I am surprised by all the positive reviews this book received on Amazon. It starts out like an eerie Twilight Zone episode with a carnival barker who can guess people's age, weight, and profession. He is visited by a mysterious and dangerous stranger who leaves quite an impression from him. It is then years later and Rebecca Clay is being stalked by the same stranger who wants to know what happened to her missing father. Rebecca hires a private detective, Charlie Parker to protect her. From there it goes downhill. The next 150 pages or so are brutally boring as Parker tries to defend Rebecca from the stranger (we learn his name is Frank Merrick) and also is interested in learning about her missing father. His encounters with Merrick have no suspense nor do his brushes with a group of men that have the nickname "hollow men." The hollow men wear bird masks and apparently attack children. Merrick warns Parker to butt out of everything and not to ask about "the project" (of course he will).

If that sounds exciting, it really is not. The author's style lulled me practically to sleep and I didn't care about the fate of Rebecca's father and there was virtually no suspense regarding the project. I forced myself to finish this book thinking I was missing something but discovered the only thing that was missing was a well told story.

Although not quite up to Connolly's previous offerings, The Unquiet is an entertaining easy read. Very suspensful with many twists and turns. Parker continues to discover his inner self and to examin why he is the way he is. I look forward to Connolly's next book.

This book wasn't so bad that I quit reading it, but the more I read, the more depressed I became. Almost every significant character is either a killer or a child molester or both and almost everyone lies. Even the "hero" is a dark, brooding individual, haunted by his first wife and daughter and estranged from his second wife and daughter apparently because wife #2 sees some potential in him for violence. He blames himself for the deaths of his first family but how and why is never really explained. In fact, there alot of things hinted at here but not really explained. For example, there is a character who may or may not be Satan, voices which may or may not be ghosts of his first wife and daughter, and vaguely perceived "Hollow men" who may or may not be demons or lost souls.

The plot involves a ring of child molesters and a psychiatrist who may or may not have aided them and now may or may not be dead. The daughter of this psychiatrist hires the detective to protect her from a very violent and determined ex-con searching for his daughter, who may or may not have been a victim of this ring of sex abusers and may or may not be dead. Long after the initial reason for his involvement has become moot, the detective continues to risk his life, reputation, and livelihood to solve the case. His motives often seem mixed and somewhat muddled.

At various times the detective hires several "thugs" to provide extra "muscle" and these characters provide what little humor there is is in the book, but are only marginally involved. As the book continues, the body count mounts and the dirty truths get revealed. It would have been interesting to see what Dean Koontz would have done with a similar plot. A book about child sexual abuse is bound to be somewhat "dark," but Koontz would most likely have been able to balance that with more humor and some positive, uplifting characters with some redeeming values. As it was, when I finished the book, I felt like I needed a drink and a bath.