Tuesday Trilogies and Series: The Crooked Staircase (Jane Hawk, Book 3) by Dean Koontz

 

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,  

    The Crooked Staircase is the third full-length Jane Hawk novel by Dean Koontz. It is published by Bantam Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. As we careen off the cliff of the second book's revelations, Jane Hawk is on the trail of Booth Hendrickson, another Techno Arcadian hell-bent on controlling the country. Through injections, the Arcadians have devised a control mechanism that takes over its host through keywords. The adjusted person is at their mercy to commit suicide, murder, or blindly serve the Arcadians' doctrine that those who oppose them must be controlled or eliminated. Jane's husband was at their mercy and committed suicide. And her son, now in hiding, was threatened by them. Tired and low on resources, Hawk devises a plan to kidnap Hendrickson to get to another head Techno Arcadian mastermind. The road to the truth ends at the crooked staircase and a revelation that will send Jane further into the depths of the Techno Arcadians' plans.

  The Crooked Staircase continued the storyline introduced in the Silent Corner quite well. It was exciting and action-packed and introduced the series' worst villain yet in quite a gory fashion. Koontz introduced me to several characters to that I grew attached. But ultimately they were not meant to live by the book's end. I did feel cheated by this aspect, but this is my personal opinion. I give Koontz a lot of credit for making these characters and instilling in me a desire to care for their welfare. Others have died before in this series, but this set of deaths shook me. I exited this book still wanting more and feeling very satisfied overall with the progression of this series.

  Elisabeth Rodgers returned to narrate the audiobook, which is her fourth reading in the series. Her delivery of accents, voices, and intense storytelling was a perfect fit for a 1.2x or 1.5x speed. She is an accomplished narrator and I will seek out other books read by her.

  The Crooked Staircase was a four-star read for me. Regardless of my disappointment with the demise of characters that I grew to love, I was entertained and thrilled nonetheless. It had excellent character development. And the final showdown between Hawk and Hendrickson was made more exciting with the introduction of an ancient staircase. If espionage and adventure are your things, this series will be a perfect fit for you.

  

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