First, I will say that there are ***SPOILERS*** in this post, so for those who haven't read it, read on at your own risk (and since this book is almost 15 years old, that probably won't be too many people!)

Anyhow, who here has read this book? I just finished it a couple of nights ago, and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is a very good read for the most part. This is the first book I've ever read by Peter Straub (for horror reading, I've always stuck with King) and I found his writing to be good and somewhat abstract and weird at times. But I think he has created a compelling story, and the characters were all great. Okay...now for what I didn't like about the book. For starters, I thought the revelation of who Koko was was predictable (at least for me). I figured that, once it was revealed it wasn't Tim Underhill, there would probably be another swerve in there. So when it was revealed that it was also not Victor Spitalny (which I suspected), I wasn't too shocked. I also was not shocked when I found out it was M.O. Dengler, because, as Flanders once said on The Simpsons, "It's always the one you never suspect." Also, they spend nearly 600 pages chasing Koko, they finally find him and....what? Nothing. He's around for about 20 pages, he escapes, and we never know his fate. That, to me, SUCKED. I was very let down. Why write this whole book about a search for a man when the final discovery of him is a footnote at best? Hell, we never even totally know WHY he took the name "Koko." We get a little bit at the end, but not enough. And they apparently cut people's ears off in Vietnam and put cards in their mouth, but it is never fully explained. Plus, we never know what happened in the cave in Vietnam, which seemed like it was going to be such a big part of the story. We just know these guys entered a cave and.....well, that's all we really know. Anyhow, I don't want to sound too harsh on the book. I did enjoy it, but I guess I feel very let down by how it ended. Too many loose ends. Any thoughts?