It was a dark and stormy night...

First, let me moan about how I can't do anything lately. This blasted knee is still stiff, weak, and has just enough pain to prevent me from getting many chores done. I own a home. Rather, I should say I am enslaved by a house. Houses require upkeep, they require odd jobs and regular maintenance. And, unless you have lots of spare money, the tasks fall to the owners. I can afford to get many things done by others but, for reasons I do not understand, there are no reliable handymen operating in this area.

You call them, they promise to show up and then don't. When they do, they check out the job and then promise to return... and then don't. Assuming they eventually do show up before you give up on whatever project it was or do it yourself, they want more than you imagined possible.

I suspect the reason is that there are so many elderly living in this area. While that makes for a quiet town with a low cost of living, it also makes it a bonanza for anyone handy with a few tools.

Meanwhile, I have a waterfall onto my back porch because I cannot get up a ladder to clean out the gutter.

Ok, end of rant. Now, onto a book review...


I am currently reading the first novel in Dean Koontz' Frankenstein series. It turns out this is going to be two trilogies. Prodigal Son is the first of the initial three. And I'm hooked.

Koontz brings the Frankenstein story into modern times. Both his monster/creation and he somehow survive over two hundred years and end up in New Orleans. Victor establishes himself as "Victor Helios", a wealthy philanthropist, and his monster arrives some years later after learning that Victor still lives.

Toss in a serial killer or two, a female detective with "issues", and a plot involving the New Race that Victor is building and you are not going to be sleeping much for all the reading you'll do.

If you aren't familiar with Koontz' work, you are depriving yourself. Whether you like horror-thrillers or not, you should like Koontz. He is not only masterful at setting a horror scene and building the tension needed for a thriller, he also infuses a goodly amount of humor into his stories. You not only get fleshed out characters, you also become attached to them. You get involved in their lives. When the book is done, you are left wanting more.

I moved from Stephen King to Koontz some years ago. King seems to take much more time building his stories than Koontz. I really got hooked on him once I read Odd Thomas. After that, I started reading more and more of his work. I can't get enough. There are so many that I have not read, I may not have enough time left in my life.