Locked Doors Praise
Crouch quite simply is a marvel. LOCKED DOORS is as good as anything I've read all year, a stay-up-all-night thriller that will have you chewing your fingers down to the nub even as you're reading its last paragraph. Highest possible recommendation.
BOOKREPORTER
[R]oller-coaster tempo with a kick-butt ending…there is no doubt that LOCKED DOORS is a thriller…when Crouch is good, he's really good.
REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE
Crouch's story has much going for it, as does his considerable skill as an author. The story grips and propels the reader, while Crouch makes the ride hypnotic with beautiful Carolina moons over tide-smoothed beaches. One wonders if a poet turned to horror, would this be the result.
CHARLESTON POST AND COURIER
Well-written, heart-thumpingly exciting, and nearly perfect in its execution. This is a book that will fly by if you let it, its seductively short chapters flashing past in an adrenaline rush of reading. But it's worth slowing down, if you can, to enjoy some of Crouch's prose and the lovely, subtle way he sometimes has of getting information across.
DEBRA HAMEL - THE BIBLIOFILES
LOCKED DOORS is a tautly written thriller that drags the reader into a chilling world and doesn't let go...as readers, we should be pleased.
DAILY CAMERA
Fast-paced and scary.
CALGARY SUN
Crouch writes a nicely turned character, puts them front-and-center and then rains holy hell upon them until you think your head is going to explode.
THE AGONY COLUMN
Eerily seductive, creepy characters lend an atmosphere of implicit danger...rapid-fire action. No holds barred, this is terror served raw, the menace palpable, even after the last page is turned.
CURLED UP WITH A GOOD BOOK
Rare is the thriller that truly makes the reader want to "read just a few more pages before I stop." But such is the case with Blake Crouch's latest novel...LOCKED DOORS is definitely a great summer read that will have you wanting more.
I LOVE A MYSTERY
LOCKED DOORS, then, is on a big level a novel of redemption…great stuff, wonderfully written.
THE NEW LONDON DAY
LOCKED DOORS is a fast-paced thriller with intelligent writing and scenes that get the danger sensors pumping.
DURHAM HERALD-SUN
Blake Crouch is a young thriller writer with a talent for creating really spooky characters and plots that take terror to a new level.
TORONTO SUN
Gut wrenching...the writing is tight, the plots exciting, the suspense unending...What Crouch does about as well as anyone is give the reader that sinking feeling in their gut. In LOCKED DOORS, I actually shuddered when certain events unfolded. Crouch tops my list.
OTTAWA SUN
Chilling...clever and lightning-paced...Blake Crouch has penned a sequel that will keep you reading long past your bedtime.
BOOKPAGE
Crouch's world will appeal to James Patterson fans...there's blood spattered from Manteo to Murphy by the time Crouch is finished.
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
When the story moves to the foggy, desolate Outer Banks, Crouch is at his terrifying best. You can feel the cold mist on your skin and see the creepy shadows barely illuminated by a distant cabin's flickering light. A great horror novel takes you to a place so scary and vivid as to make you thankful you are not actually there, and Crouch does this well.
DENVER POST
This is a new millennium, and Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates and Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter have to be outdone. Crouch comes close.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
If you don't think you'll enjoy seeing how Crouch makes the torture and disembowelment of innocent women, children and even lax store employees into a thing of poetic beauty, maybe you should go watch Sponge Bob...Hannibal Lector is a kitten compared to Crouch's villain. [LOCKED DOORS] is as suspenseful, chilling and macabre a novel as I've ever read.
WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL
With characters eerily unique in fiction and a narrative with something fresh to say LOCKED DOORS is a surprising sequel that will fascinate the genre reader. This author shows every sign of stretching for a long, long time.
CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE
LOCKED DOORS is just as slick and twisted and entertaining as DESERT PLACES, perhaps even more so. Crouch's chief talent lies in dropping his characters into untenable, sanity threatening situations, and then letting all hell break loose.
HENRY W. WAGNER, HELLNOTES
This tautly written, very scary thriller quickly grabs the reader by the throat. Leave the lights on; Luther may be out there.
BOOKLIST
The action is nonstop.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wild and furious....exhilarating...Andrew is an engaging and compelling victim/hero/villain/escapist. Balancing smoothly and provocatively off his new found belief in the evil that men can do is the beautiful and naive detective Violet King, a woman who still believes more in the goodness of mankind than the malevolence that is closer to the truth. And between these two characters lies page after page of stunning suspense.
NEW MYSTERY READER MAGAZINE
A gripping tale...Crouch's ability to create living, breathing and riveting characters with complex personalities is one of his best gifts to readers. Crouch is a talented writer who is compiling an impressive body of work.
FARMINGTON DAILY TIMES
This is one of the best and most realistic sequels this reviewer has read in several years...Blake Crouch writes a chilling thriller in which readers will consistently check to ensure they LOCKED DOORS.
BLETHER BOOK REVIEW
Expertly paced and viscerally effective, with many surprises and genuine chills.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
Palpable suspense. Non-stop action. Relentless and riveting. Blake Crouch is the most exciting new thriller writer I've read in years.
DAVID MORRELL