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A Great Read!
Terrifying, Fascinating, and Extremely Hard to Put Down!
Believable characters and non-stop suspense
Trees are happy they died for the paper used for this book.
very good, effective thriller

Under the Beetle's Cellar
Mary Willis Walker
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0553476769
Release Date: 1995-08-01

Book Description

Kidnapped by a cult of secretive and dangerous religious extremists calling themselves the Hearth Nazarenes, Vietnam vet Walter Demming, an Austin, Texas school bus driver, and eleven of his young charges have been held underground in the cult's highly-fortified compound for forty-six days. The team of federal negotiators assigned to the case makes little progress, and little by little all hope of rescuing the hostages ebbs away.

Under The Beetle's Cellar

Two years prior to the school bus hijacking, Molly Cates, crime reporter for the Lone Star Monthly, had the bad luck to interview the leader of the fanatical cult, Samuel Mordecai -- an interview straight from the lower reaches of Hell. Mordecai was fascinatingly charismatic, and Molly left the interview having felt trapped, abused and mesmerized by a madman who kept her literally pinned to her chair while he ranted on about his apocalyptic visions for the demise of mankind.

The experience left Molly feeling haunted, but as time passes and hope for the children dims, it seems Molly is the only one with enough information about the maniacal Mordecai to serve as the conduit between him and the hostage negotiators.

Culminating in an explosive psychological confrontation so harrowing, you'll race to the terrifying finish, Under The Beetle's Cellar is a bone-chilling tale tipped from today's headlines, and more frightening than our worst nightmares.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Read!.......2006-01-30

I've enjoyed all of Ms. Walker's books, but this is my favorite. In fact, this is one of my all-time favorite suspense novels, period. I love the concept, and the characterization is superb. You also might want to try The Red Scream. It's almost as good.

Anyone know if/when she has a new book coming out?

Patricia Lewin, Author of BLIND RUN, OUT OF REACH, & OUT OF TIME

Terrifying, Fascinating, and Extremely Hard to Put Down!.......2006-01-04

In the past seven days, I have been priviledged to read two of the best contemporary, yet believably realistic books, I have come across as of yet in many a moon. One was Bernice McFadden's sad and beautiful The Warmest December, and also this gripping saga by Mary Willis Walker. I expect she was heavily influenced by the Waco tragedy as this was published not long afterward. We don't know much about the victims of the real tragedy, but here Walker takes and breathes amazing life into her victims, a bus driver who served in Vietnam, and 11 children who are hidden underground beneath a barn for a 50-day "earth purification" before the world ends--at least according to religious fanatical cult leader Samuel Mordecai.

This is also the story of reporter Molly Cates, an incredibly brave and determined journalist who truly cares about the victims, and all the people tied to both the predator and his prey, beginning on day 46 of the 50-day torture.

Walker has the ability to take you into a nightmarish world that's hell on the cops and feds who know Mordecai is never going to let his hostages go, and she also shows you the resilience of young children in a hopeless and frightening situation. I was extraordinarily moved by their ability to keep up a sense of humor and sheer resolve alternately with low, hopeless moments of despair, and the reluctant heroism of bus driver Walter as he kept the kids calm with his soap operatic story of the turkey vulture named Jacksonville and the armadillo named Lopez that reflected his and a friend's time in captivity back in Vietnam.

Amazingly powerful and moving, this is a story that shows both the cruelty of the human animal that man can be, and also the tireless, selfless dedication of others as the opposing force. More than that, it shows that humans can be stronger than they ever thought themselves capable in a seemingly hopeless situation. This is a truly amazing book that had me winded by the time the climax arrived, and that's a very good thing!

Believable characters and non-stop suspense.......2004-06-01

Walker's riveting third novel features a bus driver and 11 elementary school children abducted by an apocalyptic religious cult, resulting in a 50-day stand-off between federal agents and armed cult members.

Protagonist Molly Cates, a crime writer for a Texas magazine and the only one to ever interview the cult's charismatic leader, Samuel Mordecai, is in a race against time to discover something about Mordecai that will give the hostage negotiators some leverage before the promised apocalypse on day 50.

The novel opens on the 46th day. Walter Demming, the bus driver, a psychologically scarred Vietnam vet who has spent the last 20 years guarding his life from involvement, keeps his charges' spirits up with the continuing adventures of a vulture named Jacksonville, counterbalancing the daily harangues from the cult's leader.

Demming and the children, ranging in age from 6 to 12, are imprisoned in a derelict bus buried underground in an old barn. Worms and bugs tunnel in the earth packed against the bus' windows. One of their two bare light bulbs has just burned out. The children play tic-tac-toe on the windows and pogs in the aisles between the seats.

Fed twice a day on cereal and milk, they fantasize about food. They argue, snap at one another, burst into tears. One of the children suffers from severe asthma. The cult refuses medication and his attacks terrify everyone.

Without melodrama or mush, Walker develops a group dynamic that relies on breathing life into the individual children and especially Demming, a reluctant hero who's scared and lost and determined to do his best.

Walker alternates between scenes in the bus and efforts on the outside. The police, the FBI and the hostage negotiator have gotten nowhere with Mordecai and don't know where the children are being held. Cates, herself viscerally intimidated by her one meeting with the cult leader, delves into the odd circumstances of his birth and his harsh childhood, which clearly loom large in his religious landscape.

Cates' detective work, which involves bending more than a few of her own personal and professional rules, is absorbing and ingenious without being unbelievable. As Mordecai's pathology unfolds, we also get a portrait of Demming from his home and his two close friends.

Cates herself is a prickly but appealing character. A loner with a grown daughter, she's in love with her ex-husband (one of the cops) and driven but ambivalent about her job.

The suspense is nail-biting, but what makes this novel a stand-out is Demming and the kids. Walker gets the atmosphere of timeless boredom and fear just right, the children's voices ring true and Demming's character, revealed in accumulating flashes throughout the narrative, is utterly believable.

A scary thriller with a smashing explosive finish.

Trees are happy they died for the paper used for this book........2003-10-25

Ok, like the title said, I don't read much. The last book I read....hmm....is "where's Waldo?" really considered a book? Anyways, I picked up this book at the library to show my daughter reading books is good. It sat on the kitchen table for weeks (had to renew it at the library!).

One day, I was home alone with the flu; decided to read this book to get my mind off my being so sick. Needless to say it sucked me in! I don't know what it was about the book. Molly Cates (the lead character) isn't a superhero with a cape, the idea of reading a book so DARK (really dark---11 children and a busdriver underground with a dying light bulb)doesn't sound EXTRAORDINARY, but I found myself engulfed in this novel.

Molly Cates--so ordinary. Because of that I found myself relating to her...a 40-something single mother of a 24 year old daughter...even though I'm only 25! A romance rekindled with her daughters dad. A wacked out psycho bible thumper holding 12 people in a buried school bus on his compound.

Chapters twisted between Molly's investigating the psycho's past, while working with Lover (a leiutenant) and his department to figure out where, why, how, etc. The kids and adult on the bus, -- telling stories, fighting, kids getting sick, passing time. Time....the book starts on day 46...the world is suppossed to end in 50. Although 46 days has passed, Mary Willis Walker fills you in on the events that lead to their captivity, up to their current situation.

Molly Cates is so NORMAL that I enjoyed reading ABOUT her---although I felt I was reading WITH heR.

Her love affair with her ex-husband is a nice side story too.
I wish I had more room to go into detail.......but then I'd end up giving up some of the thrill of the book, and THIS BOOK IS JUST TOO WONDERFUL TO SPOIL IT FOR YOU.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. Buy it here, get it from the library, borrow it from a friend...just get it and read it. You won't regret it.
I just LOVE this Molly Cates character so much, and I was thrilled find out that there are 3 books starring Molly Cates. The bad thing is UNDER THE BEETLES CELLAR is number 2...so I had to go and get the first one (THE RED SCREAM). It tied up some of the questions I had (like how did she start seeing the ex-husband again?) stuff. I just finished reading THE RED SCREAM and now I have the answers. The only bad thing about reading Under the Beetles Cellar first, was that I sort of knew a major detail about The Red Scream...Molly Cate's doesn't die at the end of the first book. But, still worth every second of both books. Where's number 3!!!!!

Anyways, the book was just fantastic! I couldn't turn the pages quick enough, let alone put it down. UNDER THE BEETLES CELLAR is a better reason to destroy trees for the pages than toilet paper! Read it and you'll be SOOOO happy you didn! Enjoy it!

Now, I must go review The Red Scream!

very good, effective thriller.......2003-08-23

Walter Demming - bus driver and Vietnam vet - and eleven schoolkids have been incarcerated in an underground hole for forty six days. They are the hostages of a biazarre fundamentalist cult, kidnapped at gunpoint whilst driving along the road to school. The leader of the cult - who call themselves the Hearth Jezreelites - is the charismatic Samuel Mordecai, the terrifying self-proclaimed Prophet, and every day the captives must endure his garbled religious sermons and rants on the evils of modern life. He has taken them for a very specific and ominous reason, in preparation for the coming Apocalypse, which he foretells will arrive in just five days time.

After 46 days, the negotiations have reached a dead-lock. Mordecai will not even listen, let alone concede anything, and he threatens to kill the hostages if even one person steps onto Jezreeelite soil. It is now that crime reporter Molly Cates enters the scenario. She interviewed Mordecai once before and did not like the experience at all. Now, if she can possibly unearth more about Mordecai's past that the FBI can use as a lever in the negotiations, she may well be their last remaining hope. But she does have just five days time...

This is an excellent thriller. There's nothing particularly wonderful about Willis Walker's prose-style - it tends towards the pedestrian, the very normal; it certainly doesn't sing - or anything riveting about protagonist Molly Cates - she is real and human, but there isn't a great deal save from her humanity and stubbornness to make her stand out from many other gutsy female protagonists - but this is still one terrific thriller, which definitely deserves to be more widely read. It's intelligent and though-provoking (but not too much) and tackles well issues of religion and faith and religious mania, as well as having some snappy dialogue and a cracker of a plot. It marries three elements absolutely brilliantly: cults, hostage negotiating, and good old investigating. The Prophet Samuel Mordecai is a particularly delicious villain, chilling and, of course, mad, as well as having a brilliant name. Mordecai. Mordecai. My, i could just roll that one about on my tongue for ages. Isn't it just great?

Anyway...Under the Beetle's Cellar is a tense, suspenseful thriller with a dramatic and moving conclusion that does not disappoint. In terms of plot, you'll notice that this book is strikingly similar to Jeffery Deaver's brilliant A Maiden's Grave, (group of children of a bus kidnapped and held hostage), which was published in the same year. But, this book still retains some very original, different elements which make it another must-read thriller.

Under the Beetles Cellar
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Under the Beetles Cellar

Manufacturer: Recorded Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 0788705156

Under the Beetle's Cellar
Average customer rating:
Under the Beetle's Cellar
Mary Willis Walker
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OIIZQ4

Under the Beetles Cellar (SIGNED)
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Under the Beetles Cellar (SIGNED)
Mary Willis Walker
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GTNU5C

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Under the Beetles Cellar
Mary Willis Walker
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GTNKRU

Under the Beetle's Cellar
Average customer rating:
Under the Beetle's Cellar
Mary Willis Walker
Manufacturer: Books on Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: B000MHZN7G

Average customer rating:
Under the Beetle's Cellar
Mary Willis Walker
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0006498280

Under the Beetle's Cellar
Average customer rating:
Under the Beetle's Cellar
Mary Willis Walker
Manufacturer: New York Doubleday 1995.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O1VE14

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Under the Beetle's Cellar
Mary Willis Walker
Manufacturer: New York: Doubleday, 1995
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NVG01Y

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Under the Beetle's Cellar
Mary Willis Walker
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OELO70

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