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Jeffrey Konvitz
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The Sentinel Kindle Edition

by Jeffrey Konvitz (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 466 ratings
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Jeffrey Konvitz’s New York Times–bestselling horror novel about a young woman descending into demonic madness who discovers it’s not simply in her mind

Aspiring model Allison Parker finally moves into her dream apartment: a brownstone on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. But her perfect home quickly turns hellish.
 
The building is filled with a cast of sinister tenants, including a reclusive blind priest, who seems to watch her day and night through an upstairs window. Eventually, Allison starts hearing strange noises from the empty apartment above hers. Before long, she uncovers the building’s demonic secret and is plunged into a nightmare of sinful misdeeds and boundless evil.
 
In the tradition of Rosemary’s Baby, this gripping novel was adapted into a feature film starring Ava Gardner, Cristina Raines, and Chris Sarandon. The Sentinel is classic horror at its best.
 
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  1. Print length
    317 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Open Road Media
  5. Publication date
    January 12, 2016
  6. File size
    4323 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The mystery mounts inexorably until the truth emerges rationally but savagely. It would mar the sanctity of the plot to divulge more than the fact that it implicates religious fanatics. . . . Mr. Konvitz has a keen sense of sophisticated terror.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“A New York based suspense story with a lovely young heroine . . . a sinister upper west side brownstone, lots of Roman Catholic-cum-Milton-plus Dante mysticism and some absolutely hair-raising sequences.” —Cue magazine

“Konvitz has written more than a novel . . . it appeals to anyone concerned with good and evil.” —Los Angeles Herald Examiner

From the Author

The Sentinel was followed by The Guardian, its sequel. I had always intended to complete a trilogy and it is now happening. Sentinel III, The Excubitor is being written. J. Konvitz (2014)

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B018HM2B36
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (January 12, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 12, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4323 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 317 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 466 ratings

About the author

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Jeffrey Konvitz

Jeffrey Konvitz

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Jeffrey Konvitz was born in New York City, but after graduating from Cornell University and Columbia Law School, he headed to Los Angeles, where he lives and works as an entertainment finance attorney, producer (The Sentinel and Spy Hard, among others) and novelist. His first published novel (Simon and Schuster and Ballantine) was The Sentinel, which rose to Number 2 on the New York Times Mass Market Best Seller List. The Sentinel sequel, The Guardian, was also a bestseller along with his next book, Monster. He is now at work on the third book in The Sentinel Trilogy, currently untitled, while The Sentinel and The Guardian are being mounted for e-book sales.

This year, his newly-written historical novel, The Circus of Satan, will be published. It is a story of murder and revenge, set during the rise of organized crime in America from 1900 to 1912 when the Irish Mob ruled all major American cities, only to be taken down by its own hubris and the rise of the Jewish and Italian Mobs into labor racketeering and, then, bootlegging. Filled with real events and real heroes and villains, who rampaged from New York's Bowery through to Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Boston, it is the story of epic, transformative times and two violent men, who meet on a descent into blood and Hell.

The author spends most of his spare time on tennis courts, on skis, on basketball courts, and in poker tournaments. The rest of his spare time is spent seeking the perfect word, the perfect sentence, the perfect phrase and the perfect characterization, a most challenging endeavor.

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
466 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

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Suzy Shaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2024
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This book took a bit to get going, but once it did it was a lot of creepy mysterious fun. Stick with it, it's worth it. I enjoyed it and look forward to watching the film.
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Paul Creasy
4.0 out of 5 stars The book was good, but....
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2017
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This is one of the few times I have enjoyed a movie adaptation of the book better than the book itself. There are so many terrifying scenes from the movie (the dead father's first appearance) that the book was a bit anticlimactic. It may be an unfair comparison, as the film was brilliant. Still, this was good old fashioned gothic horror at its best. My advice, read the book and THEN see the movie. You won't be tainted as I am.
2 people found this helpful
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Thomas M. Sipos
3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable but adds little to the film.
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2005
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ROSEMARY'S BABY sparked a cycle of supernatural/Satanic movies & books into the 1970s, a cycle that gained second wind with THE EXORCIST.

THE SENTINEL was one of the better such films. The story of a New York model who moves into a brownstone apartment -- that turns out to be THE portal to Hell! The sentinel is the one who guards that portal, keeping the demons inside Hell and out of Earth. Unknown to the model, she is destined to be the next sentinel.

THE SENITINEL movie was released in 1976, written & produced by Jeffrey Konvitz. It was based on Konvitz's book, released in 1974.

Because Konvitz wrote the book, then the script (which he produced), it's to be expected that the movie follows the book closely. Even so, I was surprised at HOW CLOSELY the movie follows the book.

I've seen the film a half dozen or more times over the past 25 plus years. I only now read the book, expecting to gain deeper insight into the chracters and events, as can usually be found in books that precede the film. No such luck. 95% of the book is in the film. No great depth or insight is gained by reading the book. It's a good book, but with only a few extra scenes not in the film. And a few extended conversations.

But the main reason I read THE SENTINEL was because I only recently discovered that Konvitz wrote a sequel that was never filmed, THE GUARDIAN. So I thought reading the first book would prepare me for the second. I haven't read the second, so I don't know yet. I'll see.

If you loved the film and want to read the sequel, it may be worth your effort to read this first book. It's enjoyable, although lacking the depth of THE EXORCIST (a far better book than its film version).
11 people found this helpful
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Suzanne L. Hobbs
5.0 out of 5 stars Lives up to it's hype
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2021
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The book was vastly superior to the movie. Perhaps shortage of money on the production of the film? The role Burgess Meredith portrayed was fabulous, yet it was abbreviated to the point of not being interesting. And they left out huge chunks of the storyline. I was thrilled with this book, but recommend to anyone thinking of seeing the film to forget it.
5 people found this helpful
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CESAR
4.0 out of 5 stars Por fín después de casi 30 años.
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2021
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Leí El Guardían en el 86 cuando tenía 10 años y hasta el momento es el libro de terror más fuerte que he leído, fuerte entre lo más fuerte, no hay palabras para expresar el miedo que suelta ese libro. Ahora tuve la oportunidad de leer este, no es tan miedoso pero vale la pena para tener la historia completa. Vale la pena.
2 people found this helpful
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Orlando79
2.0 out of 5 stars Good story but...
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2018
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The story actually would have been really good if it had been well written. The characters were not well developed, so you really don't care about them. They say and do things that seem unnatural. The beginning of the book is a lot of its and pieces about the characters. You do eventually learn more about these pieces in the end, but it takes so long to get there that you've forgotten about that storyline and no longer care. It took me months to get through the book because I just didn't care about the story. In the end, it was a cool story, I just didn't like the journey there.
2 people found this helpful
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Ignatius Malibu
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly scary story and fun read
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2013
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I read this years ago when it first came out and it was the most memorible Horror Book I'd read next to "Salem's Lot". Truly a scary book especially for someone brought up going to Catholic School back in the day with a healthy fear of Evil. It made for a good movie too. I wish Konvitz had done more but I couldn't find anything after the sequel to this book, which wasn't as good.
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Freeman64
3.0 out of 5 stars DISAPPOINTING
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2017
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I started reading The Sentinel forty years ago but never actually finished it. Even at a younger age when my literary tastes were decidedly less discerning I found reading it a chore. Perhaps seeing the films diminishes the reading experience. There is very little variation between the film and the novel apart from a few scenes being streamlined as most novels must endure when being adapted into a medium that is somewhat restricted by time and budgetary limitations. There are really no new revelations to be found in the novel. The actual writing is very efficient but has little flair or literary ambitions and can make scenes very superficial and characters very one dimensional. The pacing is wildly uneven and scenes that should be brief go on far too long. I was never invested or involved with the characters and they never really came alive. The ending is so rushed and underwritten that it gives the impression that the author just wanted to wrap things up. It's hardly a classic of the genre.....but I have read a lot worst than this. It might be effective for someone unfamiliar with the film but I doubt a modern audience will tolerate the tedious pace and the very subdued "scares" to be found within. It didn't make me as angry as reading Doctor Sleep but I give it a mild "meh". I guess it's good for anyone interested in old school horror fiction this might appeal. I would suggest just watching the film. It's actually quite creepy. Burgess Meredith as Charles Chazen is the film's Ruth Gordon. There is a quiet menace about him.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

BBJ
2.0 out of 5 stars Disjointed
Reviewed in Canada on December 2, 2023
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A generally lax work full of clerical and editing errors. A work of disjointed parts with little in the way of coherence. A very poor and incomplete ending as well.
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Cliente Amazon
3.0 out of 5 stars Ok, expected more
Reviewed in Spain on August 13, 2016
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Not bad, but too many unanswered. Also I read it AFTER I read the Guardian, which I loved and had a better flow to the different characters.
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K. Bromley
5.0 out of 5 stars The Sentinel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2014
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A very good read and I would like to thank the supplier for getting this quite rare paperback to me.
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LoveGoodBooks
4.0 out of 5 stars Digital version not as good as the paperback
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2019
Verified Purchase
I read this book years ago when it first came out and it has always stuck in my mind. I was pleased to see that now it is available on kindle, so I bought it. The story is still great, but it is let down by bad transcription. As a for instance, no gaps between scenes. That is irritating and makes it difficult to tell where one scene ends and the other begins. Shame.
One person found this helpful
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