The Throat [Hardcover]

Peter Straub (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1993

The continuing mystery of the Blue Rose Murders draws Tim Underhill back to his home town, where he will help a friend accused of murdering his wife clear his name. By the author of Koko. 150,000 first printing. Major ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Straub peaks with this visceral thriller, which completes his Blue Rose trilogy ( Koko ; Mystery ). The citizens of Millhaven, Ill., thought they had overcome the unsolved serial murders that plagued the town in the 1940s--the killer had scrawled the words "Blue Rose" near the bodies--but another resident has just fallen prey to a new Blue Rose. The victim's husband, John Ransom, enlists the aid of Tim Underhill, a high school buddy and fellow Vietnam vet who has written a book about the murders. Although Tim thinks of his hometown as "oddly interchangeable" with Vietnam, he returns to join forces with famed local sleuth Tom Pasmore to solve both the earlier and the later murders. Tim's research and Tom's computer hacking connect the '40s killer to the St. Alwyns Hotel on Widow Street and suggest that the more recent killer is a victim of child abuse. Millhaven detectives nab a Jeffrey Dahmer-type murderer who claims to be the new Blue Rose, but Tim proves that the man is lying. As Tim and Tom close in on the truth, the trauma of Tim's Vietnam experiences pales and "the other Vietnam"--his own childhood abuse--roars into memory. Painted from a darkly colorful palette, Straub's characters inhabit a razor-edged world of unremitting suspense. BOMC main selection.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Submitted by the publisher to Kirkus too late to review, Straub's latest is a sequel to both his bestselling Koko (1988) and his less popular Mystery (1989), resurrecting characters from each (Tim Underhill of Koko and Tom Pasmore of Mystery among them) to investigate a series of killings known as the Blue Rose Murders. Straub himself appears in the story as the narrator's writing- collaborator (who ``drinks twenty-five-year-old malt whiskey, because he's that kind of guy''), a touch of metafiction in a down- to-earth (or, at least, nonoccult) thriller that veers from Vietnam to the Illinois town of Millhaven (Straub's counterpoint to friend Stephen King's Castle Rock) and that will probably have the author's fans lining up at the cash registers. (Book-of-the-Month Dual Selection for Spring) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (April 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525935037
• ISBN-13: 978-0525935032
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,359,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gets Better With Every Reading, May 25, 2005

By 

Dov G. "Goldstar" (Bakersfield, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Throat (Paperback)

I've just finished reading this for the second time, and am even more blown away than I was the first go 'round. The details and atmosphere are so rich, so specific to place and time (a thinly disguised Milwaukee, late 40's-early 50's up through the present), and layer after layer of menace is built up in increments that make it all seem so real that you have to wonder what nightmares lie in the author's own past. The depth of character development is unusual for horror/thrillers or however this book has been marketed, and Straub's sheer writing virtuosity makes this book seem more like a literary novel than genre fiction. KOKO and MYSTERY, novels related to the Blue Rose murders detailed in this one, share several characters with THROAT but differ enough in details to further mystify and discomfit a reader who already is convinced that Mr. Straub understands something about the subtle nature of evil that the rest of us are too naive to grasp.

At the psychological junction where child abuse in its worst imaginable form intersects uneven memory stands THE THROAT, exposed. Fiction this intelligent rarely comes along in any genre. That Peter Straub is compelled to use his astounding talents in a probe of the dark side makes for chilling reading, because he is more than smart enough to make you believe. Even in the daylight.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars so much more rewarding than king or koontz, September 12, 2003

By 

Ms. J. Kelly "josie kelly" (Oxfordshire England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Throat (Paperback)

I often see reviews that compare the writing of Peter Straub to that of Stephen King (for obvious reasons) and of Dean Koontz (purely because of the horror genre as far as I am aware). But to me they are illogical comparisons. If you want a contrived plot where man meets woman and they both find salvation from their past horrors through love for each other, read Koontz. If you want to slip into reading something that feels as comfortable as an old slipper, beacuse you've read the same story 10 times before, only in different guises, read King.

However, if you want to read intelligent novels with characters that you care for and who develop over the course of the trilogy, read Koko, Mystery and the Throat - All completely different to each other, yet interlinked beautifully.

I am the first to admit that sometimes Straub's writing can be difficult to get into - it took me 3 attempts over a few years before I was able to finish Mystery for the first time, but now i regularly re read all of Straub's novels (apart from If you could see me now, which is the only one I've not yet been able to get into) and look forward to doing so - to entering the worlds that he creates (even though I am left cold by the constant jazz references!).

Basically, if you're tiring of King and Koontz, finding them too simplistic - read Straub.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Textbook for Creative Writing, March 17, 2003

By 

Dave Moore (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Throat (Paperback)

Seldom does one encounter such an exquisitly constructed novel, wherein a myriad of individual vignettes are woven together with a central focus. The Throat is a masterpiece of writing proficiency combined with a talent for good, old-fashioned story telling. The novel trancends genre and stands as an example of how books should be written.