Black Lightning [ABRIDGED] [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio CD)

by John Saul (Author), Lee Meriwether (Reader)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Fast pacing and skillful narrative misdirection make this supernatural thriller one of Saul's (The Homing) best?and one of his few not to focus on children in peril. Richard Kraven, the novel's heavy, is as nasty as they come: he eviscerates his victims before they die, in the misguided hope of learning the mystery of life. He also seems to be extending his murder spree after his execution in the electric chair. At least that's what reporter Anne Jeffers tries to prove to the incredulous Seattle police as the killings strike ever closer to her home and family, apparently in retaliation for her help in putting Kraven behind bars. Saul ratchets up the suspense by intercutting chapters told from the points of view of Anne, detective Mark Blakemoor and a serial murderer who thinks of himself as "The Experimenter." He complicates matters by introducing another murderer and by raising suspicions about Anne's husband, Glen, who suffered a heart attack at the moment Kraven died and now experiences blackouts that coincide with the killings. Saul depends on remarkably unobservant cops and a contrived occult explanation to tie all the subplots together, but he sustains the mystery of the killer's identity and motives throughout. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; major ad/promo; simultaneous Random House AudioBook; simultaneous release of The Homing in mass market paper.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
YA?Sufficient detail is provided to enable participation in this horror puzzle. The last person convicted-murderer Richard Kraven asks to see before dying is Ann Jeffers, the newspaper woman who had kept his name and crimes in the public consciousness for five years. "Today won't end it...I'm sorry I won't be here to see you suffer when you finally realize you were wrong about me," he says. Brutal murders, perhaps copycat, perhaps at the hands of an accomplice, resume. At first, Ann accepts the changes in her husband following his heart attack. Gradually, they both begin to question what is happening. Soon readers will be more concerned with how things transpire than with who is responsible. Teens seeking a deliberately told tale that promises to raise them to the edge of their seats should find satisfaction in this story.?Barbara Hawkins, Oakton High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio Price-less; Abridged edition (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739303805
• ISBN-13: 978-0739303801
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,296,264 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Saul - Black Lightning, November 14, 2002

By	Chris MB "CMB" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Lightning (Mass Market Paperback)

In looking over previous reviews I've seen words and phrases like "point of view" and "character development." This leads me to believe that people are either expecting too much of Mr. Saul or they're over-thinking the book. Saul writes horror and thriller novels - he does not attempt to reach the modern literary equivalent of War and Peace each time he puts pen to paper. If that's what he was trying to accomplish, he would be an astonishing failure. To the contrary, he's actually quite successful and good at what he does. He writes entertaining, escapist thrillers that are, at best, amusing and, at worst, a cheap thrill.

Black Lightning is no different than previous Saul novels although it deals less with the traditional supernatural horror elements and focuses on fairly standard "serial killer" fare. But there are problems. The novel is probably 100 pages too long, the ending is poor and the overall plot is merely a slightly enhanced version of hundreds of novels already on bookshelves.

Saul has written better - check out The Blackstone Chronicles. There are better novels and authors but there are also worse. Saul is, as always, middle of the road.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is a good suspence book., September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Lightning (Mass Market Paperback)

Anne Jeffers is a Seattle reporter who has been working on a serial killer's case for five years. The man is Richard Craven. For Five years he has terrorized most of the West Coast and many other states. Claiming victims that he doesen't even know and dismembering them. Finally he is caught and sentenced to the electric chair. The terror is now over, or is it? Anne Jeffers husband, Glen Jeffers, has a heart attack at the exact time that Richard Craven is executed. Two weeks later Glen is out of the hospital, but something is different. Lately, Glen has been having visions that make no sense to him, he becomes more aggressive, and he blacks out and wakes up in different places that he rembers. What's wrong with Glen?

I thought this was an interesting book. It is a little hard to follow until you get into the book. For example in Chapter 1 it is Anne's point of view, and in Chapter 2 it is Glen's point of view, then in chapter 3 it is back to Anne's, and so on until later on in the book. This is useful because you get to see what is going on with all of the characters. This was a good book, but it has a lot of graphic violance. Mature audience recommended.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing plot line, albeit fairly well written, March 11, 2003

By	Get What We Give (Georgia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Black Lightning (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first John Saul novel I've ever read. I hope his others aren't this formulatic and drawn out, only to reveal a disappointing conclusion.

The story is one that, sadly, has been done over and over again in print AND on film. Anne Jeffers, ace reporter, watches serial killer Richard Kraven, whom she helped convict, die in the electric chair. At almost the same time, thousands of miles away, Anne's husband suffers a massive heart attack. Dead for over two minutes, Glen Jeffers recovers, but his personality is just never the same.

The gruesome murders attributed to Richard Kraven start all over again - four years after his incarceration. Who can be the killer? Is there an accomplice? Are these copy cat murders? Who can say?

Unfortunately, anyone who's ever seen the movie "Fallen" or an old 1980's horror film (the name of which escapes me now), knows what has happened.

Saul throws a few mugafins our way, but to anyone experienced in reading a variety of books can see right through the fluff.

The most disappointing aspect of the book is that the ending feels thrown together. It's as if Saul had a specific number of pages that he had to supply to his publisher, and he didn't want to go below or above that number. In short, the book just sort of ends. It's not satisfying.

The police in this book are more bumbling than the team that investigated the Jean Benet Ramsay case in Colorado. They haven't investigated all their leads and the proof that Kraven was the serial killer is never really fleshed out. The central characters don't act believably and the trains of thought displayed don't follow a logical flow.

And when was the last time you heard of a convicted murderer on death row being executed within four years of his incarceration? Four decades maybe - four years - never!

I wanted to like this book, because the writing wasn't bad as a whole. Sure, it was a pulp novel - I knew it would be - but it wasn't poorly written - just poorly thought out and executed.