Making of a monster

Press, 7 May 1983, Page 20

Making of a monster

Whispers. By Dean R. Koontz. Star/W. H. Alien, 1982. 502 pp. $6.95 (paperback). A huge, lumbering killer sees in each of his victims the reincarnation of his hated mother. He kills them slowly, in sexually violent ways, while listening to the whispers in his head. The filler is hunted by a handsome young detective and his bedmate, who is an escaped victim. The confusing clues gradually add up to a just feasible account of the making of a monster. From its cover picture of a sensuous naked lady’s bottom, to its loving descriptions of lava-hot couplings, the thriller is the routine suspender, laced with dollops of mild erotica. It is, however, put a few notches above this standard by the build-up of tension in long scenes of the hunter stalking the heroine and unexpectedly appearing out of a cupboard to terrify her with his avenging knife. Five hundred pages pass quickly, and, as a disposable paperback, the novel is sure to be popular.—Ralf Unger. ' ;