shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us: 800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Contributors | November 10, 2009

Zachary Lazar: IMG Evening's Empire

0 comments By Zachary Lazar

Without knowing it, I'd always had two unspoken arrangements with the world. The first was that I would not trouble it with unpleasant conversation... Continue »
  1. $17.49 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Evening's Empire: The Story of My Father's Murder

    Zachary Lazar
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$14.95
List price: $22.99
Sale Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 Burnside Christianity- Christian Fiction
Used Book Alert Receive an email when this ISBN is available used.

More copies of this ISBN:

This title in other formats:

The Unseen

by T L Hines

The Unseen Cover

ISBN13: 9781595544520
ISBN10: 1595544526
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $14.95!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Lucas is a loner, but he's never alone.

From secret hiding places, he peers into the lives of others--watching them while they work, while they commute, while they sip their morning coffee. He is a master at remaining silent and unseen in his carefully constructed world as an invisible observer.

But when a chance encounter turns the tables, the watcher becomes the watched. Caught up in an escalating series of events he is powerless to stop, Lucas discovers an underground organization with a chilling mission.

Anyone can be watched. No one is safe. And the most terrifying secrets of all remain Unseen.

Until now.

Review:

"The author of Waking Lazarus and The Dead Whisper On brings another quirky but mostly successful supernatural thriller. Set in Washington D.C., this bizarre noir digs a hole to the underworld through the sleuthing skills of Lucas Freund, a loner running for his life and seeking a new identity. Hines peeks into the weird and surprisingly sinister world of urban explorers who enjoy the surge of going behind locked doors, in city tunnels, and behind walls in public places. A dark obsession that wars against a strong drive for justice drives Lucas to dig deeper into a group called The Creep Club, which secretly videotapes people in their homes. But the maze is more complex and interconnected to international counterintelligence than he imagines, and when members of the club get killed and he is blamed, he doesn't know whom he can trust. Hines's dialogue is darkly funny as he explores the depths of the human desire for authenticity. Although too many underdeveloped and unsympathetic characters may leave readers wondering who to care about, fans of breathless suspense that's a little off-center will enjoy this." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

T.L. Hines's distinct Noir Bizarre brand is where supernatural thriller meets mystery.

Lucas Freund is a loner with an odd habit: he's an urban explorer. But while visiting the hidden areas of public buildings is a hobby for others, it's a way of life for Lucas. He lives inside those hidden areas--the utility chases, the abandoned storage rooms, the ceiling ductwork.

Then Lucas meets other urban explorers and discovers a group that has taken the concept to a new level: they infiltrate homes and watch the people inside. Lucas is appalled that these unseen watchers don't offer help when it is needed. But when he is approached by a federal agent who knows about his own past, he has no choice but to infiltrate the Creep Club.

Things take a deadly turn when Creep Club members start to die. Even worse, all signs point to Lucas as the killer. Will he be able to prove his own innocence . . . or will he be the next victim?

Synopsis:

Lucas Freund is a loner with an odd habit: he's one of the urban explorers who live in hidden areas of public buildings. When he is approached by a federal agent, he has no choice but to infiltrate the Creep Club when its members start to die.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
kshaw1017, January 5, 2009 (view all comments by kshaw1017)
Before reading The Unseen, I had never read a “noir bizarre” book. In fact, I can’t say that I knew there even was such a genre (which I guess isn’t so unusual, since T. L. Hines might be the only writer of said genre). I also had no idea there was a culture of “creepers,” people who crawl around in unseen spaces, spying on people in their workplaces, restaurants, and even their homes.

Because I know little about this culture, I have no idea whether or not T. L. Hines’ descriptions of these groups of people are accurate; however, for the most part, I found the book fairly believable, if bizarre.

My initial impressions of The Unseen were fairly positive. I liked the main character, Lucas, from the get go. He was strange, yes—a man with no memory of his early years who spies on strangers and events histories for them—but likable.

The more I read, however, the less I connected with Lucas’ increasingly complex story. I was bothered by the author’s capitalization of such abstract concepts as “The Dark Vibration” and “The Connection,” not simply because of the random capitalization but because their significance was never fully explained or justified. Though Hines does a nice job of weaving a tale of action, intrigue, and suspense that did keep me reading, in the end I felt that many loose ends were left untied.

All in all, I think Hines is a good writer. I wouldn’t be opposed to reading a book from him in the future. Unfortunately, though, The Unseen left me lukewarm.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
report this comment
Mary Benson, December 24, 2008 (view all comments by Mary Benson)
The Unseen by T.H. Hines is a thriller that kept me awake one night. The main character, Lucas, is slowly revealed to be a gentle, flawed person that I grew to care about.

Lucas lives in the unclaimed parts of Washington D.C.—empty buildings, maintenance areas of Howard University. He knows the back way into every transit station and routinely hops on mass transit to navigate DC. He seems to be a loner and a renegade, working odd jobs, stashing cash in hiding places throughout the city. And spying on people. Watching them while they were at work from a small hole he would drill in the wall of a closet, or in the ceiling. He could watch people for hours, and loved it when they got that feeling they were being watched. He often took something from the people he was watching, and had a small collection of these special objects—photographs from their workstation, a scarf, you get the idea.

Lucas meets someone from a group that spies on people like he does, but they go a step further: they videotape the people in their homes, edit their films and show them to one another. Lucas is both attracted and repelled by this idea, and begins watching the group, until he discovers that they are also watching him.

Lucas is drawn into a complex plot involving U.S. Intelligence, murder, and foreign spies. Among the most chilling of his pursuers are two men who look just like him. He finds his face plastered on the news and is no longer the anonymous watcher he used to be.

For a thriller, the ending is quite satisfying. I found myself thinking about this story for days after I finished it.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
report this comment
View all 2 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9781595544520
Author:
Hines, T L
Publisher:
Thomas Nelson Publishers
Author:
Hines, T. L.
Subject:
Christian - Suspense
Subject:
Supernatural
Subject:
Mystery fiction
Subject:
Horror fiction
Publication Date:
September 2008
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
386
Dimensions:
10.00x6.25x1.50 in. 1.43 lbs.
back to top

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.