Shadowfires
Published: 1987
Author: Dean Koontz (Written as Leigh Nichols)
Genre: Fiction, Genetic Engineering, Horror, Literary, Literature, Suspense, Thriller, Zombie
Check out the review of this book here:
Summary
The story's protagonist is a lady who is about to divorce her violent husband Eric, an ardent scientist at a bio-research organization when he is killed in a traffic accident.
As it turns out, the husband was researching immortality because he was obsessed with avoiding death as a result of sexual assault as a youngster and the worry that his abuser is waiting for him in Hell.
In truth, he tested an experimental serum meant to confer amazing regeneration abilities on himself.
The spouse awakens in the morgue, but his "immortality" is defective; it cannot repair brain injury correctly since the "mind" is formed of electrical signals, not simply flesh and protein. The stress of the traffic accident has left him in chronic agony and with a loss of mental clarity.
The husband, now an unstoppable murdering machine, stalks his wife throughout the nation while gradually sliding into madness and the return from death, leading him to mutate at an alarming rate.
Rachael and her lover Ben Shadway chase the reanimated Eric to his hidden country hideout in the hopes of murdering him before he regenerates to the point where he can discover and kill Rachael.
Eric, on the other hand, outwits them and gets to hide in the trunk of Rachael's car after overhearing her and Ben discussing their plan to split up and meet in Las Vegas.
Rachael Leben accidentally brings Eric to Las Vegas and observes Eric emerge from the trunk of her car, now brutally altered into some type of unimaginable mutant and fast-evolving.
A pursuit continues into the desert, but Rachael manages to escape Eric's grasp when he's munching on a den of rattlesnakes and returns to her car before continuing on her route to Vegas.
Later, Eric murders and consumes the driver of the automobile, then rapes, kills and devours the female passenger before heading to Vegas.
Ben Shadway is also being pursued by federal agent Anson Sharp, who has a 20-year-old grudge against Shadway when the two served together in Vietnam and Shadway revealed Sharp's dishonesty and illicit smuggling operations, resulting in Sharp being dishonorably dismissed from the US army.
Partners in Eric Leben's bio-research business are also on the trail of Shadway and Rachael Leben, attempting to prevent them from leaking the company's top-secret project to the media but are stopped by Sharp's soldiers.
Sharp intends to murder them both in order to keep Project Wildcard a secret and get revenge on Ben.
After a long chase across Nevada to Las Vegas, the pair finally confronts Eric at Ben's hotel.
Eric's mutation eventually stabilizes into an unstoppable and unidentifiable insectoid form that cannot be killed by the weaponry they have.
They hurriedly pour gasoline on Eric and light him ablaze. Consumed by fire, Eric's mutant body's accelerated metabolism devours itself in an attempt to repair and mutate further, reducing his body to slime and eventually killing the genetic monster but not before Eric's shattered awareness finally embraces death.
Useful Search Related Words & Keywords
Edge Of Your Seat, Eric Leben, Garbage Truck, Hard To Put, Koontz Books, Leigh Nichols, Love Dean, Main Characters, Odd Thomas, Recommend This Book
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