4 stars out of 5
Standing front and center is a young man named Quinn Quicksilver, who as an infant was abandoned on a roadway and found by three men who took him to safety. Growing up amid Catholic nuns, Quinn wanted to be - and became - a writer. After experiencing an episode of "strange magnetism," he inexplicably drives off into the desert, finds an unusual coin for which a local dealer pays a bundle and runs into a couple of really bad guys - a run-in that results in his meeting a girl about his age named Bridget Rainking and her grandfather Sparky. They are on the run from the Internal Security Agency (ISA), the current version of the FBI; when Quinn describes his magnetic episode, neither is surprised. And when they learn he's trying to find the men who found him all those years ago, they agree to tag along for the ride.
And what a ride it is! Adventures that follow, for instance, include Quinn's introduction to otherworldly creatures called Nihilim, or "screamers" from another universe. Eventually, they decide to head toward Peptoe, the place near Phoenix where Quinn was born. That, in turn, takes them to the cult-like complex of an uber-rich dude - a scenario that provides even more nail-biting action.
Of course, the devil is in the details, none of which I will reveal except to say there are plenty of them for me to love, from one-liners that elicited chuckles to scenes that echo current goings-on like human trafficking. To that end, if I have anything close to criticism, it is that I couldn't shake the feeling that at least parts of the story were written to fit around those things rather than the other way around.
A few loose ends suggest the possibility of a series, which from my perspective isn't a bad idea. All in all, good job!
Quicksilver by Dean Koontz (Thomas & Mercer, January 2022); 365 pp.
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