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Former ex-detective Ethan Truman is now working as the security chief for the Manheim estate. It is owned by Channing Manheim, the most successful and popular actor in the world, also known as ³The Face² to his adoring fans. Ethanıs latest problem at the fabulously large and opulent estate is trying to figure out the meaning of extremely strange gifts that have been anonymously sent to the star. THE FACE by Dean Koontz has five main characters. Along with Ethan there is Aelfric Manheim, also known as Fric, the ten year old lonely son of ³The Face,² who is pretty much left on his own by his jet setting parents. Frick is a quiet and imaginative intelligent boy who suddenly finds himself getting strange phone calls from a mystery man who warns him that something terrible is going to happen. We also meet Ethanıs ex partner, whoıs still a cop; Ethan's ex-friend who pops up when no living soul in the world would expect him; and then thereıs Corky Laputa, a bright yellow slicker wearing, cheerful and joyous believer in anarchy who hums happy songs as he tortures, wreaks havoc, and kills, all for the greater good of Chaos. You can tell Koontz had a ball writing this book, his characters are all teeming with nuances. Even the peripheral people in the story are lovingly and happily rich in details. Koontz uses every bit of fun and musicality that the English language can contribute, for the writing in the book is chock full of metaphor, simile, adjective, and onomatopoeia. This all contributes to the amusement that Koontz had in writing the story but it makes for slow laborious work for the readers who are trying to get to the end. And while the storyıs timeline is only for two days, there are so many fascinating peripheral characters and so many different amazing, fanciful, and horrible happenings shouting for your attention, that you feel as if you have been put through a wringer for weeks before finally getting to the concluding moments of the story. Spiritual gurus and touchy feely sentiments are made fun of within the novel, but in the end Koontz relies on the semblance of these elements to give his book a dramatic ending that will only work for the devotees of Christian and spiritual works, Touched By an Angel television fans, and the lovers of writings of the likes of Martha Williamson. Dylan Baker narrates this 19 12 hour unabridged CD collection. His slightly nasal twang takes a while to get used to, but after a time you can hear that each character has their own voice and can be recognized easily. I donıt know if Koontz wanted the sense of fun to be so pronounced, but Mr. Baker infuses such a high sense of elation and humor into the goings on that the truly evil and stomach turning offenses committed by Corky Laputa come to be seen as mere romps in the park on a sunny day. This story is filled with surprising twists and turns, philosophical arguments, spiritual associations, horror, police procedures, murder, kidnapping, torture literary arguments, and the fears common to childhood. It pretty much has something for everybody. I just found the story went on for too long, too many phrases and ideas are repeated throughout the book, and the ending turned out to be unsatisfying. I canıt give this book a roaring recommendation, but it does have some fun moments.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, September 2003
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