A formulaic thriller by Dantz (The Seventh Sleeper, 1991, etc.), salvaged by the complete evil of the novel's psychopathic killer. Dr. Anna Kane, a psychiatrist for the New York State Department of Corrections, has developed an electronic implant that will temporarily knock unconscious anyone contemplating violence. Hoping to make New York's jails more peaceful, she tests the implant on prisoners, among them John Chester Marlon, also known as the Subway Killer. Marlon murdered dozens of young women—perhaps far more, but the police can't find the corpses to prove it. Homicide Detective McRay, however, believes that Marlon, who used to be a city engineer in charge of tunnels, conduits, drains, and all other things underground, has stashed the bodies somewhere in the dark maze of his former kingdom. Kane and her patient play the expected psychiatric cat-and-mouse, but of course Marlon is a brilliant lunatic and not easily tricked into becoming angry, the emotion necessary to trigger the implant. Meanwhile, his escape from the prison hospital is essentially foreordained, as is the inability of McRay and the police to do more than stumble along in pursuit. Marlon abducts Kane and another test subject, taking them to his secret places beneath the city, and all moves along rather predictably—until the killer brings Kane to the Doll House, his subterranean gallery of horrors, secretly holding the corpses of more than three dozen men, women, and children. Marlon sees it as his ``work of art,'' an eerie, contemporary counterpart to the museum Vincent Price created in The House of Wax. Dantz's final chapters almost make you forget the flat characters and trite plotline. Starts off slight and obvious, but ends with a big, scary bang.
Pub Date: July 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-84583-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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