Review by nowirehangers (2007-01-27)
The story of Mr. Murder is a great horror story involving superhuman clones and secret conspiracies. And for a Koontz book, it's refreshingly free from super intelligent golden retrievers. It has spectacular action sequences, especially towards the end.

So why is it not more than a three star book? The problem is in the pacing. While it does have many spectacular, nail biting sequences, it also has too many parts that slows down the pace where not much happens. It is unnecessarily descriptive, sometimes repetitive. The fact that we get to see the story from both Stillwater's point of view and also from the point of view of the murderer, and get to know his thoughts ad feelings, adds an extra layer to the story, but it also slows down the pace, especially when, in the middle of some of the most climactic sequences, the action pauses to once more tell us how he feels about his "family".

Overall, "Mr. Murder" is a good book, but it should have been edited down a bit. It's not as slow as some of Koontz's worst works, but it's also nowhere near as fast paced as his best works.

Review by john g (2006-07-24)
If you are looking for a quality light read this is it. It is a fun, fast paced book that never allows the story to wallow. I love that the family that centers the book is a bunch of really nice folks - no neurosis, no broken marriage. It feels unique in that the family is loving, warm and fun but never syrupy. The father loves his kids and wife and is a well grounded happy man. This, done so well creates a lot of the tension with the relentless villain that stalks them. Another great light read from Mr. Koontz. I read this on vacation - perfect !