To me, Dean Koontz has always been a writer who is either on again or off again.He has written books that are outstanding in the suspense field (Intensity, Dark Rivers of the Heart), and those that are largely a mess (Sole Survivor, Tick Tock).False Memory falls somewhere in between.Thisnovel of mind control and nefarious conspiracies has several scenes ofheart-pounding suspense, but often times it plods along as the author dragsout situations through several chapters that would have been much moreeffective if they had been compacted into a shorter space.For example,one of the main characters, Martie Rhodes is mysteriously afflicted withsevere autophobia (the fear of one's self), which results in her irrationalfear that she will attempt to murder everyone she loves.Unfortunately thereader has to suffer through chapter after chapter after chapter of Martierunning madly through the house trying to dispose of every item that mightpotentially be turned into a weapon, and it gets really boring really fast.This is not to say that the whole book is bad; in fact it's quite good attimes. The novel's villain is viciously evil and very well crafted.Theauthor is especially good at honing his characterizations as well asmaintaining that almost undefinable trait that only the best writershave--he makes you want to keep reading. Special note: I found it prettyamusing that one of the characters who appears late in the novel is anarcissistic writer who spends a great deal oftime writing phony reviews to make his own book seem better than it is, and phonynegative reviews of his most serious competitor's book.I assume Koontzdoesn't need to do this, because he really is a terrific writer.Click Here to see more reviews about: False Memory (Mass Market Paperback)
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