This story (actually a novelette, or perhaps a novella) is the first in a series of ten original ebooks about a nameless clairvoyant who fights evil. Nameless (as he is called -- no relation to the Bill Pronzini detective) has no memory of his life prior to the last two years, nor, perhaps, does he know his own name. He is a tool for a powerful unseen organization that has a technology far beyond what we know today -- a technology that allows him to know and to track really evil people. Even Nameless's contact, known to Nameless only as Ace of Diamonds, could be a man, or a woman, or a machine. Ace is the one who lays the groundwork for Nameless's missions and provides him with the high-tech equipment he needs.
I mentioned that nameless is a clairvoyant. He can see into the past or into the future, visions that he can't control. Often these visions are with him as an observer; sometimes these visions actually place him at the scene; in very rare instances, these visions have Nameless entering the head of the person committing evil, feeling what that person feels when committing heinous acts; Nameless fears that someday it will be this last kind of vision that will destroy his sanity and whatever innocence he might have left.
In this story, Nameless is sent to the small Texas town of Worstead, the hunting grounds of a sheriff who is a tone-cold murderer and a pedophile. (Think Jim Thomson's Lou Ford, only far more psychotic.) Sheriff Russell Soakes is the scion of a powerful local family. He is well-liked and has been in office for years. With a few exception, Soakes choses his victims from people passing through on the interstate, ones with no other family and ones that would not be missed. Families who are traveling with young daughters. Soakes has this thing about young girls -- he really likes them, and likes them in the worse possible manner. Soakes has a large tract of property far from town, and Soakes has a bulldozer; he buries his victims alive in their cars so there is no trace of them anywhere. When I say victim, I don't include the young girls; those he saves for special treatment. He has been doing this for at least seventeen years and no one in the community has ever been the wiser.
Soakes has now set his sights on young Seraphina Demeter, the 10-year-old daughter of a young widow. Seraphina's mother, Jennifer, is beginning to have suspicions about the way Soakes is acting around her daughter. She tries to distance herself from Soakes and lets Soakes know about her suspicions. Soakes warns her to be quiet, because accidents could happen and Seraphina would become an orphan and placed at the mercy of the state and Soakes has powerful contacts throughout the state.
It's a cat and muse game between Soakes and Nameless and Nameless is playing on Soakes's home court. Despite the odds, things turn out terribly (and deservedly) had for Soakes.
A violent, scary, otherworldly story that one might expect from Koontz. Nameless, as flawed both he and his actions might be, is an instrument of the light. This one may be too visceral for some readers.
Nameless appears in two series of ebook original stories. I have only read this first one, so I can't say whether this series concludes Nameless's quest, wrapping things up in a fine little bow.
Nameless: Season One
- In the Heart of Fire
- Photographing the Dead
- The Praying Mantis Bride
- Red Rain
- The Mercy of Snakes
- Memories of Tomorrow
Nameless: Season Two
- The Lost City of the Soul
- Gentle Is the Angel of Death
- Kaleidoscope
- Light Has Weight But Darkness Does Not
- Corkscrew
- Zero In
I'm always impressed by prolific writers like Kootz and Stephen King. Once again, I know nothing about this series, but I'll remedy that today! Thanks for the heads up!
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