SOLVED. Horror novel set in modern Hawaii [s]

[Chris]

I would guess it was written sometime in the 90s. I had a paperback copy and was 2-300 pages I would suppose. I know it was set in Hawaii and it included a fairly rich mansion. It may have been haunted. One particular scene I remember hopefully the most clear was a guy was driving along this cliff road and the door panel burst open with hundreds/thousands of nasty spiders and he must have freaked out and went off the cliff. That's how I recall it anyway.
It was definitely in the horror genre with ghosts/demons/spiritual horror sort of thing.
Any help?

[Kate]

I wonder if it's something by John Saul, he lives in Hawaii and some of his more recent books might have taken place there. Here's at least one:
The Presence

[Chris]

Thanks! I'm not sure if that is the right one, but I looked through the summaries of a number of his books and that sounded the closest. I will read that one and see if it was right.

[Scott]

Sounds like it could be Fires of Eden by Dan Simmons

[Chris]

Thanks Scott, I'll give that one a try also. Is that the book that had some mention of Mark Twain? When I was trying to find the one I'm looking for there was one that mentioned that but I'm pretty sure there was no mention of him in the one I am searching.

[Scott]

Dan Simmons uses a ton of historical references (see The Crook Factory, Drood, The Terror), so I believe so (it's been awhile since I've read this).
Actually I just looked at some of the reviews, and I don't think that Twain was directly referenced. Rather, Simmons used the journals that Twain had written during his travels to Hawaii as inspiration - his main character had an aunt who had traveled to Hawaii, and that character was referencing the aunt's journals, not Twain's. So no actual mentions of Twain.
Either way, Dan Simmons is well worth trying. He's far and away my favorite author.

[Chris]

great, I will definitely take a look!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Chris, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Chris]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Chris, are you still looking for this or did you find it?"

I actually kind of forgot about this. I never got around to reading the ones Kate and Scott mentioned, so I'm not entirely sure. The thread could be closed and I'll just assume it was a book by Dan Simmons or John Saul.

[Tab]

I think this book is Demon Fire

I skimmed the book on OpenLibrary. On pages 83 - 85, there is a scene with spiders in the car. The scene ends with the van crashing through the guardrail.

You can check it out here
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL824164...

and, you can read a tiny section on Google Books
http://books.google.com/books?id=E7Qk...

[Chris]

That sounds about right! I'll get a hold on it from that open library and take a look. Thanks! If it is correct, I will close out this thread.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Don't delete any of your posts, though. They can be helpful to other people looking for the same book.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Just come back and tell us that is it. We like to know what books people have been searching for and found. It encourages those of us who are still patiently waiting for our books to get found.

[Chris]

ok, will do. still waiting on the queue on OpenLibrary

[Chris]

I just got the book from OpenLibrary and checked the pages that Tab mentioned. Yep, this is definitely the book I was searching for.
Solved! Thanks to everyone.
Also thanks for revealing OpenLibrary, I didn't know this was a resource. Awesome!

[Shrike]

I just had to say thanks for posting this thread. I read this book when I was in high school and it was really good. I have been sitting here trying to remember the name and I couldn't. A desperate google search yielded this thread.