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A review by ncrabb
Dark Rivers of the Heart by Dean Koontz
4.0
Spencer Grant is a former cop who lives a quiet solitary life. His childhood was anything but normal; he watched his mother die brutally and, because he was so young and small, he could do nothing to save her.
One night, Spencer enters a bar called the Red Door and finds there a cocktail waitress who leaves a real impression on him. Returning the next evening, he learns she never showed up for work. Having gotten her address the previous evening, he drove to her house only to find agents from what appear to be a federal agency waiting for either him or the girl. For reasons you won’t understand until much later in the book, the agents pursue Spencer, thinking he has something to do with the girl, and since they want to arrest her, they’re after him as well.
This is libertarian don’t trust your government because it will use its power to destroy the lives of ordinary citizens at its absolute best. You’ll be horrified at the scenarios Koontz uses here to depict these agents wielding unparalleled power to bring down those whom they see as obstacles. I know nothing of Koontz’s politics, but it sure feels like there’s a massive beware of your government kind of philosophy at work here. One federal agent is a serial killer who preys on the aged and disabled, assuming that by killing them, he is sending them to a better place. Their absence, he reasons, makes the world more perfect because they are no longer in it.
There’s plenty of creep factor here, and a bit less supernatural than you find in some of Koontz’s other books. You’ll want to concentrate on this, since it rapidly flashes between Spencer’s childhood and the present day. This is a dark, twisty thriller that includes some graphically described scenes of murder and bloodshed. The philosophy used by the federal agent to justify his wholesale killing of the less-than-perfect (more than 200 by his own reckoning) is eerily close to those who championed the eugenics movement of the early 20th century and modern philosophers who teach ethics in many places today.
It’s not a spoiler to tell you that there are those who resist the nightmarish power wielded by these federal agents from a nameless agency whose budget is entirely outside the realm of any public budgets or continuing resolutions. The caution in my recommendation stems from the concern I have for those of you who have expressed strong reservations about reading books that focus on human-on-human violence. But I can understand how this one was a bestseller in its day. I absolutely love the relationship Spencer has with his dog, Rocky. I’m relieved to know I’m not the only person who speaks English to his dogs—not just one-word commands, but whole life philosophies, speculations, and rants. And, like Spencer Grant in this book, I’m not so sure but what they understand every word.
One night, Spencer enters a bar called the Red Door and finds there a cocktail waitress who leaves a real impression on him. Returning the next evening, he learns she never showed up for work. Having gotten her address the previous evening, he drove to her house only to find agents from what appear to be a federal agency waiting for either him or the girl. For reasons you won’t understand until much later in the book, the agents pursue Spencer, thinking he has something to do with the girl, and since they want to arrest her, they’re after him as well.
This is libertarian don’t trust your government because it will use its power to destroy the lives of ordinary citizens at its absolute best. You’ll be horrified at the scenarios Koontz uses here to depict these agents wielding unparalleled power to bring down those whom they see as obstacles. I know nothing of Koontz’s politics, but it sure feels like there’s a massive beware of your government kind of philosophy at work here. One federal agent is a serial killer who preys on the aged and disabled, assuming that by killing them, he is sending them to a better place. Their absence, he reasons, makes the world more perfect because they are no longer in it.
There’s plenty of creep factor here, and a bit less supernatural than you find in some of Koontz’s other books. You’ll want to concentrate on this, since it rapidly flashes between Spencer’s childhood and the present day. This is a dark, twisty thriller that includes some graphically described scenes of murder and bloodshed. The philosophy used by the federal agent to justify his wholesale killing of the less-than-perfect (more than 200 by his own reckoning) is eerily close to those who championed the eugenics movement of the early 20th century and modern philosophers who teach ethics in many places today.
It’s not a spoiler to tell you that there are those who resist the nightmarish power wielded by these federal agents from a nameless agency whose budget is entirely outside the realm of any public budgets or continuing resolutions. The caution in my recommendation stems from the concern I have for those of you who have expressed strong reservations about reading books that focus on human-on-human violence. But I can understand how this one was a bestseller in its day. I absolutely love the relationship Spencer has with his dog, Rocky. I’m relieved to know I’m not the only person who speaks English to his dogs—not just one-word commands, but whole life philosophies, speculations, and rants. And, like Spencer Grant in this book, I’m not so sure but what they understand every word.