Mr. Murder
For reasons Marty Stillwater can't fathom, a man with superhuman recuperative powers-who has been trained and conditioned as a killing machine and who is Marty's exact double-is psychically drawn to his house one afternoon, claiming that Marty has "stolen his life." This doppelganger proceeds to terrorize Marty and his family with relentless violence. After many narrow escapes, Marty and his nemesis meet for a final showdown in an abandoned church. Like many of Koontz's works (e.g., Dragon Tears, Audio Reviews, LJ 3/1/93), Mr. Murder is hard to classify, containing elements of the mystery, suspense, horror, and sf genres. Veteran reader Jay O. Sanders skillfully heightens the work's rising suspense without succumbing to overdramatization. This is a very good choice for fiction collections, although the light cardboard packaging won't withstand library use.Kristen L. Smith, Loras Coll. Lib., Dubuque, Ia.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.