Can’T Miss With These Two Reads

“False Memory” by Dean Koontz

Psychiatry could never be as interesting as it is in “False Memory.” The book is a classic Dean Koontz tale of mind control and trusting no one. “The Key to Midnight” and “The Door to December,” two other books by Koontz, merge to concoct another potential New York Times bestseller. The mixture is used to explore more possibilities of adventure and terror.

Although the beginning is somewhat of a bore and doesn’t contain great adventure, it establishes the setup. The beginning also crisply describes the world surrounding Koontz’s characters and relations.

“False Memory” invents an extensive vault of characters who come into use more than once in the book, another classic Koontz style, which really enriches the description and plot in every way. In the cast is everyone from alien believers to psychologists.

The main story is that of a video game designer, Martine Rhodes, and her husband Dusty, a house painter. Martine is taking her best friend to therapy for agoraphobia, which struck without warning, but something more is happening than what should be.

The psychiatrist, Dr. Ahriman, has a past no one has known about.

He enters the lives of many people, creating mystery and fear.

Martine and Dusty find out what is going on, and learn that Dusty’s brother is also part of the weird mind controlling “cult.”

The husband and wife must break out of the control and warn the city, and put Ahriman behind bars - or kill him.

“False Memory” fits right in with many of Koontz’s books. His characters flourish as does the background. The end is action-packed and holds many twists before the resolution appears. It seems long, but bear with it and you will be rewarded.

“Hunting Badger” Tony Hillerman

Master of mystery Tony Hillerman creates and solves another of his best Western mysteries ever in “Hunting Badger.”

Taking place on the high mesa tops and winding canyons of the Navajo Reservation, Hillerman puts true thought into the history of the still-wild lands.

“Hunting Badger” takes Native American culture and interlocks it with a FBI manhunt, giving clues as to what might happen, but never giving away the real secret.

The author uses a wide knowledge of the reservation and how the tribal police work to reveal the desolation there and the hard work it takes just to get through each day.

Hillerman brings back the legendary Lieutenant Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee from his other books. They become the new-age Lone Ranger and Tonto. The yarn is one of tie-dye, with greed, back-stabbing traitors, logic, large egos, sadness and death all around.

Leaphorn and Chee travel from one corner of the reservation to the other in search of clues and patterns that match a “witch” of long ago. The problem is there are too many different agencies involved and the directors don’t know a thing. The pair moves through a slime of people in a hunt for something that makes sense, along the way coming to understand each other better.

Working with reservation police officers helps, but it is up to them to discover a big secret and to stay alive.

The risk lies outside while FBI agents slowly search between canyon walls. The criminals have a deadly weapon that is overlooked and can strike at any time.

Also, family problems, love and friendship are thrown into the cowboy hot pot, showing reservation life and beliefs.

“Hunting Badger” is Hillerman’s top masterpiece. It harbors many secrets and a mass of characters blind the reader’s logic. Slowly the truth reveals itself in the end.

This book is a quick read and takes no time to finish.