レビュー要約

• 時間制限のある人質事件を軸に、緊張感を最後まで保つ構成と、危機に置かれた子どもたちや捜査に関わる人物の切実さが評価されている。

レビュー

• 読み終わるまで本を置けない。

  仕事と家事の合間に、１ヶ月１冊のペーパーバックを読むのがいつもの私のペースでした。時には１ヶ月以上かかることも。が、この本は５日で読み終えました。自分でも驚きました。ラストは、こみあげるものを押さえることができませんでした。心からストーリーを楽しめ、後に少しのほろ苦さとなんとも言えない暖かさが残ります。 何度も読むと思います。

• WALKERのベスト！

  女レポーター・モリー作品の中でベスト。涙が止まりません。何せハイジャックされたスクールバスが11人の子供を乗ったままは土の中に埋められる。元ヴェトナム帰りの運転手が唯一の大人として、幼い子供達を守り、力づけていく。そして暗闇の中で子供達が年長をリーダーとして、生き抜いていく姿は感動物です。 モリーはバスジャックした狂信的なカルトリーダーの真相に迫ります。超オススメ！

• Great novel - got it from UK despite Covid-restrictions, thx!

  Really great page turner, unable to put it down.

• Very Suspenseful!

  This is the first time I have read a book by Ms. Walker and it won't be the last! I really wanted this book in a Kindle book but the price was much too high for my limited income, but I found a good used physical hard back book I could afford, a little over $3, so that is what I ordered. And the book was in perfect condition. My only problem is that I kept tapping the side of the pages to make them turn--LOL! Back to the story. This is one of the most suspenseful books I have ever read--especially because it involves children. The children's lives are held on by a thread by a mad man--a religious zealot of a cult. He reminds me a lot of Charles Manson because he is so insane and rambles like Mansion does. And he has tremendous power over his followers just like Manson. He is able to make his followers do hideous killings of other people--especially people who want to leave his cult. The story centers around our heroine, Molly Cates, a reporter. Molly happens to be divorced from a police officer who is working on the hostage situation with the children. Unlike most divorced couples, they have more than a friendly relationship--which works well in the story. About the only thing that they really disagree on in the story is about a dog who has post traumatic syndrome. But somewhere along the story the dog turns into a real hero for Molly. That's all I am going to say about Molly and the dog, you'll just have to read the story to find out what happened. Molly works very hard during the story and puts her investigative skills to good use to find out information to help law enforcement with trying to rescue the children and the bus driver who is being held captive with the children. There are many likeable characters (outsiders) in the story who help supply information that will help with the children's rescue. With all the many twists and turns during the story, the suspense just keeps building the closer it comes to the time limit that that Mordecai the zealot has put on the lives of the children. It is toward the end of the story that you find out why the title "Under the Beetle's Cellar" is significant to the story--it is one of the keys to rescuing the children. I have not quite finished reading the story, I am racing toward the end (close). The main reason I am reviewing this book now instead of later, is because I wanted to post my review while everything was still fresh in my mind. If you like action novels and novels with a lot of suspense, then this is the novel for you. I am so glad I bought it even though I could not afford the Kindle addition--sigh.

• Brilliant suspense

  Under the Beetle's Cellar was recommended to me as an example of one of the best suspense this person had ever read. At first, being a parent, I did not want to read about a school bus full of children and a bus driver being kidnapped -- 1) it's too horrific to contemplate much less spend time reading, 2) how could an author engage me with a Vietnam veteran bus driver being trapped with these children? But I kept reading to see what made Mary Willis Walker her "fav" suspense. And then I met Molly Cates, veteran crime reporter and a woman who at one time had interviewed Donnie Lee Grimes, aka Samuel Mordecai, adopted at birth and raised to be the twisted leader of a cult similar in scope to the Branch Davidians of Waco fame. Mary Willis Walker tells stories within stories in this fantastic novel. She takes poetry from Emily Dickinson, passages from Kurt Vonnegut, and Revelations, and shows how these passages have influenced and in a real sense saved Mr. Demming during his captivity and warped Grimes's way of thinking to become who he is. Walker uses one of Dickinson's poems to play a covert part in the story -- to help Demming get a message to the FBI. As for Molly Cates investigative smarts -- brilliant! Loved the three dimensional way she was with her husband and daughter and when you finish the book, you can swear she's a real person. Wish Ms. Walker was still writing.

• Beetle's Cellar

  great writing, kept me on the edge of my seat until the end

• WALKER IS ONE OF THE USA'S BEST MYSTERY WRITERS!

  I purchased Ms. Walker's BOOKS (The Red Scream, Zero at the Bone and Under the Beetle's Cellar) when published in the 1990's! Like so many readers', you read a good book - pass it on to a friend - and it is never returned..... I purchased the books for my Kindle (20 years later!!) and discovered I enjoyed them as much as I did the first time! In fact, once again, I had to put Under the Beetle's Cellar aside due to my eyes filling with tears. Anyone reading this review - GO FOR IT!!!!!

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