I'll concede that What Comes Next probably requires a little more suspension of disbelief than some thrillers. The hero is a professor whose dementia has him seeing the ghosts of his loved ones, all of whom are advising him; meanwhile, he's desperately trying to save a young girl who's been kidnapped by a twisted couple intent on using her in their exclusive web series. Both stories require a little more willingness to go along without questioning as much, and once you add in a sex offender who serves as Virgil for the professor's Dante as he journeys through the nightmarish dark corridors of the Internet, I can completely understand why some people find the whole book a little absurd. But for me, none of that takes into account the craft of John Katzenbach, a crime writer whose work I really love (and, incidentally, who's gone far too long without publishing a book). And what Katzenbach brings to the table - apart from his knack for pacing and tightening the psychological screws - is absolute commitment to his story. Even when the story could veer off into silliness, Katzenbach makes it work by giving every story its due weight; the ghosts become haunting and devastating emotional reminders of the professor's life, or the web series pushes further and further into nightmarish and unsettling territory, or the Internet searching turns up the most unsettling aspects of humanity - whatever the storyline, Katzenbach makes it work by creating stakes that matter, psychological hooks that hang in your mind, emotional consequences that resonate, and characters that we're invested in. And make no mistake about it - What Comes Next is an absolutely gripping read, one that moves like a rocket and ratchets the tension to nearly unbearable levels. And if it sounds a bit silly on paper, that's as may be...but if you can suspend your disbelief a little and just commit to it, you're going to find that it's an absolutely fantastic thriller.
- Josh Mauthe
- Josh Mauthe