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THE BAD PLACE
By Dean R. Koontz
Berkley Books (1990)
Reviewed by Robert Thompson 12-27-90
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THE BAD PLACE is one of Dean Koontz' weirder books. It is a blend of elements from DRACULA, PSYCHO, STAR TREK and CARRIE all tied up in a modern detective story.
Unlike most of this author's books, I was able to put this one down- once. Usually I have to read the whole book at one sitting, even if I have to sacrifice an entire night of sleep. With this one, I was able to put it down around page 72 and get a decent rest.
However, the next night I was up until 4:35 to finish the remaining 345 pages. Usually, I can figure out "who is doing what to who and why" in Koontz' books by about the middle, but this one kept me guessing until almost the end, so I was held by curiosity as much as by an engrossing story line and wonderful characterizations.
Bobby and Julie Dakota operate a fairly successful, modern, hi-tech private investigations firm. They make a good team, and have several highly skilled employees to back them up. Bobby is kind of a Magnum (and I don't mean .357 or .44) style P.I. ... kind of laid back. Julie is a female Sam Spade, tougher and more aggressive than Bobby. Thomas is Julie's younger brother, a 20 year old Down's Syndrome victim, and (I felt) the real hero in a story full of people who serve "above and beyond the call of duty". Oh yeah,...Thomas is psychic (or "sidekick" as he and I both refer to the term). Unfortunately no one knows this, and Thomas is kind of afraid to let anyone know, since he has a fairly high level mind but can't express himself verbally as well as he would like.
Frank Pollard is their client, an amnesiac with a problem that goes beyond his loss of memory. If you ever saw the old James Garner movie "MR. BUDDWING" you will have sort of an idea of Frank's condition in the first third of the book. But the big problem is that every time he goes to sleep, he wakes up wearing different clothes than those in which he went to sleep, and often with bags full of money or pockets full of gemstones, and sometimes with minor injuries. He hires Dakota & Dakota to find out who he is and what is happening to him.
Candy is trying to kill Frank, Candy is VERY SICK. Candy is Dracula and Norman Bates all wrapped up in the body of Hulk Hogan. Candy is dangerous. Candy has two weird sisters, Violet & Verbina. Violet & Verbina aren't particularly dangerous, but they are also VERY SICK.
Adventures of a diverse nature occur, but I don't want to spoil the story for you.
This book will appeal to a wide variety of readers. Whether you are a fan of murder mysteries, horror, private eyes, science fiction or even Darwinian evolutionary theory this book has something for you. However, beware; if you don't have a pretty strong stomach, are overly prudish or are prone to nightmares, maybe you should skip this one. There is a lot of highly descriptive, rather gross stuff in it.
On a scale of 1-10 for all books this one is about an 9. Just considering Koontz' other work for comparison it is about an 8.4.