REVIEW for The Shimmer

A big thank you goes out to Vanguard Press for sending me a copy of this book to read and review!

TITLE: The Shimmer

AUTHOR: David Morrell

GENRE: Thriller (sort of)

RATING: 4 Stars

I have read some of David's Morrell's previous books and I have to say that The Shimmer is quite different from what he has written previously.

In The Shimmer, we meet our main character Dan Page - as the storyline opens, he is in a high-speed car chase that goes very wrong and he ends up witnessing the car he was chasing colliding with a gas tanker - which, in turn, explodes killing the people involved. Fraught with guilt Page goes home, only to discover that his wife is no longer there. Finally, he tracks her to Rostov, Texas which is a bit of an odd tourist attraction - all UFO and flashy lights like Rostov - except that there are really odd lights in the night sky and his wife seems mesmerized (zombie-like) attracted to these lights.

As all the gaping tourists stare at the night lights, some crazed man starts shooting at the lights and Page ends up finding himself right into another horror story.

Yep, The Shimmer, although a thriller at its core, is also much more than its usual components of murder and good/bad guys. This time, Morrell has chosen to write a novel that incorporates many varying genres into one majorly scary and suspensful storylines. The Shimmer is a combination of techno/murder thriller as well as part sci-fi and horror. I was not sure what to make of all of this - I am use to a much more direct type of "thriller" writing from this author. But I have to say that Morrell actually pulled it off.

As Page digs deeper and deeper into these mysterious lights - it turns out that the governement (US) may very well be alot more involved and may be hidding some very scary secrets.

The plotline holds up beautifully and Morrell pretty much managed to loop everything and every character together beautifully. I had absolutely no idea where he was heading with this storyline which kept me guessing from the first sentence to the last.

I really enjoyed this one and I think Morrell should write more of these books.