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Title: Mr Murder
Series: ----------
Author: Dean Koontz
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 500
Words: 141K
Series: ----------
Author: Dean Koontz
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 500
Words: 141K
Synopsis:
|
From Wikipedia
Bestselling
mystery writer Marty Stillwater was recording himself one day when he
realized that he was saying "I need..." repeatedly. When he
rewound the recording he found that he had been unconsciously
repeating "I need" for over 7 minutes. Marty was tense that
whole day, when he put the kids to bed though he calmed down
considerably and was finally consoled.
Meanwhile,
the Killer is roaming the streets before his job. He goes into a bar
and leaves with a prostitute to go to a motel. He has sex with her
and then murders her because she cannot assuage his frustration. He
proceeds to kill his targets and returns to his hotel. That night,
still restless, he is drawn for some reason towardsTopeka. Suddenly,
he starts saying:
"I need... to
be... I need to be... I need to be..." As the suburbs and
finally the dark prairie flash past on both sides, excitement builds
steadily in him. He trembles on the brink of an insight that, he
senses, will change his life. "I need to be... to be... I need
to be someone." At once he understands the meaning of what he
has said. By "to be someone," he does not mean what another
man might intend to say with those same three words; he does not mean
that he needs to be someone famous or rich or important. Just
someone. Someone with a real name. Just an ordinary Joe, as they used
to say in the movies of the forties.
— Mr. Murder page
48-49
The
Killer is attracted like a magnet by some force he doesn't understand
to the Stillwater residence. On his way he kills several people; an
old couple for a set of clothes and a gas station clerk to steal food
and money. When he breaks into the Stillwater house he sees a picture
of Marty and believes it to be himself. He observes books authored by
Marty and decides they are his. He sees the pictures of the daughters
Emily and Charlotte and Marty's wife Paige, he then decides he wants
to be the father and husband. He attempts to write a book but cannot
and in his frustration he destroys the computer.
Marty
was quite upset about his fugues (a break in one's memory) and so
went to see a doctor. The doctor attributed it to stress.
When
Marty comes home he finds things misplaced and his computer smashed.
The Other then enters and accuses him of being an impostor. He
menaces Marty who shoots him twice in the chest, but the Other is
unfazed. The fight catapults them over the banisters leaving the
Other seriously injured but he gets away. Marty's family returns
home, and Marty sends them to their neighbour's house. Soon after,
the police arrive. Cyrus Lowbock, the detective, interrogates Marty
and doesn't believe his story, insinuating it is a publicity stunt.
Marty and his wife refuse to cooperate and the police leave.
The
Other's body has rapidly recovered from his injuries but the effort
leaves him ravenous. After consuming massive amounts of food he
returns to get Paige and the girls back from Marty who he believes
has stolen them. He manages to get the daughters from the neighbour's
house, but Marty sees him and gives chase. The car crashes and the
girls escape but the Killer flees again.
Drew
Oslett and Karl Clocker, two operatives of a clandestine government
agency are sent to retrieve the Killer (referred to as "Alfie")
They discover the bodies of the two seniors and Alfie's tracking
device. A message from their agency leads them toward the People
magazine article on Marty Stillwater and they discover his connection
with the Killer. They meet a contact who might help them find Alfie.
To maintain their cover they decide the Stillwaters have to be
terminated to look like a murder/suicide and Alfie has to be brought
in.
Meanwhile,
the Stillwaters flee to a cabin in Mammoth Lakes and prepare to
defend themselves against attack by The Other. Paige hides under a
rock to ambush The Other, but unpredictably he rams his car through
the cabin. The Stillwaters then flee to an abandoned church. Here
Marty is shot and Paige and the girls are trapped. As The Other
prepares to kill them, Drew and Karl track him down. Drew kills The
Other and is then killed by Karl who has turned against the agency.
He rescues the Stillwaters, provides them with new identities, a new
home and evidence to bring the agency down. He explains that cloning
and genetic engineering were used to create a breed of elite
assassins, with Marty's tissue samples accidentally becoming involved
in creating Alfie. After a few months Marty mails the evidence to the
authorities from an anonymous name and the Stillwaters begin their
new lives.
My
Thoughts:
|
This is what I was hoping for from Koontz. Pure thriller through and
through. I was thinking, when I reached the end, if I enjoyed this or
Lightning
more. It's a real tossup and I would recommend either one if you
wanted to dip your toes into the Koontz ocean (seriously, this guy
has written a bajillion books).
In terms of tension, Koontz did an admirable job of keeping me in
suspense even while staying true to his trademark “The Hero Doesn't
Die” platform. I figured the wife and kids were safe as well, but
when the girls are kidnapped, I wondered if all bets were off.
Thankfully, they were ok. Marty's parents (Marty being the main
character) however, were pure cannon fodder and I almost wished
they'd been off'ed nearer the beginning rather in the last 10% so as
to provide even more tension about the wife and kids.
I've got a quote or two I'm including in this review instead of doing
them as separate posts (Gulag is taking up the Quote posts for the
whole month, the greedy hog!)
“Standing in his kitchen, holding the loaded Beretta, Marty
knew that he and Paige now constituted their own last line of
defense.
No one else. No greater authority. No guardian of the public
welfare.”
~ Page 248
“She wondered what it was about storytelling that made people
want it almost as much as food and water, even more so in bad times
than in good.”
~ Page 320
The first quote made me think about the Law and the police, as the
embodiment of the Law. The Law does not PREVENT crime from happening.
Nor should it. The Law states “X is the Law and if you break the
Law you will be punished”. Cops are meant to be an “after the
fact” part of the Law. They find and arrest the perpetrators. They
don't sit outside a private citizens house and prevent it from being
burgled, that is the responsibility of the home owner. However, that
is not the reality of life today. The majority of my fellow
countrymen have given up their responsibility to take care of
themselves and handed that off to the government. The inevitable
outcome of THAT is always tyranny. Just look at how the Governor of
the State of New York has acted during this covid19 outbreak to see
tyranny in action.
The second quote, and its attendant idea, was much more pleasant to
contemplate, thankfully. Koontz, being a writer, talks up
storytelling as much as he can. He touches on the idea of stories
being an escape but also states he thinks it goes deeper than that;
that the need for a story is built into us, like God put it in from
the beginning.
So to end this, I thoroughly enjoyed this tense thriller even while
knowing the protagonist was going to be ok. That is the kind of story
Koontz tells and it is the kind of story I like to read. The Good
Guys Win, the Bad Guys Defeated, Evil Vanquished.
★★★★☆
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