Book Reviews
Copyright (c) 1994, Heather DeRouen
All rights reserved


MR. MURDER
Dean Koontz
G. P. Putnam's Sons Publishing
$23.95 (at this writing only available in hardback)



In the first 100 pages of this book, any reader that has read a lot of
Dean Koontz's work (such as myself) thinks "Oh, boy...  Another cliched
horror novel in which the protagonist has an evil alter-ego, probably an
alternative personality fragmented by some unremembered terror endured
during childhood."  At least, that's what I thought.  My husband, who has
not read much horror but a lot of sci-fi thought "Oh, boy...  Another
cliched sci-fi novel in which the protagonist has an evil doppelganger,
probably the result of some cloning research experiment gone awry."

The suspense comes in determining which of these two cliched concepts
is actually at work in this novel.  In the process of bringing us to the
conclusion, Dean Koontz continues to exhibit a wonderful story-telling
style that leaves the reader engrossed in the book until the final page,
where the "surprise" ending is revealed to be..... well, I can't tell you,
it'd ruin the surprise.

The Mr. Murder in the title of the book is a murder mystery writer, and
a lot of this book is spent poking fun at the writing profession.  It
is obvious that Koontz doesn't take himself too seriously as a writer,
which makes the book even more delightful to read.

I highly recommend that any reader read past the first 100 pages of this
book before tossing it into the "not worthy of finishing" pile, as
the last 305 pages make the trudge through the first 100 pages more than
worthwhile.

My score (out of a possible 10):  8.5
(losing points only for the first
                       100 pages)
