This Volume is the most straightforward entry in the series so far. Not a weak story by any means, but the plot runs in a fairly straight line where the earlier ones kept twisting.

„In a town where the corrupt are protected, a bereaved mother seeks retribution for an arsonist’s deadly crimes. Only Nameless can help ease the burden of her grief and satisfy her rage in part four of this thrilling series. After a suspicious house fire, Regina Belmont lost her two children, was left disfigured and was abandoned by her gutless husband. Brokenhearted and bullied into silence by corrupt officials, Regina’s only recourse for truth and justice is Nameless. There’s something about this case that’s breaking Nameless’s heart as well. But can he bear to remember why?“

Blurb

The opening is the part that bothered me. Nameless has to convince Regina that she truly wants the bad guys dead. It feels engineered rather than lived, scaffolding the story needs in order to get moving.

What carries the story is the voice. Koontz writes with an ease that never loosens the tension, an unhurried rhythm that keeps pulling you along even when the outcome is no longer in doubt. The best material sits inside the arsonist’s head. There is something quietly disturbing in the way his logic holds together from the inside out. Those passages gave the story the strangeness the plot itself was missing.

At the end, it felt like a lesser instalment in a series I keep returning to. Even at its simplest, “Nameless” remains a pleasure to read. Four stars.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📝 If you are looking for my own short stories, poems and texts, check out my Substack: https://substack.com/@fragmentsandthedark