Customer Reviews

Impulse

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2 star:		(1)
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Have you ever started reading a book and as you get into it, find yourself wondering why you continue to read it? That's what happened to me with "Impulse." Granted, Rick Hautala has created one of the most vile and despicable villains I've encountered. Greg Newman, the sociopath in this novel, has no redeeming qualities. What can you say about a [sick man] who: pees in his ailing mother's water; spits ... into same; strangles a helpless stray cat; kills a black Labrador with a baseball bat; wounds another dog; beats to death an old woman, a convenience store clerk, a wino, a valet, and to top it off, he murders the book's short-lived hero, John Ross. And that's only the beginning. Watch out for the grisly and nerve-wracking finale, too!
First off, let's look at the back of the book and it's description: it intimates that this worthless scumbag is seeking forgiveness from the policeman's widow; now, where in the world in the book is that ever seen? And, it says he is getting close to her children (physically, maybe, but not in the affectionate terms).
The book has a lot of stereotypical characters and situations; widowed Angie and her kids, who actually are nothing but teenage brats. She is constantly battling with them; they are constantly battling each other; her little boy is even battling other kids in his new school. Sometimes there are so many scenes of this familial discord that it makes you want to scream or slap Angie! Not to mention the overuse of Greg Demento's voices urging him on to kill. The book also never says whether Angie takes the job that took her to Maine in the first place. Brandy and her boy friend, Evan, are like two [X-rated] stars in their frequent sexual attempts, with Brandy whining she doesn't want to go all the way with Evan---yet....hmmm..could've fooled me.
But the biggest indicator of this book is its editing. I think they must have been drunk when they did it. Here's some rich examples:
a)The first time we meet Angie and her two young ones, she is on their cases for being up so late, particularly on a school night. She goes on and on; the kids battle back, and you think, wow, what a family. The next time we see them, and this is the next morning, the kids are amazingly not in school. Little JJ is off playing computer games, and Brandy has traipsed off to the mall. Why all this [stuff] about being up on a school night?
b)Later on, when cop John is on the phone with his friend, Frank, John's character mysteriously becomes Frank. Hautala writes, Frank said..when it's really John!
c) Okay, here we go again. Nutcase Greg is hauling his killer bat around, ready to pounce and the author calls it his basketball bat? Now have you ever played basketball with a bat?
d) In several spots, Greg's name is mistyped Grey.

Being picky? No, just amazed that someone of Hautala's stature is represented so poorly by these editing faux pas.

Oh, well, I had to read the whole thing to make sure that Greg gets his just desserts. He does, but not before blazing one of the most sadistic murderous paths in fiction since the Marquise de sade!

This is a very uncomfortably dark book; there are no safeties in this one; bad things happen to good people, and you shudder as they do.

I recommend it if you find it in a bargain or used book bin, but prepared for one disturbing read.

Three dimensional characters make it hard to put down this novel of plotting, planning and terror. The psychotic predator is a frightfully ordinary man as far as those around him are concerned. His prey is a young mother who finds resources of strength she hasn't previously tapped. 400+ pages that fly by!

This book is so great even though it's 400+ I've read it twice! A man searching for forgiveness from a woman that doesn't even know he exists. But not only for forgiveness but to rid her of the knowledge he thinks she has of her husbands death by tracking her all the way to another state. It not only is a thriller and has a force that pulls you in, but a plot of disgust and perversion, something America can't get enough of!

This book is so great even though it's 400+ I've read it twice! A man searching for forgiveness from a woman that doesn't even know he exists. But not only for forgiveness but to rid her of the knowledge he thinks she has of her husbands death by tracking her all the way to another state. It not only is a thriller and has a force that pulls you in, but a plot of disgust and perversion, something America can't get enough of!

I love this book, it is the best I've ever read, it sounds like something that could really happen with an unsuspecting family and a demented psyco. You have to read it!