THE BAD PLACE by Dean R. Koontz

 Finished (again) Tu 11/24/20

This is one of my paperbacks and my favorite Dean Koontz novel.

I love the opening scenes. A man awakes in a dark alley and something (or someone) is chasing him. He flashes back and forth between different realities. And, he can only remember his name and what is this brief case filled with over one hundred thousand dollars?

Frank Pollard- he killed his mother and his brother Frank is the entity that is chasing him. Frank, Candy, their mother, and twin sisters, Violet and Verbina are cursed with telekinetic powers. The twins have a herd of cats and they can read their minds- 'Hive Mind'. Their mother was a hermaphrodite and impregnated herself. Her father was a hallucinogenic drug-abuser and her mother was his sister. Candy Pollard drinks blood and can never forgive his brother for killing their mother.  

Bobby and Julie Dakota- They run a security service. They both like 40's big band music and they are skimping so that they can pour the extra cash into their private eye business. Thomas is Julie's brother and he has Down's Syndrome and lives in a special care home. Thomas is able to 'link' with the Pollards and he senses that their energy is coming from 'A Bad Place'. Bobby and Julie want to make enough wealth to allow Thomas to live with them sometime in the future. 

Thomas and his friend, Dereck (also Down's Syndrome) are two of the most sympathetic characters in the novel.  

Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith were going to play Bobby and Julie Dakota in the screen adaptation, but the deal fell through. In the proper hands this could make a fantastic movie. 

The book's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Place

I really loved the book and the telekinetic powers mixed up with a twist on the private eye drama was very effective. 

BETWEEN TWO RIVERS by Nicholas Rinaldi

Finished Fr 11/13/20

This is one of my old trade paperbacks that I had apparently not read. While checking the Internet about the book I noticed that the author died of COVID last May. 

The title refers to where the novel is set- the southern end of Manhattan Island which lies between the Hudson and East Rivers.

PREMISE:

Connecting stories of residents of a high rise condo in lower Manhattan. Farro Fescu is the concierge of Echo Terrace. He is the one who witnesses the action in the apartment complex...The building is a kind of exotic cross section of people: "An  Egyptian-born plastic surgeon who specializes in gender reassignment, a fighter pilot who flew for Nazi Germany during World War II, an Iraqi spice merchant and the world-famous quilter with whom he's having an affair, the adulterer's son who dreams of becoming an undertaker, and the widow whose apartment is a jungle Eden filled with a menagerie of specimens."

The book examines how this small community dealt with both the 1993 bombing and the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center.

I really liked the book.

A link to the book's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between_Two_Rivers

 

HANDS OF A STRANGER by Robert Daley

Finished Tu 11/3/20... Trump-Biden Election Today 

One of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read, but I always love anything by Robert Daley. The author ran the NYC police department for a time during the 70's so his novels have a real ring of truth.

MAIN CHARACTERS:

Joe Hearn: He's newly appointed to the head of the drug enforcement division and he's on an inside track for police commissioner. However, his mindset is stuck in the 1940's.

Mary Hearn: She's tired of Joe's inattentiveness. His job and career is foremost and Mary barely is on his radar. They were deeply in love, but now their lives have grown apart and Mary has begun to feel sexual feelings for her son's baseball coach, Marty Loftus.

Judith Adler: She works for the DA's office on the rape squad and one of the first women to reach such a high place in the department. She and Joe Hearn are thrown together on the job. Judith needs men from his department to help her on some rape cases. 

THE PLOT:

Mary agrees to go to a hot sheet motel with Marty. Before they have sex they are attacked and Mary and Marty are tied up and Mary is raped. Both Mary and Marty are then the victims of blackmail. George Lyttle was working at the hotel and looking for victims. 

In the end of the book Joe intercedes and kills George Lyttle. He had Lyttle handcuffed to a pipe in the subway. Joe begins shooting his gun in frustration and 'George just got in the way of the bullet'. Hard to believe that for one second a cop would use this ridiculous excuse as a reason why it was not his fault. 

THE CONCLUSION:

Judith realizes that her sexual affair with Joe is over. He and Mary loved each other enough to shield each other from charges. They did all they could to prevent each other from being implicated. Judith takes a short vacation to the Caribbean with the intention of submitting her resignation letter, but once she gets back she realizes that the world of cops and lawyers is her destiny. 

From the book's page on Amazon:

"Judith Adler is head of the DA's rape squad. Inspector Joe Hearn heads the NYPD narcotics division. A mafia porno ring and a terrible rape bring them together. A Literary Guild selection and a four hour NBC mini series. The author gives us an excellent lead character in New York Asst. D.A. Judith Adler as she grapples with a series of rape cases. But that's not all--there's a strong emotional plot as well between Adler, Joe Hearn--a New York cop--and his wife." 

The movie is not available and was a made for TV mini series. I would watch it and I'll always keep an eye out for anything by Daley.