Creepers

by David Morrell

Book Overview

On a cold October night, five people gather in a run-down motel on the Jersey shore and prepare to break into the Paragon Hotel. The once-magnificent structure is now boarded up and marked for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593153570
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.0" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Great fun read!

This book will keep you turning page after page. I picked this book up after reading first blood and rambo 2. I found I really enjoyed Morrell writing style and figured I would give this book a read after such high reviews. This book pays off big time. Just when you think you know what’s going on, it switches directions on you. So many twist and turns and surprises revealed you won’t be able to stop.

A superb novel that blends the historical fiction, mystery, thriller, and romance genres

I have decided that I want to be David Morrell when I grow up. Morrell is perhaps best known for having created an American icon, John Rambo, in his novel FIRST BLOOD. If Morrell was receiving royalties from every screenwriter who has used Rambo as a springboard template for an action movie, then he would have more money than Bill Gates. But Morrell is much more than a creator of action heroes. He is a quiet-spoken gentleman who possesses an incredible amount of knowledge about a wide range of topics; he is also able --- perhaps better than any other individual I know --- to explain the complex in easily understandable terms without insulting the listener's intelligence by dumbing down the topic. Additionally, over the past 30 years, Morrell has penned enough thrillers to earn a groaning bookshelf devoted entirely to volumes of his work, most of which are of such quality that it constitutes an injustice that he is not quite the household name that his best-known creation is. So, at a career point when lesser writers would be phoning in an annual work with predictable regularity, Morrell has bestowed upon the reading public CREEPERS. As with the best of his work, it blurs the lines that separate several genres; while ostensibly a thriller, it is also a mystery, a work of historical fiction, and, yes, a romance. It is the thriller element, however, that will keep you reading well into the night, sleeping with the light on, and out of dark and deserted places where you shouldn't be anyway. Creepers are people who explore abandoned buildings that ostensibly are off-limits. Morrell's fine novel begins with four such individuals who are about to enter the legendary Paragon Hotel. The Paragon was once a destination hotel in storied Asbury Park, New Jersey, but has been abandoned for decades. The once proud building is slated for demolition, and Professor Robert Conklin wants to lead this group of urban spelunkers through it before the fateful date. The quartet is joined by Frank Balenger, who is introduced as a New York Times reporter seeking a story but who has a story of his own --- as does just about everyone, and everything. For, you see, the Paragon Hotel has many stories of its own, and they are waiting in the rooms, behind closed doors --- like that one, and that one, and...well, you really don't want to open that one. You'll regret it if you do. There's this one room with a suitcase that you'll never get over. I'm not really sure how Morrell managed to do this, but CREEPERS takes place over the course of about eight hours. This is approximately how long it will take the average reader to read the book --- which you will do, without stopping, once you have started it. If CREEPERS isn't nominated for a ton of awards, if it isn't optioned for a film, and if it isn't a book that people will be talking about 10 years from now, then there is something seriously broken in this world. Highest possible recommendation. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartla

Totally Awesome w/ major, unexpected twists

This is the first time I've ever read Morrell and I really enjoyed the book. I was thinking that it was pretty predictable, but then it took a turn I certainly didn't expect. I would have loved where I thought the plot was going, but this turn was pretty darn good as well. Great book.

GO EXPLORING WITH CREEPERS

CREEPERS BY: DAVID MORRELL Like many people, my first exposure to David Morrell was through the movie FIRST BLOOD based on his first novel which featured John Rambo. The movie was so strong that I had to read the book as well as any other book by this popular and very gifted action/suspense novelist. He added to the story of Rambo by writing the novelizations to both sequels to the ever popular legend. Many, if not all of his books read like a film in that the pacing flows at a break-neck speed, thrilling, frightening and just plain thrilling the reader. Morrell's newest thriller is CREEPERS from CDS BOOKS. While being a shorter novel than most it packs just as strong a punch from page one. If any novel of David Morrell's ever deserved to be enjoyed on the big screen it is CREEPERS. Every scene is written so vividly that the reader can see it clearly in the mind's eye. CREEPERS is a novel about secrets, desperation, and above all else; action. Frank Balenger joins a group of urban explorers, also known as Creepers. Creepers are people who enjoy exploring abandon building such as hospitals, office buildings and hotels. For this group of explorers the Paragon Hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey is the penultimate adventure for the Paragon has a sordid past dating back a century. From murder to suicide, abuses to mobsters, the Paragon has seen it all. Frank Balenger, along with history professor Robert `Bob' Conklin, Vinnie Rick and Cora enter the very secure abandoned hotel to see history as it was before it meets the wrecking ball. Who will survive the Paragon? Read CREEPERS and find out. It's worth the price of admission. At the back of the book there is an interesting essay about the history of groups known as creepers. The resources section lists many links to go to if readers want to know more. REVIEW BY: RANDALL WIGGINS 9/06/05

Something's In The Dark!

Frank Balenger claims to be a journalist interested in the urban art of "creepers", people who break-and-enter into old, abandoned buildings to see what they can see. Operating under the same constraints as professional cavers and with much of the same equipment, "creepers" invade an abandoned structure with the intent of taking pictures and leaving only footprints to mark their passage. Only the building Frank and his five new collegues invade is the Paragon Hotel, a luxury experience designed and built by a hemophiliac trapped within his own world that wanted to experience as much of the outside world as he could. Frank's lie about being a journalist is only the first of several that fall apart during the eight hours of hell and horror waiting for the "creepers". David Morrell is known around the world for creating the character John Rambo. Author of over 30 novels, several of them feature or television movies, Morrell used to be an English professor that turned professional thriller writer. Many claim with his creation of Rambo that he invented the modern male action adventure novel. He writes from experience, from the literary field as well as hands-on training in hostage negotiation, evasive driving, firearms, and combat maneuvers. The novel is a slam-bang adrenaline rush to the finish line that knocks the reader for a loop every time the plot seems clear. With simple, cutting prose, Morrell introduces readers to the urban art of "creeping", a mysterious millionaire who built a hotel to satisfy his own cravings, and more twists and turns in character relationships than a toboggan ride down an Olympic run. The information comes quickly and sparsely, just sips that go down when needed and never interfere with the ticking clock the author sets up in the first chapter. Unfortunately, some of the other reviews give too much away. This is simply one of those novels impossible to talk too much about without spoiling so much. CREEPERS is a white-knuckled adventure of a read. Easily understandable, engrossing, and ennervating, CREEPERS is not written for the reader who simply wants to while away a few minutes there. The plot, the characters, and the breakneck action will nail a reader to a chair until the ride is over and the last surprise is out of the box.

Morrell at the top of his game

As you get older, it's reassuring to note that your favorite writers are maintaining the high standards that attracted you to their work in the first place. Writers who fall into this category, folks like Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block and Donald E. Westlake, continue to produce quality work book after book, story after story. Another member of this elite club is David Morrell, who, with the publication of Creepers, shows that he still has what it takes to satisfy even the most demanding thriller reader. Morrell's latest chronicles eight hours in the lives of five "creepers", urban explorers who break into abandoned or condemned buildings to experience their historical and architectural delights first hand. This particular group, comprised of Professor Robert Conklin, high school teacher Vincent Vanelli, graduate students Rick and Cora Magill, and reporter Frank Balenger, has chosen the Paragon Hotel in Asbury Park as a target, accessing it via a series of underground tunnels. Once inside, the situation deteriorates rapidly as the group discovers the Paragon is not the abandoned building they thought it was. The perils presented by others in the building, and by the decayed hotel itself, place them all in mortal danger. Before the night is through, some inside the Paragon will discover hidden depths of courage and resourcefulness; some will be revealed as liars and imposters; some will die. Morrell does an excellent job of accounting for almost every second of the eight hours of his story, as, in fact, it will take most readers about that long to read it. The immediacy of the book is one of its greatest strengths--readers quickly start to feel as if they are looking over the shoulders of the team, almost like a sixth member. Besides its immediacy and intimacy, the book is packed with surprising twists and turns, as the group is forced to think on its feet, reacting to the numerous threats they encounter. And it's not only the dilapidated hotel that yields surprises, as several of Morrell's well-drawn cast of characters harbor their own secrets. It's difficult to pin any particular label on Creepers. At heart a thriller, it also can be categorized as a gothic, horror, or even a time travel novel. It's not cliché to say that Morrell gives readers one hell of a ride, as it's a perfect description of the feeling this book gives you--exciting, captivating and suspenseful, you'll no doubt find yourself thinking Creepers would easily lend itself to a variety of adaptations, whether it be as an action film, a video game, or virtual reality park attraction. Suffice it to say that the man who has alternately been dubbed the "father of all modern action novels" and "the mild mannered professor with the bloody minded visions" has once again proven his considerable mettle, delivering yet another book sure to satisfy loyal fans and win him some new ones as well.