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Niceville

3.09 of 5 stars 3.09 · rating details · 525 ratings · 146 reviews

Something is wrong in Niceville. . .
A boy literally disappears from Main Street. A security camera captures the moment of his instant, inexplicable vanishing. An audacious bank robbery goes seriously wrong: four cops are gunned down; a TV news helicopter is shot and spins crazily out of the sky, triggering a disastrous cascade of events that ricochet across twenty differe...more

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published June 12th 2012 by Knopf (first published January 1st 2012)

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Nov 03, 2012 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: october-is-spooky, sshh-family-secrets, upstairs-neighbors

a canadian writing southern gothic?? i am there. with bells on.

so you have a town that is smalltown, but not as inbreed-y/insular as, say,in Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone. niceville is one of those southern historically-respectful towns, with its long memory of its "four families" and the war of northern aggression, and its squinty-eyed suspicion of "the outside." oh, and it might have a haunted lake and some native american curses at work.

it is a ghost story clomped together wit...more

46 likes · like · see review

May 18, 2012 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-mt-bookpile

A book that includes this passage in the first few pages is a winner: "At 1513:55, Rainey Teague is right there. At 1513:56, the kid is gone".

Sadly, that opening and the tension surrounding the disappearance of Rainey disappear in the next few chapters. There are five main strands here: Rainey's reappearance and subsequent catatonic state, the bank robbery in Gracie followed by the killing of four policemen and two reporters, the mischievous malice of Tony Brock, several disappearances of older...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars

This has to be one of the most bizzare books i have ever read. Just trying to describe it had me busting my brain for ages. Think a small American town called Niceville and a few days in the life of families and other people around it. The main part of the story is of a young boy named Rainey Teague who goes missing. Camera vision shows him literally disappearing from one frame to another. Police eventually find him in the grave of another person with the sight untampered and no explanation of h...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Ryan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: summer-reading-challenge

It didn't gel for me. The author seemed to aim at somewhere between a dark comedy of errors and a ghost(ish) story in the vein of a Stephen King in the mood to tap into the history of a creepy town populated by locals with genealogies stretching back to some fatal root. It was a bit creepy, at least in the beginning. It was a bit madcap, with coincidences interweaving the major players, of which there are many. It was a bit gory. It was a bit vague.

I found myself unable to remember who certain p...more

7 likes · like · see review

Jan 03, 2013 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 11, 2013 Melody rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had super high hopes for this book! This was what I wanted and received for Christmas this year…

EPIC FAIL.

I think you will like this book…if you are a man.
The writers voice is nearly unreadable for a woman, or at least this feminine woman. It is all details about who is driving what kind of car, and cops and robbers and some guy who takes nasty pictures of his daughters. What the author did is put three completely different stories into the same book and didn't blend them together..AT ALL.

I LO...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Jacqui rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller-mystery

The town that is the setting for Carsten Stroud's "Niceville" (Alfred A Knopf 2012) is anything but. On the surface, it's sleepy, safe, small town America, but one scratch and you expose a tawdry underside where its vile secrets are slowly--over generations--tearing the place apart.

"Niceville" is the story of an easy-going layback town with a fifty year string of murders/disappearances/deaths that comes to a head when first a teenage boy disappears, then his mother, and then, well, more townspeo...more The town that is the setting for Carsten Stroud's "Niceville" (Alfred A Knopf 2012) is anything but. On the surface, it's sleepy, safe, small town America, but one scratch and you expose a tawdry underside where its vile secrets are slowly--over generations--tearing the place apart.

"Niceville" is the story of an easy-going layback town with a fifty year string of murders/disappearances/deaths that comes to a head when first a teenage boy disappears, then his mother, and then, well, more townspeople. It takes some digging on the part of Nick Cavanaugh, a transplant to Niceville by marriage and still wondering if he made the right decision, to uncover that these mysterious happenings center around the main families in the town, one of which includes Nick's wife. The drama takes off from there.

I must say, I was thrilled to see another book by Carsten Stroud. I read everything he published ("Black Water Transit", "Cobraville", "Deadly Force" to name a few) and suddenly, there was nothing. I have no idea why he stopped writing, but when "Niceville" showed up, I grabbed it, sure it would be the dynamically-written prose and dramatic characters of old. It is, but be ready Stroud fans: "Niceville" is nothing like his other books. He displays his mastery at getting into his plot as he morphs his writing style from the dramatic pace and sound of a book like Deadly Force to the slow-moving sleepiness of a Southern world steeped in history and small-town attitudes, where everyone knows everything about everyone. I have never seen a writer so radically adapt his voice to his plot as what Stroud did here. It's clever, almost humorous without the jokes, and completely in sync with the spirit of Niceville.

"Alf, a sharp old file, picked up on Nick's mimicry and gave him a censorious frown, which Nick somehow managed to withstand."

Tell me this next snippet doesn't put you into the cozy comfort of a tight-knit town:

"The two-way radio in Coker's pocket started to buzz, like a palmetto bug in a bottle. Coker was down deep inside himself, trying to see it all unfold."

Stroud continues to wrap the reader in this lay-back feel by naming the chapters after what happens in them--"Nick and Kate Wake Up to Storms", "Coker and Danziger Complicate Things". I can't remember the last time I saw that in a novel. It's clever and effectively keeps me in the old-fashioned, other-world mood throughout the book.

I will say, it takes a while to figure out who the main characters are, so many does Stroud introduce. All have their own vignette sort of introduction with no effort to indicate who the good guys and bad guys are (you can draw conclusions. I decided the mass murderers were bad guys, but by the end of the book, I wasn't so sure). Me--as the reader--I found it hard to tell, especially since so many characters shared the same amount of facetime. I see the value of a Kindle book in situations like this: There, I could search for the character's name and see what he did in prior scenes. As it was, I had to search my often-inadequate memory. It didn't help that Stroud did a bit too much head-hopping. I'd think I was listening to one person talk and find out it was someone else entirely.

Overall, a wonderful read. Carsten Stroud continues to be the master storyteller. No wonder someone as talented as Elmore Leonard called this a 'great read'. Mr. Stroud, welcome back.(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Carol Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

As I am always one to support Canadian authors, especially Canadian authors who write psychological thrillers, this seemed a likely choice.
The cover jacket has a review which states basically the reviewer couldn't put it down right from the first 35 pages. Coincidentally, I had the same problem! Although it wasn't a problem because luckily, it was a weekend and I did not have to work, so I could devote as much time as I chose to finishing this.
It did not disappoint. Set in a sleepy, southern tow...more

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May 09, 2012 Patty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Niceville
By
Carsten Stroud

Quick summary...

A young boy disappears on the way home from school...this seems to set the pace for about a million other odd and unexplainable things happening in the town of Niceville.

My thoughts...

This book contains a whole lot of crazy. Fabulous, fascinating, heart pounding crazy!!!
Seemingly...in the beginning...the chapters do not seem all that connected. But as I got deeper and deeper into the heart of this book...there were tons of amazing connections. The charact...more Niceville
By
Carsten Stroud

Quick summary...

A young boy disappears on the way home from school...this seems to set the pace for about a million other odd and unexplainable things happening in the town of Niceville.

My thoughts...

This book contains a whole lot of crazy. Fabulous, fascinating, heart pounding crazy!!!
Seemingly...in the beginning...the chapters do not seem all that connected. But as I got deeper and deeper into the heart of this book...there were tons of amazing connections. The characters are all odd...some of them delightful...like Delia Cotton. Others are just mean and despicable...like Tony Bock...wife abuser. The chapters have the most delightful names...like Merle Zane Meets The Woman In The Forest or Tony Bock Has An Epiphany. The writing is absolutely delightful...filled with lovely words that sort of sing!

However...this is not a light fun filled book. Something dark and sinister is lurking in Niceville and has been there doing very bad things there for a long long time.
I think that pretty much says it all. It seems also that anyone coming close to this sinister thing...this badness...puts themselves in the gravest of dangers. The central issue seems to have begun back in the time of the Civil War. It involves four connected old Southern families. It involves a young girl's honor...and of course it involves vengeance and perhaps even redemption. And it involves this bank robbery that has profound ramifications...dishonest cops, and the FBI, and computer geeks and pornography.

What I Loved...

I loved the characters, especially Nick and Kate. I loved the badness of the bad guys. It was awesome! I loved the suspense and excitement of each chapter. I loved the scariness...because although it was scary...I could handle it and it sort of made sense. I loved Mildred Pierce the Maine Coone Cat and the fact that no animals were harmed in this book! I loved the horse...the huge majestic horse that added another realm of otherworldliness to this novel.

This was a big huge juicy scary fun novel. I can even see it as an amazing movie!
And I will never look at crows and mirrors in the same way ever again...
(less)

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Sep 09, 2012 A. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: discovered, fiction-and-literature, sci-fi-fantasy, horror, library-book

I didn't really know what I was getting myself into with this one. I read about it, some quick little blurb somewhere, and it seemed like it could be a "lose yourself in here" kind of book. I think the quick synopsis is something like "boy suddenly disappears, like caught-on-camera disappears. town in a tizzy. something's weird in niceville."

I thought to myself, sure! that sounds good to me...
Now that I've read it (rather quickly), I find myself having a difficult time really describing it. So,...more
I didn't really know what I was getting myself into with this one. I read about it, some quick little blurb somewhere, and it seemed like it could be a "lose yourself in here" kind of book. I think the quick synopsis is something like "boy suddenly disappears, like caught-on-camera disappears. town in a tizzy. something's weird in niceville."

I thought to myself, sure! that sounds good to me...
Now that I've read it (rather quickly), I find myself having a difficult time really describing it. So, the little two-liner above isn't inaccurate. it's just not accurate either.

Niceville is like reading a Stephen King without the gore. Or maybe a Grisham with ghosts. Or maybe nothing at all like Stephen King or John Grisham because it just doesn't fit.

It was well written. It was VERY well populated with characters. It was intriguing. It was funny (surprisingly). It was a horror story, kind of, but not gory, really. It was a thriller, maybe even psychological, but maybe it's more of a crime story. It would make a good crime tv series. Especially since I know that there are more coming (yay!).

So, what's it about? It's about this town, Niceville, where things aren't so nice. (that's not surprising, I don't think, from either the title or the cover image). There's a cliff and a sink hole that seem to make people act ... odd. There's a missing boy, then something happens (i hate spoilers), and then the boy is back. Kind of. Or maybe not.

But then there's also the bank robbers. There're the pervie side-characters. There's the genius techie. There're Nick, Kate, and Kate's dad. There's Glynis Ruelle. And there's Claire Mercer. There's also so much more. Again, I was impressed with the amount packed into this book, particularly because it read so quickly. I find that a rare skill -- the ability to introduce a reader to a high number of characters, to allow the reader to really get to know the characters, and to do so while moving the plot(s) along quickly and effortlessly.

I highly recommend, but I also warn it's dark. If you want something light & fluffy... well, if you want something light & fluffy I'm probably not your girl. But this is on the darker side of dark. But not squeamish. Not nightmare. Just ... you know, that slight discomfort in the quiet 2 a.m. when everyone else in the house is asleep...

FOUR of five stars.(less)

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Nov 19, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: meikes-bücher, mystery-thriller, supernatural

Es gibt Polizisten; es gibt ehemalige Polizisten; Und es gibt ehemalige Soldaten, manche von ihnen sind jetzt Polizisten. Sie alle sind größtenteils austauschbar: harte Kerle, die den Tod nicht fürchten und nach einem Lungensteckschuss am liebsten eine Zigarette rauchen und einen Whiskey trinken. Sie sind die Figuren in Niceville und alle verstrickt in eine Spirale der Gewalt, die kein Ende kennt. Hauptprotagonist aber ist das Böse selbst.
Und bald ahnen wir, dass es etwas damit auf sich hat, das...more Es gibt Polizisten; es gibt ehemalige Polizisten; Und es gibt ehemalige Soldaten, manche von ihnen sind jetzt Polizisten. Sie alle sind größtenteils austauschbar: harte Kerle, die den Tod nicht fürchten und nach einem Lungensteckschuss am liebsten eine Zigarette rauchen und einen Whiskey trinken. Sie sind die Figuren in Niceville und alle verstrickt in eine Spirale der Gewalt, die kein Ende kennt. Hauptprotagonist aber ist das Böse selbst.
Und bald ahnen wir, dass es etwas damit auf sich hat, dass die Vermisstenrate in Niceville höher liegt als in anderen amerikanischen Städten vergleichbarer Größe.
Stroud will mit diesem Roman viel: ein hartgekochter Thriller mit vielen Verwicklungen und ein übernatürlicher Roman in einem; ständige Szenenwechsel zwischen den zahlreichen handelnden Personen. Fast jedes kurze Kapitel endet mit einem Cliffhanger und der Leser muss sich gedulden, bis der Autor den jeweiligen Handlungsstrang wieder aufgreift und er erfährt, wie es weitergeht.
Während der Teil, der sich um den Banküberfall dreht, einschließlich der Nebenschauplätze durchaus spannend ist, wirken die übernatürlichen Elemente des Romans auf mich oft eher aufgesetzt und teilweise deplaziert. Der auf dem Buchrücken gezogene Vergleich mit Twin Peaks hinkt, aber die Hinweise auf Filme der Coen-Brüder und Tarantino sind nicht ganz unangebracht und zeigen, dass dieses Buch wie ein Film vor dem Auge des Lesers abläuft.
Wer das Buch nicht kennt und sich die Stimmung vorstellen möchte, stelle sich Szenen aus „No Country for Old Men“ vor. (Obschon der Verlag mit einigen großen Namen wirbt, hat er eine Serie nicht genannt, die ebenfalls deutliche Parallelen aufweist: die Hörbuchreihe „Darkside Park“; scheinbar dem Dumont-Verlag kein Begriff, aber vielleicht dem ein oder anderen Leser)
Der Roman hat aus meiner Sicht einige Schwächen, die schwer wiegen:
Die Personen des Romans haben mich nicht berührt, sie bleiben eindimensional und bieten keinen Anlass für Mitgefühl. Die Handlung des Romans bleibt lange Zeit irritierend bis verworren. Durch die ständigen Wechsel der Erzählstränge verliert der Leser selbst dann, wenn er das Buch in großen Blöcken liest, leicht den Überblick. Außerdem fand ich es oft frustrierend, dass die Spannung, die mit jedem Kapitel aufgebaut wird, einfach in der Luft hängen bleibt, weil es viele Seiten dauert, bis man erfährt, wie es weitergeht. So etwas funktioniert im Einzelfall, aber nicht, wenn Abschnitt für Abschnitt Spannung aufgebaut wird, der Leser aber schließlich manche lose Enden nicht mehr zusammen fügen kann aufgrund der zu sehr ineinander verschachtelten Handlung. Ein Thriller ist nicht die Sorte von Buch, die man mit dem Bleistift in der Hand zu lesen pflegt, obschon das bei „Niceville“ helfen würde. Insbesondere die Verwicklungen und Zusammenhänge zwischen den vier Gründerfamilien haben sich mir auf den ersten 400 Seiten nicht erschlossen.
Aber es ist auch Positives festzustellen: Das Buch liest sich schnell und ist durchgängig sehr spannend. Trotz der genannten Schwächen im Aufbau habe ich es bis zum Ende gelesen, weil ich wissen wollte, wie es ausgeht.
Der Verlag hat zwei Fortsetzungsbände angekündigt. Wer wissen möchte, wie es in Niceville weitergeht, wird dazu also ab Februar 2013 noch ausgiebig Gelegenheit bekommen.
(less)

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Jul 16, 2012 Rich Rosell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Niceville may look like an idyllic Southern town, but there's weirdness aplenty here. Stroud populates this town with a batch of hard, violent characters and enough convoluted, intertwined family history that sometimes it was tough to remember who was related to who. But amidst child abductions, kiddie porn, bank robberies and corporate espionage there's trouble from the "outside", and in Stroud's world that means some kind of alternate plane of existence or ghosts or something else entirely.

I'...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Brittany rated it 2 of 5 stars

Rating: 2.5 stars

Favorite Quote: "Come what may."

This book was extremely disappointing for me. I felt like it had so much potential but there were so many times that I did not even want to continue reading. The first chapter was excellent. It grabbed me right from the first sentence and hooked me with the disappearance of a young boy on his way home from school. Literally he is there one minute and gone the next. Already there were some spooky supernatural elements to the story including a haunt...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Scrittevolmente rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Devo dire che il mio giudizio su questo romanzo è stato altalenante, ballerino, credo di averlo cambiato almeno tre volte nel corso di un solo pomeriggio.
Ho letto diverse recensioni su Niceville, e per quanto io stessa abbia incontrato qualche difficoltà, le ho trovate esageratamente negative.
Partiamo dal presupposto che l’autore è stato spacciato come il nuovo Stephen King. E già qui le aspettative dei futuri lettori erano alte, una buona tecnica di marketing per acchiappare quel target che si...more Devo dire che il mio giudizio su questo romanzo è stato altalenante, ballerino, credo di averlo cambiato almeno tre volte nel corso di un solo pomeriggio.
Ho letto diverse recensioni su Niceville, e per quanto io stessa abbia incontrato qualche difficoltà, le ho trovate esageratamente negative.
Partiamo dal presupposto che l’autore è stato spacciato come il nuovo Stephen King. E già qui le aspettative dei futuri lettori erano alte, una buona tecnica di marketing per acchiappare quel target che si fida ciecamente delle pubblicità. Un punto a favore della Longanesi che riesce sempre a gabbare i boccaloni, e direi che finché gli riesce, è giusto che lo faccia.
Tralasciando ciò, il libro ci mette un po’ a ingranare: i primi capitoli sono spezzettati e si spartiscono diversi personaggi che si amalgamano, si incontrano e si allontanano l’uno dall’altro, che aumentano in maniera esponenziale costringendoci a tenere a mente una tiritera di nomi da associare a situazioni a volte troppo elaborate; si tratta in pratica non di un’opera per passare il tempo svagandosi ma qualcosa che richiede attenzione durante la lettura, occorre concentrarsi e figurarsi bene le scene, perché molte informazioni – anche importanti per la trama – ci vengono gettate nelle frasi senza quel pathos che ci si aspetterebbe, la narrazione non è teatrale né tantomeno soffocante, ma è liscia, scorrevole e a volte scivola sull’ironico senza preavviso, indi per cui è consigliato essere molto presenti a se stessi.
Devo ammettere che, una volta entrata nell’intreccio, mi sono sentita coinvolta e piacevolmente spronata a continuare la lettura, maledettamente curiosa di sapere come sarebbe finita la vicenda. O le vicende. Già, perché i personaggi hanno tutti un filo conduttore – che è la stessa Niceville – ma ognuno di loro ha un percorso proprio, intrigante e stimolante quando si vuole, ma di certo queste sottotrame non hanno contribuito a mantenere alto l’interesse nei confronti della questione principale, che invece avrebbe potuto rivelarsi ancora più coinvolgente se solo fosse stata esplicata meglio, in maniera meno sfocata e più diretta.

Per leggere la recensione per intero: QUI (less)

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Dec 10, 2012 Shelley Fearn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, manly-fiction

I thoroughly enjoy books that are hard to peg into any specific genre. Niceville is one such book. It begins with the disappearance of a young boy in the southern town of Niceville. The security cameras pick him up in one frame and in the next he is gone. You would think -- ah! it's going to be a Stephen King kind of book. But wait...

There's a bank robbery with a sniper taking out 4 policemen and a well timed traffic accident as a decoy. Then there's the disappearance in the robbery of a top sec...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Maria Grazia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biblioteca, horror, narrativa-nordamericana

Niceville è una delle tante cittadine infestate che l'America propone, un'altra Castle Rock, dove la gente, anche quella dall'animo migliore, a furia di stare a contatto con il male finisce con l'avere qualche inconfessabile perversione, e dove la droga scorre a fiumi per sopportare l'inconfessato orrore quotidiano.
Il libro non sarebbe male, se non fosse che voleva essere un libro di Stephen King e la cosa non gli è riuscita.
E' finito nelle mani di uno scrittore, bravo per carità, ma a cui manca...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Papercuts1 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: killer-thrillers

NICEVILLE didn't live up to my expectations of an intense thriller with significant horror elements. Instead, it turned out to be a slow burning, complicated (and admittedly complex) crime/mystery story with subtle horror on the side. The exposition takes up half of the book (I listened to the unabridged audio version), and new characters and/or events are introduced every other chapter. It's very difficult not to lose track of who's who and how they relate to each other. NICEVILLE ended up bein...more NICEVILLE didn't live up to my expectations of an intense thriller with significant horror elements. Instead, it turned out to be a slow burning, complicated (and admittedly complex) crime/mystery story with subtle horror on the side. The exposition takes up half of the book (I listened to the unabridged audio version), and new characters and/or events are introduced every other chapter. It's very difficult not to lose track of who's who and how they relate to each other. NICEVILLE ended up being the first audiobook that had me take notes and relay them into a mindmap. Otherwise, it world have been too confusing.

It takes some endurance and a lot of concentration to make it through that prolonged exposition. Many of the dialogues, IMO, could've been shortened. Once the characters were introduced it simply wasn't necessary to showcase everyone's attitudes and have them squabble so much. Sometimes, less is more.

Also, the text on the dustsheet is a bit misleading: The story revolving around Rainey Teague's disappearance, and - at its core - the 'thing' that lives in the Crater Sink and corrupts almost everyone in Niceville turns out to be hovering on the sidelines throughout most of the book. Instead, a complicated bank robbery and it's sprawling fallout take center stage, making NICEVILLE more of a crime story than a mystery/horror thriller. Only during the last third of the book does the story come around and return to it's original creepy premise.

One has to keep in mind that NICEVILLE has been announced to be the first installment of a trilogy. While that doesn't excuse the overly lengthy first half of the book, it does at least explain it. I had to keep reminding myself to look for the bigger picture, beyond the ending of NICEVILLE and that did, indeed, level out some of the flaws of the book.

At the end, some questions are answered, but many remain open. The threads begin to weave into an intricate, impressive net of cause and reaction that reaches deep into the history of the families of NICEVILLE.

The book wasn't nearly as gripping as I had expected and took quite a while to grow on me. I still wouldn't say it's worth all the elated praise it's getting. But then again, I don't read a lot of horror/mystery fiction, and certainly not this lengthy Stephen King kind (and it DOES remind me of King's DARK TOWER series). Which means NICEVILLE doesn't cater to my usual tastes.

But the book's premise and some of its main characters (above all, Nick and Kate Kavanaugh) were intriguing enough to have me put the sequel (which is awaited for 2013) onto my TBR list.

A word on the German audio version: The narrator, Michael Hansonis, wasn't the best pick. He has a nice, husky, cool-blooded gunslinger voice. But he also doesn't have a lot of range, so that the characters, whether male or female, often sound similar. Which isn't helpful when the cast is so large and the story so confusing in itself. A little unfortunate in choice.(less)

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Sep 06, 2012 Georgette rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: awesome

Great ending justifies how hard it is to get into the entire middle of the story.

1 like · like · see review

Jun 14, 2012 Mark is currently reading it

So pleased to find this book, a perfectly engaging thriller for reading in my currently very limited spare time, as I direct "Twelfth Night" (and learn my own lines, and write the music).

So pleased to discover Carsten Stroud, not a newcomer, but new to me.

This one features plugs on the front from Peter Straub and Elmore Leonard, and that's a pretty pitch-dark evocation of what's inside: Crime and other human horror, flavored with a taste of the murky mystic to keep you intrigued and guessing....more

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Apr 09, 2012 Melissa Rochelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, mystery-suspense, read-2012, scifi-fantasy, horror

Niceville is not a nice place to live. That's what I gathered from this book. When I first read the book's description, I thought it was just a mystery/thriller...I didn't catch on to the horror elements until someone said, "There are dead people that come back to life."

OK...yes. There is a mystery to solve, but it is SCARY. At one point, I thought about putting the book in the freezer.

I didn't really understand why some of the characters were introduced or why some events occurred, but the ove...more

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May 29, 2012 Linda Bsss rated it 5 of 5 stars

Niceville Is Anything But Nice And Those That Lived There Knew That There Were Strange Happenings But Refused To Acknowledge It. There Was Something Evil That Lurked Underneath Niceville And The Native Americans All Knew To Stay Away From Creator Sink, A Black Void That No One Knew For Sure How Deep It Went. Niceville Had The Highest Missing Peron Stats In The Country And Those Missing Were Rarely Found! The Story Started With A Banck Robbery In Gracie And As The NPD Roared After The Robbers, A...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Rebecca Martin rated it 2 of 5 stars

What the heck IS this book? So many genres criss-cross here and the tone is so hard to peg that I never figured out why this book was even written. It has--in no particular order--the supernatural, people with Dickensian names (Mavis Crossfire, and others), brutal modern violence of the gun variety, a setting that seems like it is out of time and place, though people drive "Cayennes" and moms get zoned out on Oxy and it is in the "Deep South," and places with names that even Dickens would shy aw...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Ariel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

This novel is a hot mess set in an old Georgia town. I love a good ghostly horror yarn along the lines of Stephen King. This did have elements of that but it was mixed up with a bank robbery that didn't seem to have anything to do with the horror element.

The novel starts off with a bang when a child goes missing after staring into a spooky old mirror on his way home from school. His mother goes missing, possibly have jumped into some crater lake where things go in but don't go out, and his fathe...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Leah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: thrillers-mysteries, paranormal

Rating: 3 of 5

A boy, walking home from school in broad daylight on a busy street, vanished (literally!) and an old southern town with a dark history were the two reasons I chose Niceville. Had I know it was the first in a trilogy (does anyone write standalone books anymore?!) I might not have borrowed it.

That's not to say I was disappointed with Niceville just ... underwhelmed.

Stroud hooked me from the first chapter (crafty devil) and ended each chapter with just enough to keep me turning the pa...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Andy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I might have given this book 4 stars based on the writing, but I wasn't that crazy about the story itself. The author put a few too many balls in the air in my opinion, and he let a few drop at the end. There were minor storylines that the story could have done without altogether and some major ones that left loose strings untied. Characters like Andy Chu could have been eliminated altogether to leave more room to develop (and properly conclude) the main storylines. The characters were good and...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Christine rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a strange, suspenseful tale of mystery with supernatural undertones. The story line was dark and while strangely addictive was also very confusing. There were so many characters and subplots and strange events going on that even after reading some sections for a second time, still left me confused. I was lost as to when the characters were in the present day or some past time event. I did like the snarky, dry humor of some of the characters but I am not willing to re-read the entire nov...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Larry Rogers rated it 3 of 5 stars

The nice town that isn't nice at all is a staple in horror literature (see "Salem's Lot" or "The Dome" by Stephen King), but it's a hard trick to accomplish. Stroud usually writes in a clear and straightforward way (see "Lizardskin," for instance), but he attempts a gothic, archaic tone here and it doesn't quite work. In addition, there are too many strands: disappearances, bank robberies, shootings, suicides, and a Chinese group searching for a magic item. The explanation doesn't bring all of t...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Sofia rated it 5 of 5 stars

I won an ARC of this from First Lit giveaways.

4.5 stars rounded up to five. An intense, crazy, wicked fun read combining crime, mystery, horror,and the supernatural. The story masterfully weaves together the disparate lives and histories of Niceville's residents--good and bad, past and present. Cliffhangers abound throughout, compelling the reader to keep reading. The writing itself is exemplary in its crackle and wit. I had some trouble following the characters and plotlines at first, but they...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Albert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Niceville is a good ghost story. Niceville is a good mystery. Niceville is a good thriller. Unfortunately Niceville is all of these things and I believe if Carsten Stroud had wanted to write just a ghost story it would have been a really good ghost story. If he had wanted to write a mystery about a bank robbery than it would have been a really good mystery thriller. But instead he tried to write all of these in one novel and it came out just good.
A good novel with wonderful writing but could hav...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Dana * rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, crime, death, magical-realism

Not my typical read, so this review is not from a mystery/thriller fan.
I was intrigued by the trailer, and was enjoying the first half of the book. I am more a fan of horror and supernatural genres. There was that appeal in the beginning of the book.
Mysterious disappearances, apparitions, crimes to be paid for.
But I really struggled with the last half of the book. The stories were unwinding to their 'logical' end, but it just wasn't captivating anymore. I thought the resulting plot was a bit con...more

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About Carsten Stroud

Carsten Stroud is the author of the New York Times bestseller Close Pursuit, and the award-winning Sniper's Moon, both set in the New York City Police Department. He lives and writes in Thunder Beach, Ontario, Canada.

Awards:
* Arthur Ellis Award Best First Novel (1991): Sniper's Moon
* Arthur Ellis Award Best Novel (1993): Lizardskin

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