What do you think?
Rate this book
7 Steps to Midnight
New York Times Bestselling Author of I Am Legend
When a mysterious imposter steals his identity and life, mathematician Chris Barton is suddenly thrust into a whirlwind of danger and intrigue. Overnight, without warning or explanation, people he has never met are trying to kill him-not even his own sister recognizes him. On the run, from California to London to Paris and beyond, vicious assassins pursue Chris while cryptic messages lead him on a wild, danger-filled chase around the world.
Full of twists and surprises, this is the story of an ordinary man driven to the breaking point in a high tension game of deceit and betrayal where there are no rules, nothing is as it seems, and it is always . . . 7 Steps to Midnight.
When a mysterious imposter steals his identity and life, mathematician Chris Barton is suddenly thrust into a whirlwind of danger and intrigue. Overnight, without warning or explanation, people he has never met are trying to kill him-not even his own sister recognizes him. On the run, from California to London to Paris and beyond, vicious assassins pursue Chris while cryptic messages lead him on a wild, danger-filled chase around the world.
Full of twists and surprises, this is the story of an ordinary man driven to the breaking point in a high tension game of deceit and betrayal where there are no rules, nothing is as it seems, and it is always . . . 7 Steps to Midnight.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
50 people are currently reading
519 people want to read
About the author
Richard Matheson
739 books4,697 followersBorn in Allendale, New Jersey to Norwegian immigrant parents, Matheson was raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He then entered the military and spent World War II as an infantry soldier. In 1949 he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and moved to California in 1951. He married in 1952 and has four children, three of whom (Chris, Richard Christian, and Ali Matheson) are writers of fiction and screenplays.
His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. The tale of a monstrous child chained in its parents' cellar, it was told in the first person as the creature's diary (in poignantly non-idiomatic English) and immediately made Matheson famous. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres.
Several of his stories, like "Third from the Sun" (1950), "Deadline" (1959) and "Button, Button" (1970) are simple sketches with twist endings; others, like "Trespass" (1953), "Being" (1954) and "Mute" (1962) explore their characters' dilemmas over twenty or thirty pages. Some tales, such as "The Funeral" (1955) and "The Doll that Does Everything" (1954) incorporate zany satirical humour at the expense of genre clichés, and are written in an hysterically overblown prose very different from Matheson's usual pared-down style. Others, like "The Test" (1954) and "Steel" (1956), portray the moral and physical struggles of ordinary people, rather than the then nearly ubiquitous scientists and superheroes, in situations which are at once futuristic and everyday. Still others, such as "Mad House" (1953), "The Curious Child" (1954) and perhaps most famously, "Duel" (1971) are tales of paranoia, in which the everyday environment of the present day becomes inexplicably alien or threatening.
He wrote a number of episodes for the American TV series The Twilight Zone, including "Steel," mentioned above and the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"; adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman and Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out for Hammer Films; and scripted Steven Spielberg's first feature, the TV movie Duel, from his own short story. He also contributed a number of scripts to the Warner Brothers western series "The Lawman" between 1958 and 1962. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker, one of two TV movies written by Matheson that preceded the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson also wrote the screenplay for Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) starring Talullah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers.
Novels include The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again from Matheson's own screenplay), and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend, which has been filmed three times under the titles The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth and once under the original title. Other Matheson novels turned into notable films include What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, Bid Time Return (as Somewhere in Time), and Hell House (as The Legend of Hell House) and the aforementioned Duel, the last three adapted and scripted by Matheson himself. Three of his short stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror, including "Prey" with its famous Zuni warrior doll.
In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a nonfantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II.
He died at his home on June 23, 2013, at the age of 87
http://us.macmillan.com/author/richar...
His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. The tale of a monstrous child chained in its parents' cellar, it was told in the first person as the creature's diary (in poignantly non-idiomatic English) and immediately made Matheson famous. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres.
Several of his stories, like "Third from the Sun" (1950), "Deadline" (1959) and "Button, Button" (1970) are simple sketches with twist endings; others, like "Trespass" (1953), "Being" (1954) and "Mute" (1962) explore their characters' dilemmas over twenty or thirty pages. Some tales, such as "The Funeral" (1955) and "The Doll that Does Everything" (1954) incorporate zany satirical humour at the expense of genre clichés, and are written in an hysterically overblown prose very different from Matheson's usual pared-down style. Others, like "The Test" (1954) and "Steel" (1956), portray the moral and physical struggles of ordinary people, rather than the then nearly ubiquitous scientists and superheroes, in situations which are at once futuristic and everyday. Still others, such as "Mad House" (1953), "The Curious Child" (1954) and perhaps most famously, "Duel" (1971) are tales of paranoia, in which the everyday environment of the present day becomes inexplicably alien or threatening.
He wrote a number of episodes for the American TV series The Twilight Zone, including "Steel," mentioned above and the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"; adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman and Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out for Hammer Films; and scripted Steven Spielberg's first feature, the TV movie Duel, from his own short story. He also contributed a number of scripts to the Warner Brothers western series "The Lawman" between 1958 and 1962. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker, one of two TV movies written by Matheson that preceded the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson also wrote the screenplay for Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) starring Talullah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers.
Novels include The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again from Matheson's own screenplay), and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend, which has been filmed three times under the titles The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth and once under the original title. Other Matheson novels turned into notable films include What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, Bid Time Return (as Somewhere in Time), and Hell House (as The Legend of Hell House) and the aforementioned Duel, the last three adapted and scripted by Matheson himself. Three of his short stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror, including "Prey" with its famous Zuni warrior doll.
In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a nonfantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II.
He died at his home on June 23, 2013, at the age of 87
http://us.macmillan.com/author/richar...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
January 21, 2014
Mild mannered mathematician with photographic memory whose excitement normally comes from reading genre books gets thrown into a wild real life adventure that seemingly comes from the pages of his favorite novels. Matheson's primarily known for horror, but this book was a straight up thriller with mystery elements. It was very much Matheson's book with his trademark lightning pace and a twisted ending. Very reminiscent of his short fiction. Weirdly enough, despite being only 21 years old, the book had a very dated quality to it. If not for certain chronologically appropriate aspects, this book could believably be perceived as a much earlier work. Somewhat implausible/far fetched if you overthink it, but very enjoyable light reading, very entertaining and a very quick read. The idea behind the book is eerily (almost suspiciously) similar to a certain 1997 David Fincher film, though predates it by 4 years. Recommended.
March 24, 2016
The protagonist in this story, Chris Barton, a mathematician working for the government, is often shrouded in a state of confusion, which is how I felt while reading the story. The story starts when Chris leaves his office to find his car missing, and the parking attendant swears there was no such car in the lot. He drives a borrowed car and picks up a hitchhiker, who questions Chris’s grasp on reality and makes a strange wager with him. When he gets home, there is another Chris Barton in his house, who calls the police on him. When Chris kills a man in self-defense he has to flee the country. The story only gets even weirder when he arrives in London.
The novel was certainly interesting. It made me want to keep on reading to figure out exactly what was going on. On the downside, I never really got a good handle on what was really happening. The overall strangeness of the novel left me a little ambivalent. On the positive side, it was well-written novel, as one would expect from Richard Matheson. The quality of his story telling was evidenced here. It is worth reading, but I would temper my expectations.
Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
The novel was certainly interesting. It made me want to keep on reading to figure out exactly what was going on. On the downside, I never really got a good handle on what was really happening. The overall strangeness of the novel left me a little ambivalent. On the positive side, it was well-written novel, as one would expect from Richard Matheson. The quality of his story telling was evidenced here. It is worth reading, but I would temper my expectations.
Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
October 31, 2013
Matheson's still a master of suspense in this book, and overall I was drawn in by this thriller in which a mathematician working on a secret government project is drawn into a world of intrigue. The problem is that everything that happens to Chris Barton is simply one event after another; the tension builds to its climax in the first quarter of the book and then just maintains that level of tension until the (anticlimactic) ending. I also don't buy the whole "love at first sight" thing that Chris experiences with the beautiful Alexsandra, and I kept expecting her to turn out to be working with the bad guys (or at least one of the bad guys; there are at least three groups involved in the intrigue). Fun, but not something I'll read again.
January 7, 2018
Great psychological thriller/espionage novel.
Read
July 22, 2021From 1993
I loved this... at first. So much suspense, action. I read more than halfway then I had to stop. I love suspense and action, but they need a plot.
I loved this... at first. So much suspense, action. I read more than halfway then I had to stop. I love suspense and action, but they need a plot.
June 22, 2023
“James Bond out of Kafka”
Imaginative tale of slipping reality. Reader accompanies protagonist in dizzying descent into paranoia and insanity. Maybe. Published in 1993 but apparently set in the 70s or 80s—manual transmissions, pay phones, phone books, cords on phones, etc. Many allusions to period books and movies.
Was that the kind of film this was? Maybe he wasn’t the hero at all but some subsidiary character, the poor sap who got it in the first reel.
Quibbles: Noticeable errors: Running around with rear window shot out, hoping to avoid notice; news cycle within hours of non-local events; shifting English car with right hand; Learjets across the Atlantic.
Oh, shut the f*** up, ordered his brain.
Good writing and world building, though readers younger than fifty may puzzle over references. Gratuitous profanity.
“They’ll have to figure out how to destroy the world without my help.”
Imaginative tale of slipping reality. Reader accompanies protagonist in dizzying descent into paranoia and insanity. Maybe. Published in 1993 but apparently set in the 70s or 80s—manual transmissions, pay phones, phone books, cords on phones, etc. Many allusions to period books and movies.
Was that the kind of film this was? Maybe he wasn’t the hero at all but some subsidiary character, the poor sap who got it in the first reel.
Quibbles: Noticeable errors: Running around with rear window shot out, hoping to avoid notice; news cycle within hours of non-local events; shifting English car with right hand; Learjets across the Atlantic.
Oh, shut the f*** up, ordered his brain.
Good writing and world building, though readers younger than fifty may puzzle over references. Gratuitous profanity.
“They’ll have to figure out how to destroy the world without my help.”
May 18, 2023
Not Matheson's best. Chris Barton, the main character, finds himself in a mess when he makes a bet with a hitchhiker.
A long book, and much of the story is Barton talking to himself. I found that annoying.
A long book, and much of the story is Barton talking to himself. I found that annoying.
March 8, 2010
Mathematician Chris Barton tries to head home from work, but his car is missing. At home, there's someone who claims to be Chris Barton, living in his house, who calls the police and has our hero taken into custody. The story just gets stranger from there.
Normally, I love Matheson, but this one just didn't do it for me. I found it repetitive, and well after I lost interest, I kept reading, hoping for some answers, which eventually came, and weren't out of left-field. (Score one for the book) I think the problem with the story was that the main character wasn't responsible for anything and instead drifted through the plot as helplessly as the reader. Everything is happening to him, and his reactions are all internal. This probably would have been wonderful as a short story, but it just didn't sustain over a novel-length story.
Normally, I love Matheson, but this one just didn't do it for me. I found it repetitive, and well after I lost interest, I kept reading, hoping for some answers, which eventually came, and weren't out of left-field. (Score one for the book) I think the problem with the story was that the main character wasn't responsible for anything and instead drifted through the plot as helplessly as the reader. Everything is happening to him, and his reactions are all internal. This probably would have been wonderful as a short story, but it just didn't sustain over a novel-length story.
May 10, 2008
I really liked the concept behind this book, but the narration and the way the book unwinded were just annoying. For one, the narrator kept pointing out how his scenario--being caught in an alternate reality--was like something out of a Hitchcock film, or [insert cultural reference]. How about making the story powerful enough that it stands on its own without comparison!?
The narrator was snide and often hard to sympathize with. I also felt like while we saw inside his head with detail, we were also kept from his secrets when it was convenient for the author...this guy is a mathmetician working for the government, but instead of being exposed to the nature of his work, we're always told it's the generic "top secret project." I found myself losing interest in the plot quickly.
The narrator was snide and often hard to sympathize with. I also felt like while we saw inside his head with detail, we were also kept from his secrets when it was convenient for the author...this guy is a mathmetician working for the government, but instead of being exposed to the nature of his work, we're always told it's the generic "top secret project." I found myself losing interest in the plot quickly.
September 23, 2013
This book was terrible. One deus ex machina after another, and as there were far more situations calling for rescue than there were distinct mechanisms for achieving it, I got bored pretty quickly. Had the protagonist actually made any effort to determine his own fate, I might have given a damn about him, but unfortunately he turned out to be wholly reactive, and constantly in need of a nap. The book may as well have ended with "It was all a dream after all", for all the satisfaction I got from the resolution. Unfathomable that this kind of gibberish would come from the same pen that wrote 'Mad House'.
December 23, 2024
An interesting premise and a strong start, it was too bad that the story was at least 100 pages too long and ended in the most underwhelming and disappointing way possible.
2.75/5
2.75/5
June 24, 2025
Intriguing
February 25, 2022
The real title of this book should be “where in the world will Chris Barton take a damned shower?” From the moment his life turns upside down he’s always going into bathrooms and specifically mentioning only washing his face, maybe using the toilet, and once or twice explicitly putting off a “long hot shower”. And this after he walks through hot Nevada and Arizona sands, gets blood all over him when an agent accidentally shoots himself, and rubs bathroom grime into his face as a disguise to escape some bad guys.
When the hot agent starts to seduce him, it reminds me of a Dracula comic from the seventies that I can’t find now: a woman is trying to seduce Dracula, and he is immediately suspicious of her, because, how can she stand the stench of the dead?
Chris would have figured this out too, except that Matheson keeps lamp shading Chris’s not trying to solve the puzzle. From the moment things start going bad, it is clearly a puzzle; Chris recognizes it’s a puzzle; he loves solving puzzles; people from his mother to the strange allies he meets tell him to use his skills to solve the puzzle. If he’d done the apparently natural thing, that he did all his life, and treated it as a puzzle, he would have figured things out pretty quickly. Instead, Matheson keeps giving us excuses as to why Chris doesn’t simply add up all of the strange things that have happened.
The mystery was pretty basic except for the first strange character he meets, Veering. But Veering didn’t have to mean anything. If Chris had never met Veering, the rest of the story would have played out pretty much the same, but without the overtones of mysticism Veering introduced. Chris actually edges into realizing this once, and then backs away from it.
Those who don’t tell him to use his skills to solve the mystery… tell him to work on the mathematical problem he’s been stymied on in his defense project job. Which was a big clue, if he’d ever stopped to think about it.
Matheson even subtly shows us that Chris’s psychological health is improving, such as by showing us that his appetite is improving in the second half of the book.
That is my main disappointment with the book: not so much that the solution was relatively obvious, but that the writer’s machinations to keep Chris from seeing the solution were also relatively obvious. Matheson’s a good enough writer, and a good enough writer of psychological thrillers, that he could have let Chris solve the problem and then, for example, be drawn into not believing himself, or have let Chris see the solution and discard it as not complicated enough to fulfill Chris’s subconscious desire for adventure. Even I as reader kept thinking, it’s got to be more complicated than it looks.
Instead, Chris keeps thinking, hey, I should think about what’s happened, it might start fitting together. I enjoy that sort of thing. Nah, why bother?
The end does in fact tie everything together, albeit in a movie-complication-superpowered-government-agency-acting-stereotypically sort of way. But Matheson’s always been a cinematic writer, so that’s not surprising. There’s a great idea in here, and it is a thrilling story; but I expected more of him.
When the hot agent starts to seduce him, it reminds me of a Dracula comic from the seventies that I can’t find now: a woman is trying to seduce Dracula, and he is immediately suspicious of her, because, how can she stand the stench of the dead?
Chris would have figured this out too, except that Matheson keeps lamp shading Chris’s not trying to solve the puzzle. From the moment things start going bad, it is clearly a puzzle; Chris recognizes it’s a puzzle; he loves solving puzzles; people from his mother to the strange allies he meets tell him to use his skills to solve the puzzle. If he’d done the apparently natural thing, that he did all his life, and treated it as a puzzle, he would have figured things out pretty quickly. Instead, Matheson keeps giving us excuses as to why Chris doesn’t simply add up all of the strange things that have happened.
The mystery was pretty basic except for the first strange character he meets, Veering. But Veering didn’t have to mean anything. If Chris had never met Veering, the rest of the story would have played out pretty much the same, but without the overtones of mysticism Veering introduced. Chris actually edges into realizing this once, and then backs away from it.
Those who don’t tell him to use his skills to solve the mystery… tell him to work on the mathematical problem he’s been stymied on in his defense project job. Which was a big clue, if he’d ever stopped to think about it.
Matheson even subtly shows us that Chris’s psychological health is improving, such as by showing us that his appetite is improving in the second half of the book.
That is my main disappointment with the book: not so much that the solution was relatively obvious, but that the writer’s machinations to keep Chris from seeing the solution were also relatively obvious. Matheson’s a good enough writer, and a good enough writer of psychological thrillers, that he could have let Chris solve the problem and then, for example, be drawn into not believing himself, or have let Chris see the solution and discard it as not complicated enough to fulfill Chris’s subconscious desire for adventure. Even I as reader kept thinking, it’s got to be more complicated than it looks.
Instead, Chris keeps thinking, hey, I should think about what’s happened, it might start fitting together. I enjoy that sort of thing. Nah, why bother?
The end does in fact tie everything together, albeit in a movie-complication-superpowered-government-agency-acting-stereotypically sort of way. But Matheson’s always been a cinematic writer, so that’s not surprising. There’s a great idea in here, and it is a thrilling story; but I expected more of him.
December 16, 2009
Action. Action. Action. This thriller is a motion picture waiting to happen. Thoroughly enjoyable. Richard Matheson is an icon from another time on par with Philip K. Dick or Ray Chandler. 7 Steps To Midnight is his first thriller in more than 15 years! The plot- man without an identity on the run from unknown assassins and groups is whisked around Europe by a beautiful woman- has probably been used before but is given new life by Matheson. I ignored all the signs of discovery just as the protagonist, Chris, did and followed his adventure from "his eyes."
August 9, 2013
I really really love Richard Matheson, but I really really hated this book. I won't spoil anything plotwise, but the main character is extremely whiny and unlikeable. His confusion is shared wholesale with the reader... near the end I wanted to skip to the last few pages just to find out if he had any redeeming qualities (no). The ending was so bad I would have actually preferred the "and then he woke up, for it had all been a dream" cop-out... If you want to read a book about a man fighting against the currents of cruel fate, you can do a lot better with many of Matheson's other works.
February 14, 2021
"The author who influenced me the most as a writer was Richard Matheson" Stephen King
This book kept me on the edge of my seat and hard to put down. This was my second read of this book and just as good a roller-coaster ride as the first time.
This book kept me on the edge of my seat and hard to put down. This was my second read of this book and just as good a roller-coaster ride as the first time.
November 23, 2015
I never thought the man could write a bad book, but unfortunately I was wrong. This was pure literary garbage.
October 25, 2023
Tense, action-thriller. Chris Barton is a bored, in-the-dumps mathematician who, upon returning home one early morning, finds his life in upheaval as his car is missing from the parking lot and he has to borrow someone else’s car to get home where he finds his car sitting in the driveway. Upon further inspection of his home, he finds it’s inhabited by a married couple, the husband somewhat matching his height, weight, etc. This plunges him into an adventure where he’s trying to prove he is who he is while others “disappear” or claim not to know him. He’s only kept alive as different ones realize he’s a government employee working on a Top-Secret project (that not even he’s sure is about) and he may have information that could be sold. Going from Arizona to London, then to other parts of Europe he’s struggling to keep it all together as he tries figuring out with “Seven steps to midnight” actually means. Will he discover the secret? And what exactly is it that he knows? Overall, a fun romp in the vein of the obscure TV series, “Nowhere Man,” or more appropriately, David Fincher’s “The Game.” I enjoyed it; if I were a bit younger and more into the “conspiracy” sub-genre I probably would’ve loved it. As is, it’s a good distraction that almost feels like reading “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (aka, “Total Recall”). It makes me wonder what my life would be like if I had to be James Bond for 200+ pages…
April 26, 2018
This is a fast-paced novel with all the standard ingredients of a hero-on-the-run, plot twists, contrived puzzles and sudden denouement. I quite disliked it.
Having seen the visually stunning and quite movingly made movie "What Dreams may come" based on Matheson's novel, I had high hopes for "7 steps". I have to admit that on the literary quality, this book is an utter failure. It is full of breathless italics designed to create tension without serving that purpose. On every second page, the protagonist on the run keeps talking to himself (about the same thing, repetitiously) and exclaiming, "Oh Shut Up!" I lost count of the number of "Oh God!", "God Almighty!" and "Jesus Christ!" he blasphemed (and I groaned every time the mathematician groaned). While the idea of the plot was very good, the writing left a lot to be desired, and you could see the conclusion coming a mile away.
It appears that the movie, "The Game" starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn is loosely based on this book (though I don't recall seeing such an attribution and the story setting in The Game involves a banker and his brother).
Having seen the visually stunning and quite movingly made movie "What Dreams may come" based on Matheson's novel, I had high hopes for "7 steps". I have to admit that on the literary quality, this book is an utter failure. It is full of breathless italics designed to create tension without serving that purpose. On every second page, the protagonist on the run keeps talking to himself (about the same thing, repetitiously) and exclaiming, "Oh Shut Up!" I lost count of the number of "Oh God!", "God Almighty!" and "Jesus Christ!" he blasphemed (and I groaned every time the mathematician groaned). While the idea of the plot was very good, the writing left a lot to be desired, and you could see the conclusion coming a mile away.
It appears that the movie, "The Game" starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn is loosely based on this book (though I don't recall seeing such an attribution and the story setting in The Game involves a banker and his brother).
April 29, 2018
Seems strange putting just 3 stars for a Matheson book, as he's a genius.
Sadly though, with this, the ending was predictably and quite ordinary. The set up and the events of the book are thrilling and definitely make you wonder what the conclusion will be. When the conclusion does happen, you are left thinking "ahhh ok, fair enough" with a shrug, rather than being surprised by a twist you weren't expecting.
Also, without too many spoilers, the way the relationship with the female "lead" in the story develops, is very odd and doesn't really fit with the sense of reality with the rest of it.
It's an enjoyable bit of fun, but don't expect anything too freaky at the end; it may be exactly what you were expecting.
Sadly though, with this, the ending was predictably and quite ordinary. The set up and the events of the book are thrilling and definitely make you wonder what the conclusion will be. When the conclusion does happen, you are left thinking "ahhh ok, fair enough" with a shrug, rather than being surprised by a twist you weren't expecting.
Also, without too many spoilers, the way the relationship with the female "lead" in the story develops, is very odd and doesn't really fit with the sense of reality with the rest of it.
It's an enjoyable bit of fun, but don't expect anything too freaky at the end; it may be exactly what you were expecting.
October 7, 2020
I loved this book so much. It was my 2nd Matheson novel following I Am Legend. I could not put this book down. It was everything I'd hoped it would be, exciting, curious, funny, thrilling, and really took me for a ride. It surprised me, was filled with twists and turns, an interesting romance, and lots of action.
Somewhat of a spoiler below:
Years after reading it I saw the movie The Game and thought..."Oh, I know where they got that idea from." But of course it's still very different.
I'd recommend it as a great thriller!
Somewhat of a spoiler below:
Years after reading it I saw the movie The Game and thought..."Oh, I know where they got that idea from." But of course it's still very different.
I'd recommend it as a great thriller!
July 5, 2022
I was not too sure if I would like this book after reading the preview on the dust jacket, but wow once I started reading I had trouble stopping. Richard has a great flowing style to his writing and keeps your interest throughout. What I loved most was how he kept me guessing as to what the motive was for the people interested in the main character. Spy thriller? Conspiracy? Governments competing to find out his secrets that even he did not realized he possessed. I will let you decide. I do not want to give any spoilers.
June 19, 2024
This is a frenetic action thriller by a master storyteller that drags the protagonist through head spinning adventures in multiple countries at breakneck speed. This is a book I was glad I finished because it was getting a little tiresome and frustrating as the multi layered conspiracy at the heart of the story was unveiled. Too many unbelievable occurrences to really be considered a 4 or 5 star read.
December 5, 2019
This was certainly the most thrilling book I have read in a while. Read the second half in one go because I just couldn't put it down.
The ending seemed rather sudden and short in comparison to the long and intense build-up tho and there was a love story in there that was certainly not necessary and rather unrelatable.
The ending seemed rather sudden and short in comparison to the long and intense build-up tho and there was a love story in there that was certainly not necessary and rather unrelatable.
September 14, 2021
I had been wanting to read Matheson for a while, as he has influenced many writers (e.g. Stephen King, Chris Carter), and I was not disappointed. You may think you don't know who Richard Matheson is, but you have seen and heard his stories in various movies and TV Shows (such as The Twilight Zone). As a fan of all of the above, I shall be seeking out more of Matheson's work.
March 3, 2023
About halfway through the book, I'd figured out where it was going and I waded through the rest just to confirm that it played out the way I expected.
It wasn't enjoyable. There was lots happening, car chases, exotic locations, a beautiful, mysterious woman, foot chases, fights, guns, shady characters, murder, drug-induced knockouts, but it all felt very empty and unengaging.
It could have been made somewhat better by chopping out maybe 75-100 pages to tighten it up but it would never be a great book.
Matheson had a storied career writing for the entertainment industry so it was a bummer to read this late-career whimper.
It wasn't enjoyable. There was lots happening, car chases, exotic locations, a beautiful, mysterious woman, foot chases, fights, guns, shady characters, murder, drug-induced knockouts, but it all felt very empty and unengaging.
It could have been made somewhat better by chopping out maybe 75-100 pages to tighten it up but it would never be a great book.
Matheson had a storied career writing for the entertainment industry so it was a bummer to read this late-career whimper.
January 13, 2025
I enjoyed this book. Lots of suspense, not knowing where it was going next, nor how it would finish or be explained. Unfortunately for me, the ending didn't quite live up to the rest of the story. As I was reading it, I thought it would make a great movie. Not sure the ending would work too great for a movie however.
June 11, 2019
Suspense and tension throughout. Manipulation on an intricate scale. The only man who may be able to put the disjointed events together questions his reality. He thinks he's suffering from reality slippage. Almost five stars. Ending is a bit weak for all the dammed up tension.
January 20, 2020
3.2
Entertaining. A bit too long, however. The twist at the end was pretty good. It's a page-flipper for sure, but I was getting pretty frustrated with it towards the middle and near end. Great beginning, middle was eh, ending was pretty good. Overall, 3.2 stars.
Entertaining. A bit too long, however. The twist at the end was pretty good. It's a page-flipper for sure, but I was getting pretty frustrated with it towards the middle and near end. Great beginning, middle was eh, ending was pretty good. Overall, 3.2 stars.
October 5, 2023
Solid, well-written thriller. Reads like an extended riff on a Twilight Zone premise, with elements of espionage thrown in. The big reveal was a bit of a letdown, but I enjoyed the ride while it lasted.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews