Reviewed by Stefan: Dragon Tears By Dean Koontz 1992
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Summary
The story begins on a Tuesday on a fine California day. Harry Lyon, a cop, and his partner, Connie Gulliver, are having lunch in a restaurant when a man enters. This man is a psychopath who begins to fire around with a gun. Connie and Harry are able to overpower him by shooting him down. During the drive to the police headquaters Harry is stopped by a tramp.This man says: ”Killed by dawn, tick tock tick tock.” But this doesn’t bother Harry. He goes to a friend called Ricky to chat a little bit. Ricky was a policeman too, but in a fight he was injured seriously. After this meeting, Harry goes to his office and turns on his computer and on the screen there is the sentence “Tick tock tick tock” again, and Harry knows that there hasn’t anyone else been in his office. Gradually he begins to suspect the tramp. This tramp is called Bryan Drackmann and he has supernatural powers.
Bryan pursues Harry and in the second meeting his supernatural powers are shown. Harry tries to shoot Bryan, but it isn’t possible. Harry gets away.
After a few days Ricky is killed by this tramp in a horrible way, just before Harry and Connie are arriving at Ricky`s house; they knew that Bryan was going to kill Ricky. It was only a matter of time.
After this, Harry gets an idea of how Bryan is “working”. Now they can hunt Bryan Drackmann more precisely and they begin to investigate against him.
A big final showdown takes place in the house of Bryan Drackmann.Harry and Connie are finally able to kill him.
But if you want to know how they do it, as the tramp is supposed to be immortal, you have to read this book….
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Description
Dragon Tears is a very exciting story. Dean Koontz jumps from one scene into another. One scene is the one with Connie and Harry, another one is about Bryan himself with his thoughts and his feelings, the feelings of a psycopath,and the last scene is about the victims of Bryan and the rest of the world. My little summary is only from the point of view of Harry and Connie. But in between there is a lot going on. The main thing is cruelty and crime.
Dean Koontz wrote this book in an easy language; following the plot and the different scenes is very easy.
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Main Characters:
Harry Lyon: Harry Lyon is a cop in Los Angeles. He is very fussy. For example: In his office everything is in its place, where it belongs. Nothing is lying around. Or his daily routine every day is the same, and if it isn’t, he feels very bad. And he is attracted by Connie Gulliver. The more he is together with her the easier he takes life.
Connie Gulliver: She is also a cop and the partner of Harry Lyon. She is absolutely the opposite of Harry. She doesn`t mind if there is a mess in her office or at home. She comes along when she thinks it’s time to work, sometimes five or ten minutes late.
She hasen’t got a family because she is an orphan.
Bryan Deckmann: He is a psycopath with supernatural powers. It’s very difficult to describe him. You could write a whole book about this character.
He wants to be the new god and he wants to rule over the world. With every murder he gets stronger and stronger. He is also called “Ratman” and “Tick Tock”.
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Extract:
“Beneath his clothes, the ratman`s body churned like a burlap sack full of angry rattlesnakes. He was. . . . changing. His face melted and reformed as if he stood in a forge controlled by some mad deity intent on molding a series of monstrosities, each of which would be more terrible than the one before it. Gone were the livid scars, gone were the reptilian eyes, gone the wild beard and tangled hair, gone the cruel mouth. For a moment his head was nothing but a mass of undifferentiated flesh, a lump of oozing mush, red with blood, then red-brown and darker, glistening, like something that had been poured out of a dog-food can. Abruptly the tissue solidified, and his head was composed of rats clinging to one another, a ball of rats, tails drooping like Rastafarian dreadlocks, fierce eyes as scarlet as drops of radiant blood. Where hands should have hung from his sleeves, rats bristled out of frayed cuffs. The heads of other rodents began to poke from between the buttons of his bulging shirt.”
The text extract is from the very beginning. Bryan is hurting someone and now he wants to disappear. But he also wants to frighten this person and he makes this in his special way…. This extract shows also the power of Bryan, what he can do with his supernatural power.
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