FALSE MEMORY by Dean Koontz

 Finished Su 9/25/22

This is a paperback that Janny loaned to me. I loved the book.

An evil psychiatrist uses hypnosis to have his patients do his bidding. 

*** From the novel's page at 'bookbrowse.com'- 

"A tale of madness, suspense, love, and terror from a startling and true-life psychological condition so close to home it will stun even his most seasoned readers: autophobia--fear of oneself.

Just when you thought he couldn't top himself, Dean Koontz has done it again with a novel that will chill you to the bone and demonstrate why he has earned the distinction "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone). A Dean Koontz novel is not just an unforgettable read--it is a life-changing experience. As anyone who has ever read one of his novels knows, he creates atmospheric settings, believable characters, and all-too-plausible situations through which he explores the terror that we all suspect lurks just out of sight in our ordinary lives. In this unforgettable novel he weaves a tale of madness, suspense, love, and terror from a startling and true-life psychological condition so close to home it will stun even his most seasoned readers: autophobia--fear of oneself.

Martie Rhodes is a young wife, a successful video game designer, and a compassionate woman who takes her agoraphobic friend, Susan, to therapy sessions. Susan is so afraid of leaving her apartment that even these trips to the doctor's office become ordeals for both women--but with each trip a deeper emotional bond forms between them.

Then one morning Martie experiences a sudden and inexplicable fear of her own, a fleeting but disquieting terror of...her own shadow. The episode is over so quickly it leaves her shaken but amused. The amusement is short-lived. For as she is about to check her makeup, she realizes that she is terrified to look in the mirror and confront the reflection of her own face.

As the episodes of this traumatic condition-- autophobia--build, the lives of Martie and her husband, Dustin, change drastically. Desperate to discover the reasons for his wife's sudden and seemingly inevitable descent into mental chaos, Dusty takes Martie to the renowned therapist who has been treating Susan, and tries to reconstruct/he events of recent months in a frantic search for clues. As he comes closer to the shocking truth, Dusty finds himself afflicted with a condition even more bizarre and fearsome than Martie's.

No fan of Dean Koontz or of classic psychological suspense will want to miss this extraordinary novel of the human mind's capacity to torment-- and destroy--itself. In False Memory, Dean Koontz has created a novel that will stay in your memory long after the final page is turned-- a story not only of gripping fear but also of the power of love and friendship. Once more Koontz reveals why he has, as People put it, the "power to scare the daylights out of us."

THE CITY by Dean Koontz

Finished Tu 9/13/22 

This is an eBook that I borrowed from the library. Janny loaned me his novel 'FALSE MEMORY' and when reading about Koontz I noticed this book and decided to read it first.

A young black boy in a major American city is assisted by a 'spirit/angel' to deal with the turbulent late sixties. 

More like a fable or a fantasy. Nothing really supernatural or horrific. 

Features an unbelievable, tender relationship between a mother and her son.  

Swing music of the 1940's is featured. Mom is a big band singer and the boy is an excellent 'piano man'.

Counterculture characters are portrayed as evil.

One of the major characters is a Japanese man who was imprisoned at Manzanar Relocation Cam during WWII. 

A YouTube review of the book by Koontz reveals that he had an unsettling home life when he was young.

From the Book Summary at bookbrowse.com:

"The city changed my life and showed me that the world is deeply mysterious. I need to tell you about her and some terrible things and wonderful things and amazing things that happened... and how I am still haunted by them. Including one night when I died and woke and lived again.

Here is the riveting, soul-stirring story of Jonah Kirk, son of an exceptional singer, grandson of a formidable "piano man," a musical prodigy beginning to explore his own gifts when he crosses a group of extremely dangerous people, with shattering consequences. Set in a more innocent time not so long ago, The City encompasses a lifetime but unfolds over three extraordinary, heart-racing years of tribulation and triumph, in which Jonah first grasps the electrifying power of music and art, of enduring friendship, of everyday heroes.

The unforgettable saga of a young man coming of age within a remarkable family, and a shimmering portrait of the world that shaped him, The City is a novel that speaks to everyone, a dazzling realization of the evergreen dreams we all share. Brilliantly illumined by magic dark and light, it's a place where enchantment and malice entwine, courage and honor are found in the most unexpected quarters, and the way forward lies buried deep inside the heart."

Fun Fact: Koontz has sold almost 500 million books (more than Stephen King and James Patterson) yet James Patterson is the most highly paid writer in the world. 

THE COFFEE TRADER by David Liss

Finished Sa 9/9/22

This is one of my trade paperbacks that I got from Amazon on Mo 6/19/06 and never read the novel.

The novel is set in Amsterdam, 1659

From the book's page at Wikipedia:

"The Coffee Trader is a historical novel by David Liss, set in 17th-century Amsterdam. The story revolves around the activities of commodity trader Miguel Lienzo, who is a Jewish refugee from the Portuguese Inquisition. Recovering from near financial ruin, he embarks on a coffee trading scheme with a Dutch woman, kept secret because it is forbidden by his community council. Miguel navigates the social structures of the Amsterdam business world, the politics of the council, and the plots of competitors bringing this new import to Europe." 

"The novel shows considerable attention to historical detail. In the "historical note" appended to the novel, the author notes that many modern business methods, especially those having to do with the stock market, came into being in 17th-century Holland.   New York Times reviewer Thomas Mallon writes that the Amsterdam of the novel is "a kind of information age, where wealth follows from what one knows or can trick others into believing." Historian Adam Sutcliffe also sees the seeds of modernity in the novel's portrayal of Amsterdam "as a crucible of modernity is based above all in the easy contact between Jews and non-Jews," but finds that Liss goes too far in this portrayal, saying that "there appears to be almost no cultural distance between... an intensely Calvinist [Dutch] society... [and] the Sephardim... steeped in their very different Iberian sensibility."  Sutcliffe concludes, "The commercial, cultural, and political modernity of this Amsterdam milieu underpins the familiar fascination of The Coffee Trader. The less recognizably modern aspects of Sephardic life are marginal to Liss's narrative, but they Liss has said that the novel was originally focused on the chocolate trade, but he switched the focal commodity because "coffee was a better fit" and that ""coffee and business go so naturally together."  In an interview, Liss was asked whether Miguel was based on a particular historical figure; her replied that Miguel "is entirely made up based on the sort of character I wanted to see in that situation."

It's a dizzying and complicated plot, but very compelling. 

I think I have read another novel by David Liss and I would read anything he wrote. 

GENTKILL by Paul Lindsay

This is another of my ancient trade paperbacks that I first finished on Sa 1/3/98 (the note on the flyleaf says that I saw 'ARMISTAD' on that day) and I re-read it again and finished on We 5/11/16.

Refinished Fr 9/2/22

From the back cover of the novel:

"Mike Devlin is back, and the FBI's toughest, most smart-ass, and most severely reprimanded special agent has two horrifying cases to break: A methodical and Innovative extortionist is demanding five milllion dollars to stop detonating high-tech bombs in hospitals, and a sadistic serial killer is assassinating the FBI's finest throughout Detroit. How these cases interconnect and what Mike Devlin overcomes to solve them is the harrowing, page-turning story of GENTKILL.

From the book's page at Amazon:

"Former FBI agent Lindsay (Witness to the Truth) has a vision of his protagonists?in this case the agents of the Detroit office?that makes them a blend of hard-bitten professionals and fraternity cutups. It may be authentic, but it gives his thriller an odd tone, as if neither the thrills nor the bitter, prankish humor are to be taken quite seriously. Agent Mike Devlin, his hero, is always balking at unfair authority. Here, he's out to do two things: first, collar two criminals?a serial killer who specializes in knocking off agents and an extortionist who is planting bombs at a medical center; second, nail his pompous, sleazy boss. The plotting, though swift, is a little too elaborate, with the two story lines never quite meshing as the author seems to intend. But there are plenty of thrills along the way, and a dizzy ransom denouement that is certainly a first in fiction. The book is basically the fictional equivalent of a tough Bruce Willis movie, with the pleasures and limitations of such an approach."

The novel is an easy read and very compelling, yet I found the ending to be a little confusing. 

The author spent many years as an FBI agent    

A SHORT DANCE IN THE SUN by George Benet

 This is one of my ancient trade paperbacks that I first finished Mo 12/19/94,

Refinished Su 8/28/22 and I listened to an archived interview with George Benet from the late 1980's on Fresh Air. 

It's the story of two brothers. One is an alcoholic dock worker in San Francisco and the other is a union boss in the Bay Area. The alcoholic brother has a shot at redemption with an ex-prostitute, but the relationship is doomed. 

"It is a world of broken-down docks, old-time bars, and a doomed love affair between an alcoholic longshoreman and a self-destructive woman comes to an end. 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"In a narrative that is, at its best, compellingly realistic, Benet ( A Place in Colusa , etc.) traces the lives of two very different brothers. An official in the San Francisco longshoremen's union, Monte takes nothing too seriously except the advancement of his career. He is posited as a foil to the deeply sensitive Joe, who is tormented by memories of the wife and daughter who left him years before. Benet's writing is as stark and engrossing as a noir film in his descriptions of Joe's work as a longshoreman, with its camaraderie and hard physical labor, debilitating alcoholic binges and experiences in a detoxification hospital. In the treatment center, Joe meets and eventually falls in love with Sandy, another patient, and together they build a stable life. Their "dance in the sun" is tragically truncated by a series of unexpected events. And it is here that the novel is weakest. The denouement is abrupt and implausible, leading to an unsatisfying ending for an otherwise vigorous novel."

Unfortunately, the author didn't write too much more and this was his best. The subject of Labor and Unions are not very popular in America and almost everything from the workers' fight for Labor during the 1930's is largely forgotten.