One criticism Ketchum is vulnerable to is characterization, but he does a pretty good job of it in this novel. Oddly enough, this is most evident in the character of the policeman pursuing the mass murdering Wayne Lock. He knows Carole's history, and she reminds him a lot of his own ex-wife; it is he, however, who makes the most significant realization about himself at the novel's conclusion. We get snips and pieces of Wayne Lock's history, enough to explain the murderous intensity of his personality but not enough to truly understand his reasoning. Carole and Lee are not developed fully in my mind, but this seems to me to be a positive in the context of this novel. I never felt strongly negative or positive toward them; they moved in a haze of contradiction where good and evil continuously wove in amongst each other.

There is plenty of carnage in this book--that's pretty much a given with Ketchum. Another given, and this is what makes Ketchum such a great horror writer, is a brutally honest plot that will not cheat the reader at the end. It is hard to predict a Ketchum ending, which is the main reason I respect him greatly as an author. The cavalry doesn't appear magically over the hill to save the day--instead, things happen the way they would most likely happen in real life--good and evil are second-string players in this game; reality itself determines the fate of Ketchum's characters. This makes for a gripping read, even in a case such as this where the storyline is nothing remarkably original.