In the heart of the fire

Read on September 21st, 2020

Edition Details:
Format: E-book | Page Count: 62 | Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Series: Nameless #1

First Sentence:
The sky is the blue of a birthing blanket, the day newborn and filled with the light of innocence, when the air brakes of the bus while softly, waking him.

Story:
Worstead is a small town in Texas and like all small towns the place holds more secrets than it lets on.

Now, Nameless has come to Worstead. He has a misson to accomplish and he wants to finish it as soon as possible.

Who is Nameless?
Why has he come to Worstead?
What secrets does this town hold?

Read this novella to find that out.

Main Characters:

Nameless - The protagonist
Ace of Diamonds - Manager of Nameless
Roxanne Cortez - Front desk clerk of Blue Ribbon Inn
Jennifer Demeter - Accountant for Worstead Farm Supply
Dwayne Demeter - Late Husband of Jennifer
Russell Soakes - Sherrif of Worstead Count
Max and Seraphina - Jennifer's Children
Cecil Blocker - The coroner at Worstead County
Harry Carlisle - Sheriff's deputy
Harlan Soakes- Russell's father. Chairman of county board of supervisors
Curtis Soakes - Russell's uncle. He is a judge
Ned Soakes - Russell's uncle . He is the DA.
Calvin Baynard - Owner of Worstead Farm supply
Sue Kern - Manager of Ranch Sales Division
Lana Varner - Sue's Cousin
Wylie Varner - Lana's father
Tammie Sugars - A ten year old girl that went missing 10 years old
Carla - Harry's sister
Wendy Harkos - A girl that went missing
Roger Louis Harkos and Alex Harkos - Parents of Wendy
Richie Legardo - Owner of Blue Ribbon Inn

My views:

In the heart of the fire is the first book in the new series by Dean Koontz. This series is about a person who doesn't remember who he is and hence is called Nameless.

I liked Nameless. He works for an agency that specialises in giving justice when law can't do it. He kills them and he does it in such a way that it doesn't look like a hit. He is like Jason Bourne but with clairvoyance. He has been living this life from the past two years but has no memory of his life before that. He also doesn't know how he got his clairvoyance. He just knows that he can see glimpses of what has happened in the past and snatches of what would happen in the future and that these visions come to him out of their own accord. He also seems to be decent guy that knows what's right and what's wrong. But we don't know whether he was like that in his previous life. He kills people without remorse so that says much about him. He may have been bad or may have been good.

These all qualities of nameless give a lot to a writer to play with and he can come up with some very interesting scenarios which in turn would be great for the reader.

Now, as far as this book is concerned as this is first one in the series so it introduces readers to Nameless. We see him working a case in a small town called Worstead. We find out basic things about him. We also come to know that he's been working for a guy called Ace of Diamond who has an agency that deal justice when the government organisations fail to deliver it. He has no idea who this Ace is and why he is on crusade like this. This makes for an interesting plot. Ace and his crew are intriguing. I would like to know more about them. Who they are? Who is financing them? How are they deciding before choosing the cases? Do they know about Nameless' clairvoyance ?

There are many questions that are left unanswered and I hope next books in the series would give answers to some of these. I would definitely want them.

Meanwhile, this book held my interest till the end. The protagonist has a mission for which he come to Worstead. It doesn't takes too long to find out what that mission is. It's the question that how he'll accomplish his mission that kept me glued to the book. The antagonists in the book are despicable things and you are glad that they got what they deserved.

Although i enjoyed reading the book but there were times while reading when I was thinking why Nameless was needed in this story. Yes the story is about him but we see that most of the work on the case has already been done by Ace and his crew. They knew who the culprits were and they had proper information about them. They had arranged everything for Nameless. He gets everything on the plate. So the question remains, If I have man power at my disposal to arrange these many things then wouldn't i be able to do the job myself or get it done while I was arranging these things? Why would I need nameless? What special talents does he bring on the table? He does gets a glimpse of the future at one time during his investigation but he knew about that guy before hand.The information is not new to him. It's us readers that benefit from that episode as we get a glimpse of his powers.

IMHO I think it would have been better if Nameless was just given the case and he had to do everything himself. He had to detect everything and had to arrange everything. Then It would have made more sense to me and then the story would have been a lot more entertaining.

This little thing was something that I didn't like in the story. Apart from it I think it serves as a great introduction to a new character I would love to read more works featuring him. The story also ends at Nameless seeing a vision whose meaning i would definitely like to find out.

Rating: 3/5
(2.5 for the story and another 0.5 as i liked Namless and would like reading more works featuring him.)

Some lines from the book that I liked:

Life is a weave of infinite possibilities, though some are more likely than others.

His greatest fear is that, trapped in the perspective of a homicidal sociopath long enough, his mind will be degraded and he will thereafter be in sympathy with evil.

Criminals are as absurd as they are evil.

Those who are corrupted in turn corrupt the innocent. That is the only purpose of humanity: to deceive, to use, to dominate and destroy.

He is one of the few sane men in this world who know the truth of life, that it is a meaningless snarl out of which a man with willpower can weave whatever future he wants for himself.

You can ge the book from the following link:
Kindle

Other works of Dean Koontz that I have read:
Dean Koontz

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