I read this book a long time ago but I remember really loving it. I want to read it again! I read KoKo right afterwards.

”There is another world, and it is this world…”After coming off of Mystery, two Blue Rose-related stories in Houses Without Doors, and a reading of A Prayer For Owen Meaney, Peter Straub was apparently so geared up to write this novel that he began writing it on a legal pad while sitting with his family in an airport departure lounge waiting to leave for a vacation to France, while his family looked on in amazement and his daughter Emma cheered him on. This novel shows it—Straub was so tuned

An alcoholic homicide detective in my hometown of Millhaven, Illinois, William Damrosch, died to ensure, you might say, that this book would never be written. But you write what comes back to you, and then afterward it comes back to you all over again.In 1979, an American author named Peter Straub became a mainstream writer of horror when he published GHOST STORY, the novel that would thrust this previously not-well-known author into the same grimy, dark spotlight that had shone upon Stephen Kin...

Author Tim Underhill, who has appeared (sometimes) in the two previous books of the Blue Rose trilogy, returns to his hometown to help an old acquaintance from Vietnam. John Ransom's wife has been murdered in a manner reminiscent of a killer from the past, who may also have been responsible for the killing of Underhill's sister. In collaboration with Ransom and amateur sleuth Tom Pasmore, Underhill peeks beneath the skin of a Midwestern town to expose the corruption festering there.This novel is...

3.5 stars I picked up this book at a thrift sale back in 2015 because I recognized the name Peter Straub, but then after coming home found out that it was the third book of a trilogy and promptly left it untouched on my book-shelf for 5 years. It took the lockdown and me running out of books to read that made me pull it out. After ascertaining that it could be read as a stand-alone, and reading Koko and Mystery wasn't necessary to understand The Throat, I proceeded. The Throat is a page-turner,

A LARGE (697 pages) tome, mostly a complex, multi-layered mystery, combined with some grossness (he DID write "Ghost Story," and collaborated with Stephen King on "The Talisman" and "Black House," both of which I highly recommend, after all) and both childhood and Vietnam trauma, vividly depicted. Complicated relationships, corruption, interesting characters, and a very satisfying ending, indeed overall a very satisfying read. Someone else did say that the description of computer savvy from 1994...

This is the final book of a trilogy. This can be read as a stand alone but one might miss some little subtexts if the first two books were not read. In this one, Tim gets a call from a friend back in Millhaven. His friend's wife has been murdered and it looks like she is a victim of the Blue Rose murderer which we explored in the first book of this trilogy.This was a terrific conclusion to this trilogy. I would classify this novel as a murder mystery but with more depth. Sure, there is the journ...

4 Stars This isn’t the easiest book to read with multiple layers and a lot of gore! Not for the faint hearted!The only reason this didn’t get more star is because I felt it was slightly stretched out to make 700 pages and I think he could’ve cut at least 100 pages from this. I fully enjoyed this book – but needed breaks between the read! There are plenty of twist and turns to keep you attention throughout! There are also some sexist depictions of women in this book which is a little off putting....

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve completed Peter Straub’s epic work, the centerpiece of his career, his Blue Rose trilogy. In true Straubian fashion, these books are challenging and dense and unsettling — I am sure a lot of the subtext went right over my head. Will I reread this trilogy? You betcha ass.The Throat is oft considered the best of the trilogy, and while it does wrap the cycle up perfectly I think I do prefer the setting and plot of Mystery. But don’t get me wrong: it’s close! I’ve given all

I thought the Blue Rose trilogy was slightly underwhelming overall, but can't argue that the final installment delivered a bolder, more convincing and intricate mystery than the prior two volumes. What makes THE THROAT more compelling than MYSTERY or KOKO is that it reveals important twists about the first two volumes in the first twenty pages of the novel and forces you to gain a different perspective on them throughout your reading. It even reexplores themes like trauma, which KOKO was pretty

The Throat is an often brilliant thriller that is concerned with big questions about identity, the past and our memory of it, the demons that shape us and the demons we carry with us. It is intricately structured, densely layered, full of eerie and haunting dreams and flashbacks, and is impressively thoughtful in its take on murder and vengeance. As a third book in a trilogy, it also must extend and wrap up storylines started in the preceding novels Koko and Mystery – and for the most part it de...

Excellent murder mystery with twists that keep you guessing to the very end. Tim Underhill is always a fun read. Love him!

“Because dead people are just like you and me, they still want things. They look at us all the time, and they miss being alive. We have taste and colour and smells and feelings, and they don’t have any of those things. They stare at us, they don’t miss anything. They really see what’s going on, and we hardly ever really see that. We’re too busy thinking about things and getting everything wrong, so we miss ninety percent of what’s happening.” Initial Thoughts Let's get things straight. I a

This culmination of the Blue Rose Trilogy deftly mixes mystery and horror genre with literary metafiction. A bit overlong, but overall quite excellent.

The Throat brings Peter Straub's Blue Rose trilogy to an end. A massive volume, spanning almost 700 pages, it requires a solid investment of time, attention and emotions. The curtains are slowly rolled up, revealing a stage set in Millhaven, Illinois, a fictional city modeled on Straub's own hometown of Millwauke. Although very loosely related, the three novels - Koko, Mystery and The Throat do form a coherent whole, along with certain short stories from Houses Without Doors and Magic Terror. Ev...

Amazing. Take the best Stephen King you ever read, and then throw in Apocalypse Now, Sherlock Holmes, and more twists and turns than a twisty-turny thing. Can't rec the "Blue Rose" trilogy enough.

The third book in the Blue Rose trilogy...Holy crap this book affected me. The whole trilogy did actually. It's dark, really dark, so be warned. But it's damned effective.First off, you really should read Koko and Mystery first. Technically the book stands alone and explains what you need to know at the beginning, but I feel this book is far more effective if you've read the first two books. Second warning, this book does a bit of metafiction at the beginning that will make you question the firs...

This complex novel is the third in the loosely connected trilogy which began with Koko and continued with Mystery (one of my favourite books). It is told from the viewpoint of Tim Underhill, a main character in Koko, and features Tom Pasmore, the protagonist of Mystery. Tim is summoned back to his hometown by an old friend, John Ransom, who he met through football games at high school but went on to encounter in Vietnam, where it was clear that Ransom had gone to some very dark places indeed. He...

Fantastic. Straub at his best.

The Throat. Peter Straub 1993. (Blue Rose #3)..I could just direct you “mark’s review” on goodreads for this as it sums up most of my thoughts, feelings and questions about this series; but that would be lazy so here goes....This third book brings favourites Tim Underhill from ‘Koko’ and Tom Pasmore from ‘Mystery’ together, books which I originally didn’t think were that closely related, and really ties everything up... but by no means perfectly..I feel like I have an interesting relationship wi...