The Other Emily ~ Book Review
Author: Dean Koontz
2021, Hardback — thriller, serial killer for girls, romance
Tagline: Dean Koontz works on his first psychological thriller!
Plot
David Thorne is a successful fiction writer who is still mourning the loss of the love of his love, Emily Carlino, 10 years later. This is not a smoochy reflection on his past, however, but a ride or die speedy page-turner. After all, he has just found Emily 2.0 in the local bar! Look for a genuinely scary serial killer, mummified bodies, true love, and, possibly, life after death. (Not a spoiler.)
But let’s cut to the chase: this is really a *Love* Story! Koontz loves love, and a lot of his books are really romances…even ones with dogs!
David has been depressed for years, but he’s no moper. He investigates her death. Emily crashed her car in the rain, and her body was never found. A serial killer in that area, Jessup, was apprehended soon after…and his “treasure trove” of young dead women was found in his house soon after.
Emily was not among the bodies found. But Jessup put special lovelies in a hidden place that the detectives were never able to discover. He preserved these bodies with herbs and chemicals, like Egyptians did, so they would not decay, and would reanimate, once he…said the magic words? Used electricity?
David feared the worst, so he began to befriend Jessup in jail, and to pay him with whatever prison goodies were allowed, to hear his shiit-talk about the women he had killed.
I so admire David Thorn for his organizational skills and efficiency. 🙂 In just a couple of days, he travels to Jessup’s penitentiary in Northern California to get him to spill tea on the 14 hidden bodies, re-visits the scene of Emily’s accident, interviews residents at a nearby house, has dinner with Emily’s mother, and starts a love affair with the beautiful Maddison, who is both physically and mentally… Emily!
What really happened to her that rainy night? So many possibilities…
Is The Other Emily a “Psychological Thriller’?
Not in the classic sense: no unreliable narrator, or character of unfirm mind (except for Jessup, an exceptionally juicy serial killer! So abhorrent!).
But it definitely fits my own genre definition: Serial Killers for Girls. 🙂 Love affair, interesting murderer, and intriguing mystery.
Particulate Matters
- one of the characters points out citizens who are “virtue signalling.” Aha! I have always suspected Dean Koontz is a Libertarian…and a little bit of research showed me he was interviewed by Reason Magazine!
- I think it was the serial killer who said, and I quote Koontz: “the C word.” Now, that is CLASSY! So much better than when Stephen King uses it – usually a few times in recent books – when it is the most deragatory word for women in the English language
- but it really bothered me when a character I like killed another character, not because he had done anything wrong, but because he might do something wrong in the future. Minority Report (Tom Cruise), (book by Philip P Dick) anyone? Not ethical.
Ending of The Other Emily (SPOILERS!)
No spoilers, except to say it’s some kind of science explanation. Story is too good to spoil.
Media mentions of The Other Emily
Kirkus ~~ Weird. No review of a Dean Koontz book? The link keeps going to a kids book with the same title.
Publisher’s Weekly ~~Weirder! They don’t have a review of the book either! Is this a snub against Koontz, and his huge outpouring of sci-fi, mystery, and magical books for the masses?
So let’s go on to….The Book Reporter! Ah. They do call it a Psychological Thriller.
Koontz’s latest effort, THE OTHER EMILY, is a terrific psychological thriller with more than a touch of suspense and hints at the possibility of veering into sci-fi or horror at a moment’s notice.
…knowing that Koontz has penned sci-fi, horror and even a few novels loosely based on Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN, it is easy to understand just how intense a reading experience this book is.
Amazon readers: 4.2 stars
He used to be known for his horror, but lately Koontz has been all about sci-fi and dystopia and honestly I’m loving it. [I didn’t see any dystopia!]
The ending could have been wrote differently.
This is my first time reading a dean Koontz novel and I’m hooked. First of all I loved the main characters devotion to Emily, ten years of looking for a love that you know might be dead and the plot twist … was really deep. You won’t regret this read
No reading happens in a vacuum
When I read this library book, it was early fall, and I was still renting a room in a condo. A very dark room, with sun only a few minutes a day, in the morning. And I’m not a morning person. Still no real job, since cartoons dried up when editors and the media did. Safe to say, I was more depressed than David.
This book goes good with…
Actually, there’s been a lot of low-level depression in the population after the vicious lockdowns for Covid. Therapy could be in order, but if you’re a reader, there is a terrific book by David Burns called Feeling Good, which might be just as powerful. He’s not the inventor of cognitive therapy, who was Aaron T Beck, but he made it popular. The chapters are pretty fun to read through, with visual examples of how we interpret and filter situations. Turns out they really might not be as scary or impossible as we had thought.
Also, don’t forget about pretty stones. I am a huge fan of yellow gemstones: I guess yellow diamonds are striking — have never seen one — but citrine is a favorite, as well as yellow quartz. And not as expensive as you might think from the marked up prices in jewelry stores! Here’s etsy’s claim of Wear a little sunshine on your body.
Last, omgosh, a good flashlight the next time you get in a car accident in the pouring rain, and a serial killer stops to help you! I run or walk only at night, and carry this small flashlight with me every time. It’s so lightweight in my pocket, I never feel it, and creates quite a strong glow. Here’s a bigger one for your car. I mean, save your phone battery for calling 911, know what I mean?
Final Book Review
I felt like the story sort of bifurcated towards the end, when we found out more about Maddison, but still, a very good read.
I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. Believable, tight story, and 2 scenes that were really scary and did make my heart pound!
Would this make a good movie?
Possibly.
Pitch:
10 years after her death, a successful novelist finds a doppelganger of his girlfriend in the local watering hole. Was his girlfriend murdered by the infamous serial killer now rotting away in prison, or did something…worse happen to her?
Where to find
Your friendly local library. Free!
Lowest Price – fast!
ISBN: 154201994X
Set painter in studio Art Depts. Member Scriptwriters Network, script analyst.
Author, 2 hardcopy books, Barnes & Noble Calendar.
- Emma in the Night ~ Wendy Walker ~ Thriller - May 11, 2023
- Still Alice (2014) ~ Psychology Movie Review ~ Julianne Moore - January 25, 2023
- The Other Emily ~ Dean Koontz - January 23, 2023
