Mr. Murder - Dean Koontz

My Rating - 4/10

Although Mr. Koontz does not want to be recognized as an author writing in the horror genre, I have no other term to describe this bag of mess other than a half-hearted attempt at a horror-thriller. While the penmanship itself is not bad, the story reeks of plagiarism. It is an infidel union of a Robert Ludlum thriller with the popular video gaming series Hitman. Mr. Koontz does qualify the theme behind this story in his afterword – as the social injustice faced by an author in the aftermath of a not-so-friendly review – that spans maybe the first quarter of the story. It almost seems as if the author knew the beginning of his plot, but midway through he had no clue how to carry it forward.

I actually enjoyed the first couple chapters in the book. The story had started to assume a good pace, and even gave me the initial pangs of discomfort that promise a good thriller. However, the story ricocheted right out of hands midway through. The storyline follows an author and his family through days and nights of despair as they try to escape the clutches of an assassin – one who looks just like the author and is drawn to him psychically (oh so clichéd!). It turns out this assassin is a clone – an operative gone rogue - created by a deluded secret society that plans on overturning the world power. As he tries to kill the protagonist and take over his life (both literally and metaphorically), they run from him and fight him, always causing him more damage and getting almost none in return. Good wins over evil – another cliché!

The character portrayal of the said sub-human clone is masterly done – I must give credit to the author where it is due! It shows the childlike self-absorption and deluded self-image expected out of a person who has such a low reserve of implanted memories and opinions available to him. He seems to grasp most of his experiences from movies he has watched. Now, half the book seemed to me like a power struggle between print and celluloid media! Since it is a book, the former definitely was the winner – yay!

There are certain inconsistencies in the story. Towards the end, the killer strangles the protagonist, his family crouching a few feet away, and neither his wife nor his daughters try to come to his rescue, although they know he is seriously injured and does not have the strength to fight. The rescuer, another member of the said secret society that calls itself the Network, somehow turns out to be a good person. The story would have made more sense had this rescuer been at least an undercover cop, but no, he is just another ordinary Joe. He provides the family with new identity; and here is the part that made me laugh out loud - the protagonist gets the name of John Gault. Oh my! But then, what did I expect!

Mr. Koontz made extensive references to popular fiction and movies throughout the story. That must have taken up about a tenth of the text – that’s fifty extra pages that could have been avoided. And I really wish it were. At least I could have moved on to something else sooner.