Guardian: A Novel

by John Saul

Overview

"All the right scares in all the right places." The Seattle Times
A telephone rings in the dead of night with shocking news for single mother MaryAnne Carpenter: her friends the Wilkensons are suddenly, inexplicably dead, their only child, Joey, a sad and silent adolescent and MaryAnne's godchild, abruptly orphaned. But as MaryAnne rushes with her family to the Wilkenson's ranch to embrace her young charge, disturbing questions mount. Was it an accident that killed her friends? Or murder?
Now, as winter transforms the ranch into a place of blinding, dangerous storms, a series of horrific murders, killings that suggest a raging animal and defy solution by the local police, draw ever closer to MaryAnne and her young family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780449223048
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/02/1994
Edition description:	REISSUE
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	4.24(w) x 6.73(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

John Saul’s first novel, Suffer the Children, was an immediate million-copy bestseller. His other bestselling suspense novels include Perfect Nightmare, Black Creek Crossing, and The Presence. He is also the author of the New York Times bestselling serial thriller The Blackstone Chronicles, initially published in six installments but now available in one complete volume. Saul divides his time between Seattle and Hawaii.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1 
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Guardian"
by .
Copyright © 1994 John Saul.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Editorial Reviews

Despite the high death toll generated by some pretty nasty weapons (claws, fangs, shotgun, fire poker, pitchfork), there's not much terror here because banal details and very ordinary people overwhelm the fear factor. MaryAnne Carpenter, trying to cope with the return of the loutish husband who earlier deserted the family, heads off to Idaho with her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son in order to comfort her recently orphaned godson. Joey Wilkenson's parents have died in mysterious accidents and his mother, MaryAnne's best friend, had named her Joey's guardian. Joey seems an average 13-year-old, if given to understandable bouts of moody withdrawal. But the apparently peaceful mountain valley becomes menacing when a camper is brutally killed, perhaps by an animal, and MaryAnne feels increasingly isolated as winter approaches. Rumors of a wild mountain man or sasquatch circulate, and Joey starts to exhibit strange behavior. Further horrifying events occur, but their final explanation is too pat. A sequel is threatened, but hopefully Saul ( Darkness ) who has done better, will reconsider. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Not long after MaryAnne Carpenter's marriage falls apart, she gets a call from Idaho telling her that both her best friend and the friend's wealthy husband have died in mysterious accidents. She must fulfill her role as godparent to Joey, the couple's 13-year-old son (whose real father isn't the dead man--a very important detail). So, taking her two children with her in order to get them away from their father, she departs for the vast mountain-valley ranch the dead couple kept up pretty much as a private natural preserve. When she learns that as Joey's guardian she will enjoy a hefty income, it seems she's found a good new home. But tragedy still stalks the place as campers in nearby grounds are killed; MaryAnne glimpses a huge, shadowy figure lurking around the ranch; and Joey, a strange, lonely boy, repeatedly wanders away at night for hours. As usual, Saul tells a tale of terrors that seem to be supernatural but turn out to be the fault of evil science. It's 1950s grade-B sf-horror-flick stuff, and Saul does it well enough to keep pleasing his fans.

Ray Olson