds brilliantly with this harrowing psychological chiller.

It's been more than a decade since Smith's impressive debut, A Simple Plan. The wait has been worth it, with this tense, dense oppressive thriller taking the reader into new dimensions of fear ... Every time you think the book has hit a high in terror, it somehow gets more unbearable.

A tour de force of terror, a novel that seduces, shocks and dares you to keep reading. There's a timeless fable at work here, one that prompts thoughts of Heart of Darkness

Bloodcurdlingly horrific ... It's the contract between the familiar and the unspeakable that makes this book so harrowing.

Please, please let this be the most disturbing novel of the year .....Smith writes with psychological acuity and real beauty, yet he doesn't pull any punches.

Aficionados of the horror-suspense genre can start breathing again, but only for a minute. Author Scott Smith has returned with a new shocker ....The action is swift and the suspense is positively unflinching ...Smith's nail-biting tension is a pleasure all its own.

A classic horror story, told with mounting detail. Smith spins it out relentlessly, piling chill on chill on chill ....what happens, and needless to say it's not good, is something readers will read page after flapping page to discover.