I was lucky enough to read a copy of THE SILENT CORNER, the first book in the Jane Hawk series just before I read this book. Since THE CROOKED STAIRCASE is book three have I only missed THE WHISPERING ROOM. However, I felt reading this book alone worked fine, despite that. I was very glad that I at least had read book one because I felt that I would have been a bit lost without the knowledge from that book. And, that's my advice to readers, start from the beginning.

THE CROOKED STAIRCASE starts off strong, just like THE SILENT CORNER did. It has the kind of book opening that I always love to read when it comes to thrillers. Jane Hawk is still on a mission to find and destroy the people behind her husband and other people's suicides. She has her son safely hidden away with two friends she trusts completely and now she is going after the next person on the list to find the ones masterminding this. In a sidestory, we also get to meet two twins that are next one the Hamlet list, the next to die.

This book is pretty thick and now and then did I feel that the pacing slowed down. Not that the book was bad, it just didn't have the same flow in the story that THE SILENT CORNER had. And, as much as I enjoyed Jane Hawk's story it is the twins' story and Jane's son story that moved me most. Jane is tough and I think one feels that she will be alright, while her son and the twins are more in danger of getting killed, or in Jane's son's case, used as a bait.

Dean Koontz doesn't hold back the punches and one can't be sure in this book who will live and who will die. Then, came the ending. BAM! I mean it, it's a bloody annoying cliffhanger ending. When the story started to really pick up the pace and be really interesting, then it ended. Yes, I will definitely read the next book!