Dean Koontz is my favorite author and Jane Hawk is a great, strong female character. I loved The Whispering Room and couldn't wait for this one. I just wish there had been a little more action. My mind wandered a bit during the interrogation of Booth at the funeral home.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for this title - thank you! I was so enthralled in this plot that I actually became suspicious when a car drove too slowly down my street. I was panicking over the fate of Jesse and Gavin and Travis - will they be ok? Read the book! Hopefully Koontz will wrap this up in the next installment because I don't think I can take anymore!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2339507505

I wasn't so sure that I was going to think much of this book because I didn't particularly like the 2nd in this Jane Hawk series. I WAS WRONG!!!!!!! This is a fast paced, action filled thriller that I had a hard time putting down.

The Jane Hawk series must be read in order to be able to weave your way through effortlessly. I am looking forward to #4.

My thanks to Netgalley and Random House/Bantam books for this advanced readers copy.

Didn't know this was from a series and I haven't read the rest yet... so can't read this... sorry!

Koontz never disappoints! The Jane Hawk series is my favorite work of his. So hard to put it down. I couldn't wait for this next chapter of her story and I'm so thankful that I didn't have to, thanks to Netgalley!

While I enjoyed the first two books of the Jane Hawk saga, I was disappointed in “The Crooked Staircase”. It reminded me of a “filler episode” of my favorite television series, where the showrunners don’t want the plot to progress much so they throw in whatever stalling mechanisms they can to lead up to a penultimate and finale climax episode.

There’s a secondary plot involving writer twins that has nothing to do with Jane except to waste pages to show what we already know – the bad guys can inject lethal weapons to alter brain activity and consciousness. It was never clear why the twins were weapons, how their writing was so subversive to the bad guys. So many pages are wasted on this storyline so that by the time we got to their final manipulated rampage, I had lost interest.

My major complaint is the mood of doom and gloom throughout this novel. While the previous books had me cheering for Jane and her clever tactics, in this book she goes as low as they have to gain intel from one of their own. We spend hours in the car with an Arcadian leader whining about his “mommy issues”, and I lost interest again. When we get to the “crooked staircase”, I admit I skimmed through just to get to the end to see if Jane gets out intact.

While the Washingtons, who are safely harboring Jane’s son, Travis, are supposed to be highly intelligent, military trained and always alert, they do something that makes no sense and is totally uncharacteristic, that it appears to just be thrown in with no motivation except as a plot device to hurry things along.
I am unaware of how long Koontz is planning to keep this saga going. As trilogies seem to be the current trend, I thought this was the end. Not so – warning to readers. There’s another cliffhanger at the end.

Thank you NetGalley for offering this ARC. I wish I had liked it better.

Another great addition to the Jane Hawk series - looking forward to the next!

I didn't realise that I had not read book 2 in the series but as I had really enjoyed book 1 and I started to read this one, it was good enough that I didn't want to put it down and go get book 2...So I kept reading and enjoyed the book.
A great techno/thriller story that continues where book 2 leaves off and thankfully book 4 will continue from where this one ends - incidentally I was not happy with the ending - a cliff hanger like the season ending of your favourite tv show and a long wait until the next episode is available.....

As per the other books, there is quite a bit of violence in this book so not for the faint of heart!
Now I'm off to go read book 2 and hopefully it won't be too confusing knowing what the future holds!

I have mentioned in other reviews how big of a Dean Koontz fan I am. So I am not going to bore you all with my gushing over his books. Let it be known that I love his books. The Crooked Staircase is no exception. I was on the edge of my seat while reading it. Very rarely does a book make me sit on the edge of my seat and keep me there the entire book.

The Crooked Staircase is the 3rd book in the Jane Hawk series. The plot is continuous from the other books in the series. Jane is tracking down the top member of the secret cabal that is orchestrating murder/suicides all over the country. She has tracked down the top two members of this cabal and she is determined to find out what started this. Meanwhile, Gavin and Jesse are still protecting Travis. But, the cabal has found out where he is hiding. It is a race to rehide Travis. With the cabal breathing down their necks, Gavin and Jesse hide in the last place that anyone would expect.

I like Jane. I thought she was pretty good at keeping two steps ahead of the cabal. She had what seemed like an endless supply of burner phones, identities, and cars that didn’t rely on GPS. I did liken her to Wonder Woman during the middle of the book. She didn’t quit. She also was like quicksilver. The cabal couldn’t catch her, even though she did have a few close calls.

Can something become even eviler? Because the cabal reached new heights of evilness in this book. I can’t even explain it because I am still reeling from some of the things that they did. I loved it. I also liked that the real figurehead, Anabel, was introduced. I am looking forward to seeing where her character is going and what she will do.

Travis, Gavin and Jesse’s storyline was as good as Jane’s. Gavin and Jesse were tough cookies. They were prepared for anything. I wasn’t ready for what happened in their storyline. I can’t get into it but I was pretty shocked by what happened.

The twins’ storyline confused me at first. While I was confused by the storyline, I was upset when it ended. Very upset because I thought the twins had a chance. But, there is also something in that storyline that made me go “Hmmm“. It was at that point where I understood why the author chose to include them in the book.

I did wonder where the characters from book 2 disappeared too. I thought that they would be mentioned. That drove me nuts. I hope that they are in the next book. Because I need closure.

The end of the book was great. Everything was left up in the air. The author left me wondering “What will happen now”

What I liked about The Crooked Staircase:

A) It is scary intense and action-filled

B) Well developed characters

C) Great plotlines

What I disliked about The Crooked Staircase:

A) The twins storyline. Didn’t get it at first

B) Booth’s revelations. I actually felt bad for him

C) The dropped storyline in the beginning.

I would give The Crooked Staircase a rating of Adult. There are graphic violence and language. I would not recommend anyone under the age of 21 reading this book.

There are trigger warnings in The Crooked Staircase. They are: talk of past child abuse, torture, and implication of rape. If you are triggered by those, I would recommend to not read the book.

I would recommend this book to family and friends. I would include a note about the triggers. This is a book that I will be rereading.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House – Ballantine, and Ballantine for allowing me to read and review The Crooked Staircase.

All opinions in this review of The Crooked Staircase are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Jane Hawk is still fighting the bad guys and the bad gals, but book #3 was some what predictable, and seemed to be a set up for book #4. I will wait to read reviews before continuing onward with book #4 - disappointing given how strong the first two books are in this unusual fast paced, character driven series.

While I loved The Silent Corner and enjoyed The Whispering Room, this third Jane Hawk adventure definitely underwhelmed me.
While Jane is still attempting to unmask and defeat the people responsible for the death of her husband and so many others, the poor woman did not seem to make much progress in her latest adventure. Frankly, not much happened in this book. You got the know a character, and then they died. Repeat. Jane tracked down a bad guy, fought with them, and barely escaped with her life. Repeat. There weren't even any mind-blowing revelations or insane/fun layers of the conspiracy uncovered to keep my attention.
I was disappointed, but am willing to give Jane another try when The Forbidden Door (book 4) comes out. Here's hoping she regains her mojo.

Yeah!!!! The Jane Hawk crusade has not ended!!!! Jane will live on into another novel!!! Sorry to spoil things.

Dean continues Jane's crusade to end the Evil Empires aspirations to control the world. Jane's work leads her into the gates of Hell, but she keeps going, while she hopes her son is still safe. The Evil Empire has many tools, but can't seem to pin Jane into a corner.

Dean has added a few characters that just add to the story line.

If you've read the first two Jane Hawk novels, you will want to pick up a copy of The Crooked Staircase. It is Awesome!!! If you are new to the Jane Hawk series, start with the first novel and you'll have many hours of enjoyable reading.

Dean Koontz has the gift of storytelling. As I read his books I can see the story taking on substance until I can clearly see what he is describing. His descriptions are fresh and my vocabulary grows as I pause to look up unfamiliar words. "Sociopaths were good actors. Lacking all feelings other than self-love, they were nevertheless able to fake a panoply of emotions that in other people were real.... Sociopaths were as efficient in the human ocean as sharks in their water world. They were humming engines of need, untroubled by any doubt about their rightness and imbued with such a strong sense of superiority that they could not conceive that failure might be a possibility. They were empty vessels." Absolutely delightful writing!

Our protagonist, Jane Hawk, is a strong woman who knows she is fighting evil. She's looking for definitive proof that her husband did not willingly kill himself, leaving her a widow with a five year old son to raise alone. Jane knows the suicide rate has risen dramatically in America. She has discovered a conspiracy whose members call themselves The Arcadians. They believe they can build a Utopia by erasing (killing) certain people who are likely to achieve positions to influence others with wrong ideas. It seems they don't have a problem with killing eighty four hundred people a year in the U.S..

The horror in The Crooked Staircase is not supernatural and that's what makes it so horrifying. This may disappoint some people but the evil that people have inside themselves and how they use it to victimize others is scary enough for me. There is a cliffhanger ending. I think Mr Koontz subscribes to the old saying, "always leave them wanting more." I definitely want to know what happens next.

I’ll preface this review by saying Dean Koontz is my favorite author and I’ve read nearly 40 of his novels.

Unfortunately, he missed the mark with The Crooked Staircase.

As usual, I have made an effort to avoid spoilers, but simply knowing my opinion in a couple areas could be considered a spoiler, so proceed at your own judgment.

The third installment of the Jane Hawk series, this is the worst of the first three novels. I think the biggest way Koontz missed the mark was with pacing. This sucker moved slow. Things didn’t really pick up and move until the 40% mark. Up to that point, I waffled back and forth on quitting.

The other issue was that I think Koontz was trying too hard to produce a literary-style work with fancy prose and extensive scenery descriptions. Nearly every scene began with extensive scenery descriptions. The pace was also bogged down by long descriptions of travel routes by Jane’s pursuers; it just wasn’t relevant to the plot.

But I stuck it out, only to be pissed off by the ending.

After the 40% mark, things slowed down again. From there, the pacing was very much like a roller coaster: fast-slow, fast-slow.

Undeterred, I slogged through.

The plot continues to follow Jane, whose son is sheltered with close friends while she battles those who seek to take over the world through mind-control mechanisms. Sound familiar to the Frankenstein series? Yeah, there’s that, too.

(Smaller issue while we’re here: Jane’s son, Travis, is much too mature in action and vocabulary for a five-year-old.)

When I reached the end, I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to throw my kindle across the room. I spent all that time slogging through the varied pace only to arrive at an ending that was unfulfilling to say the very least. There’s no closure, only what is supposed to serve as a hook for the next novel. Which, for me, is not the way to end a book.

Unfulfilled, dissatisfied, displeased, and frustrated accurately summarize my feelings when I reached the end of this one, and I’m pretty sure I won’t be returning to the Jane Hawk series.

Liked:
- Honestly, not much in this one. Usually a fan of Koontz’s prose, I can’t even say that this time.
- That it followed the plotline begun in the first two novels.

Disliked:
- PACING!
- Prose–it felt Koontz was striving to be literary, rather than just letting the words (and pace) flow.
- Too many extensive descriptions of scenery/setting and travel routes.

Special thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this title.

Another good book in this series! Can't wait to see what's coming next.

These just keep getting better and better as the series goes on! I can't wait for the next one, It already has me on the edge of my seat!

Dean Koontz will always be one of my favorites. Nothing will beat the Odd Thomas series but I recommend all his books.

I've loved this series, and this book didn't disappoint! The main character is a smart female - she occasionally asks for help, but can definitely take care of herself! The only disappointment is when you get to the end and realize you're going to have to wait a while for the next book!

Another great read in the Jane Hawk series as our heroine continues the fight against the tyranny of the megalomaniacle, But, you are going to hate the abrupt ending.

Not for me, but with his legion of fans of this series I'm sure Dean Koontz will be able to carry on. This is the third book in the Jane Hawk series with the books being published at a very smart clip, book one was just published in June 2017, which is maybe why readers don't seem to mind the incredibly abrupt cliffhanger ending to this one. This is my first Koontz novel, therefore my first Jane Hawk, so I did mind the ending.

There is a confederacy of the rich and the powerful who are using an injectable chemical that takes over the portions of a person's brain that controls their actions and will. After the person has fulfilled their use to the Arcadians the now virtual puppet is given the command to commit suicide - and so they do. This chemical injection is given to anyone seen as being useful or a danger to the utopia society being planned by the rich and powerful baddies. In this case, young adult twins, a brother and sister, who write books. Yep, them authors are always a danger, especially the ones who write fiction. One thread of the book follows the escape attempt of the twins, another follows Jane as she plots and plans to find those responsible for injecting her husband and forcing her to hide her son and spend her own life hiding from her former employers, the FBI.

The book moves fast, is action filled, has clearly defined good versus bad actors and has a cliffhanger ending. Never fear, book #4 should be releasing shortly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Bantam for a digital galley of this novel.