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Mr. Murder

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 13,069 ratings · 274 reviews

Martin Stillwater has a vivid imagination. It charms his loving wife, delights his two little daughters, and gives him all the inspiration he needs to write his highly successful mystery novels. But maybe Martin’s imagination is a bit too vivid… One rainy afternoon, a terrifying incident makes him question his grip on reality. A stranger breaks into his house, accusing Mar...more

Paperback, 512 pages

Published July 5th 2006 by Berkley (first published January 1st 1993)

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Jun 16, 2012 Dustin Crazy little brown owl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Dean Koontz fans who liked Relentless

Shelves: group-reads, amazing, disturbing, read-in-2010, challenge

I read Mr. Murder as a mini-group read in the Koontzland - Dean Koontz group. While the ending could have been better, the story and mystery was plenty intriguing for me - intriguing enough that I'm ranking this at #6 in my list of Dean Koontz favorites. Mr. Murder wasn't quite good enough to make it into my top 5, but he's in my top 10 for sure :-) The book reminded me a lot of Relentless by Dean Koontz, a story I'm absolutely in love with. Mr. Murder was published in 1993 and Relentless in 200...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Mary JL rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of mystery, horror or SF

Recommended to Mary JL by: I am a fan of this author

Shelves: mystery-horror

When a disturbed stranger invades his home, accusing Martin Stillwater of stealing his wife, his children his identity, Martin is shocked and startled.

Since the real Martin Stillwater is a write of mystery and horror novels, the police are going on the theory that this is a publicity stunt to Martin to sell more books.

Unwilling to risk his family's lives due to police inaction, Martin takes his wife Paige, and ther young daughters Charlotte and Emily and flees for his life. The mysterious intrud...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Bsddakotad added it

Shelves: 2011-q1

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Nov 19, 2010 Johnny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Not a favorite at first, but when I read it again at an older age it was better. More of a straightforward thriller than something dealing with the supernatural. More a case of weird science gone awry, which is a favorite topic of Koontz.

Writers like to write about writers. Before “Mr Murder”, Koontz introduced us to Dominick Corvaisis in “Strangers”, Hilary Thomas in “Whispers” and Laura Shane in “Lightning” (of whom there’s even a quote in the book). And the new book “Relentless” is another ex...more Not a favorite at first, but when I read it again at an older age it was better. More of a straightforward thriller than something dealing with the supernatural. More a case of weird science gone awry, which is a favorite topic of Koontz.

Writers like to write about writers. Before “Mr Murder”, Koontz introduced us to Dominick Corvaisis in “Strangers”, Hilary Thomas in “Whispers” and Laura Shane in “Lightning” (of whom there’s even a quote in the book). And the new book “Relentless” is another example. They’re usually my favorite type of character as well, totally identifiable, as in Stephen King’s “Bag of Bones”. To the average reader, however, it might come over as if the author is just writing about himself and only changing the name, in an attempt to give his own life a more exciting edge. While it’s true that some personal elements will be copied, that’s usually where the comparison ends.

For a long time Marty Stillwater has been the image I had in my mind of Dean Koontz. This was enforced when Koontz published the children’s story Stillwater writes for his fictional kids in “Mr Murder”. But of course real human beings are far more layered than what can ever be described on paper involving made-up characters.

But back to the book. Novelist Martin Stillwater’s life is interrupted when a perfect lookalike enters his home and demands his life back. The book consists of the Stillwaters’ survival, coupled with the slow revelation of that lookalike’s origins: a clone made in a military project which mistakenly used Marty’s blood instead of the prepared donor’s.

It’s one of the more realistic Koontz stories out there. If you disregard some more extraordinary elements, it’s a story you might see in the paper or on the news. The characters, the entire Stillwater family, become real people. And while usually I have trouble believing the maturity of children in Koontz’s books, the Stillwater kids are more like real kids than the kids in other books. They weren’t only great characters, they were real characters. Kids in Koontz’s books usually act much older than they are, have a far wider vocabulary range than they should have at that age, and always seem to have an inate understanding of the world and its secrets, emotions and meaning. Luckily there are exceptions, as in this book.

The villain of the piece, our lookalike, is one of the more tragic bad guys. In some ways he’s very similar to the Outsider in “Watchers”. He’s simply the enemy because of where he came from, not really out of personal choice. Even while heavily disturbed, he’s someone with whom we can identify as well. A feeling Koontz tries to accentuate by using the present tense for the parts told from his point of view, while the rest of the book is in past tense.

Because of his abilities, there’s never a question which Marty is the false Marty and which one is the real Marty. I’ve always wanted another layer added to this story, where the reader is actually beginning to doubt the identities and might believe that the false Marty is actually telling the truth. That would be too complicated, however, and would be inconsistent with the rest of the story.
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Jul 29, 2010 Tosha Sisler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, horror, thriller, science-fiction, home-shelves

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Apr 13, 2009 Gerry Hine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mr. Murder, by Dean Koontz ISBN 0-339-13874-9 G. P. Putnam’s Sons 200 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10016 Copyright 1993 Nkui, Inc. 415 pages.

I enjoy reading Dean Koontz books but in most cases hate the endings. I often wonder how a Si-Fi story can so often have such a poor and quick ending. In this novel (which I read in the middle of writing science and social studies lesson plans,) the story grabbed me instantly and held me right through to the end. One thing you have to admit about Dean’s skill...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Cody Maxie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I can't believe this book has an average of only 3.63!

Let me start off by saying what I loved about the book:

The writing was A+, everything was clear and I really enjoyed how he would really get the individual opinions down, like with Dean and his hatred for Star Trek.

The characters themselves got me engaged more deeply into the story and caring about their well being, another A+

The story, Oh man the story! You know how in some books you can kind of see what's going to happen at certain points...more

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May 08, 2008 Beth W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008

I had been getting bored with Dean Koontz in recent years (except for the Frankenstein books,) but picking this one up at a book fair has restored my faith. I haven't been this scared - the kind of scared where you're skimming pages in an effort to find relief and know you shouldn't be reading the book after dark - in years. And it's always refreshing when you can't figure out the ending until the end. Good stuff.

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Mar 03, 2011 Tim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Jul 29, 2008 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

My very first Dean Koontz book, Mr. Murder is an intersting suspense-thriller about a successful novelist who has his life turned upside down when a man (who looks exactly like him) shows up to steal his life (the double thinks the novelist stole his life to begin with). It's quite intriguing and full of major twists that have you wondering where Koontz got his imagination.

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Aug 08, 2010 Suzana Vuksanovic rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Thrill-seekers and horror buffs

Mr Murder is an amazing story - starting from a personality who has no past and no identity, that is driven by forces he cannot identify and who he cannot appeal to for help, driven from assignment to killing assignment with no idea why he is what he is and is doing what he is doing - leading the most tortured and meaningless existence - he decides he wants A LIFE, he wants a FAMILY, he wants A HOME. And he is going to take it.
From the imposter that looks exactly like him. Take his family back -...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Del de la Mare rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first book by Dean Koontz that I recall reading, my wife has raved about his books for quite some time but for some reason I just never seem to have got around to starting one. Maybe it is that in a way he is 'her' author not mine.

Anyway, on to the book.

Wow this book has it all, an evil clone, a malignant alliance called 'The Network', gunfights, car chases, murders.
Its a good, easy read. Well paced with good descriptions of all the incidents and characters.

A group called 'The Networ...more

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Jun 15, 2010 Maciek rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, disappointments, own-in-hardcover, own-in-paperback, thriller-mystery-suspense, read-in-2010, reviewed

Reading this book made me remember just how much Koontz rehashes. There is nothing original in this book - black and white characters, government conspiracy, etc. If there were no secret organizations DK would be out of job. And how many times did a Koontz novel feature a heroic couple running away from an evil adversary?

All of this is embroidered by his "subtle" ideology (the god guy is a writer, the bad guy despises the written word). Apparently in Koontz's school of philosophy having a beaut...more

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Nov 12, 2009 Katrina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009

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Aug 12, 2010 Carlotta rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

Recommended to Carlotta by: gift given to me

Shelves: horror-thriller, fiction

This book was given to me as a gift for my birthday by my boyfriend so I love that he gave it to me. However, Mr. Koontz could have written this story in half the pages. He spent more time beating the same jokes to death, describing nothing of interest, and repeating characteristics of his characters. The story could have been more interesting, regardless of how much it reminded me of some of his other works, if he had cut out about half of the pages. The book felt to me like he had a page quota...more

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May 19, 2012 vorbore rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-dark, mystery-suspense-action

As my review appears under other editions as well, I decided to add a translation of it to English. Here it goes:
I really do not know what to think about this book. This is my first by Dean Koontz, btw. Anyways, everything was more or less fine all the way to page twohundredandsomething, where the book definitely failed to turn left. The very idea that some psycho may walk into ones life and take it from them (us, actually, it is us we worry about, not them ;D)is horrifying enough, no sordid det...more As my review appears under other editions as well, I decided to add a translation of it to English. Here it goes:
I really do not know what to think about this book. This is my first by Dean Koontz, btw. Anyways, everything was more or less fine all the way to page twohundredandsomething, where the book definitely failed to turn left. The very idea that some psycho may walk into ones life and take it from them (us, actually, it is us we worry about, not them ;D)is horrifying enough, no sordid details about his plans for sexual and other sorts of violence were necessary. Actually these reduced the tension for me and made me roll my eyes for the first time. Then we arrive to cloning, enhanced growth to full maturity in 5 years (IIRC), indestructible super-soldier and an evil secret organization that without any respect for human life or values attacks the Innocent, and this Trekkie who is a member of this evil secret organization (which was,funnily, more destructive to my willing suspension of disbelief than any of the previous), and who saves them Innocent, so they all, even though persecuted by this almighty, undetectable organization of mega-rich and equally influential individuals who own top-of-the-pops scientific achievements and gadgets, ride into the sunset to live happily ever after till the end of their natural lives, whenever this might be. Suspension of disbelief dead as a doornail.

The afterword was quite good, though, even if it was a bit overdone too.
*** end of the translation. The page number reference was aimed for the translator to Croatian, not that she would ever read my review ***

Ne znam što bih mislila o ovome. Sve je nekako bilo dobro tamo do dvjesto i neke stranice, kad je knjiga definitivno propustila skrenuti nalijevo. Sama ideja da neki luđak može ušetati i uzeti nekome život i obitelj dovoljno je užasna, nisu potrebni detalji o seksualnom i inom zlostavljanju koje namjerava izvršiti. Onda smo došli do kloniranja, ubrzanog rasta do pune zrelosti u pet godina (mislim), neuništivog super-vojnika i opake tajne organizacije koja beskrupulozno napada Nedužne, te trekkija iz njezinih redova (što mi je začudo od svega prije navedenog još najmanje vjerojatno) koji iste spašava, i svi oni, iako ih progoni sveobuhvatna i neuhvatljiva organizacija prebogatih i preutjecajnih koji raspolažu najnovijim znanstvenim dostignućima, jašu u zalazak sunca i žive sretno do prirodnih krajeva svojih života, kadgod bi to izvoljelo biti.
I,da, gdja Pongrac, sebima , mislim, ipak nije riječ... kaže se "ugađaju sebi samima" a ne "ugađaju sami sebima" (376. str. treći pasus)

Još mi se najviše svidio pogovor, iako i on ima natruhu isforsiranosti.
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Jul 18, 2009 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the better Koontz books I've read. It was very suspenseful and more than a bit spooky at times. I don't read Koontz searching for quotes that I can apply to my life, but there is a good one in this book. I wouldn't call it profound, but it puts into words something I believe: "at its best, fiction is medicine." The main character even expounds on this, perhaps unnecessarily, but I think he is right:

"Life is so damned disorderly, things just happen, and there doesn't seem any point...more

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Oct 24, 2009 Maicie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 02, 2013 Barbara rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-splatterpunk-bizarro-fiction

I have read MANY Dean Koontz books over the years and have really loved a lot of them but I remember reading this book years ago and being really disappointed and bored reading the book and vowing never to pick it up to read again because it was that bad and I was shocked too because every other book I had read of Koontz I had really enjoyed. I remember discussing the matter with my brother who was the one who got me onto Koontz and he agreed with me that he felt the same way about the book. I w...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good ole Dean Koontz! If you like his books, you'll like this. It's a suspense-thriller with a dash of horror and a sprinkle of science fiction thrown in. A twist on the "evil twin" story ala, "The Dark Half" by Stephen King. Having read "The Dark Half", I started to worry that it would be a little bit of a rip-off, but it kept me interested, taking twists and turns that weren't anticipated. There were some generally suspenseful moments when, (because I was listening to it as an audiobook), I wa...more

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Nov 01, 2011 David rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who likes a good suspenseful read

I read this book for the first time in ten years. I literally read it in two days straight. Talk about a page turner!

Marty Stillwater is a writer of mystery novels. He has a lovely wife called Paige, two adorable little girls, Charlotte, who's nine and Emily who is seven. Everything is good in his life.

Until one day he walks in to find an intruder in his house. An intruder who claims Marty has stolen his life. And the intruder wants it back. Everything. including his wife and kids.

What follow...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Mimi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of realistic horror

Shelves: fantasy, horror, scary

This book was a little strange to me as the subjects in the story are not ones I usually read about. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was creepy and realistic. I could not read it alone in the dark at some parts, it really got to me. Definitely a good piece of work by Mr. Koontz.

I was also really happy by the ending. It left me with a satisfied feeling and really tied things up. Would most likely read again when my queue runs out or I just feel up to it.

The only thing I didn't like wa...more

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Mar 09, 2011 Tara Vetro rated it 2 of 5 stars

I just started this one because I think someone left it at my house and I ran out of train reading. While I am intrigued by where the author is taking the plot so far, I feel like style-wise he sometimes tries too hard. But I'm only 30 pages in so I'm giving it a chance...

The good news is, the book is over and I figured out whom to rush it back to. The bad news is, there's a week of my life I am never getting back. While the book wasn't terrible, it's not my cup o' tea. However, if you like stra...more

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Feb 16, 2009 Pat aka Tygyr rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: mystery fans

Koontz is one of my top 5 favorite authors so of course I loved this one. The main character is an author of mysteries. He has a wife and 2 small daughters. He starts having these strange unexplainable lapses, he calls them fugues. He sees his Dr and a series of tests are ordered even though the Dr assures him he believes he is fine. There is murder, a murderer run amok, and police who dislike the author because of a recently published magazine article. Is the author filing a false police report...more

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Feb 04, 2009 Erin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

I am upset I wasted my time with this book. I think he tricked me with this one...it started out ok, but then got so sappy and corny right away. Yet I kept reading to find out what the twist was, so I was 3/4 of the way through before I found out what was actually happening.

I don't think I've ever read a book before where I roll my eyes on every page! I don't like his preachiness or his overload of sentimentality, and this book was just bursting with it.

I might have to give up on his books altog...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Jolie Bonnette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-horror-paranormal-fiction

The best part of this book was the characterization of the children in it and the interactions of the family. The bad guys tended to be a little flat and the ending took a rather predictable and unrealistically idyllic turn. Still entertaining nonetheless. There was much to be done with the predictability issue. A story like this has only a limited number of outcomes, really, and we are well acquainted with all of them as they tend to be run into the ground in every form of media. That's the maj...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Collin Weskey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mediocre-books

I read this book through once and then reviewed it and said it was good. I just re-read the book because I felt as if I did not get as much out of it as I could have, since I rushed through it hoping for a big twist at the end which there wasn't. After reading it again ive decided that it isn't as good as I thought the first time, that's why I have brought the rating down a star. I'm not saying its a horrible book and it isn't worth reading. I like it for the suspense it builds on you with the "...more

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Jun 26, 2009 Tanner rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wonderful book! Well written and kept me turning the pages. I have found very few books that actually have the feeling of a thriller, this one captures "edge of your seat" feeling that I enjoy.

It had a splendid ending that was quite the twist. Throughout the book I felt that perhaps Marty was really the imposter. What a wierd twist that would have been, but I liked his ending better.

I was glad that an in depth explnation was given and that no opening was left for more cloned assasins. That would...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-gr-challenge

Overall, I have to say I enjoyed this book. It was a lively fast read that kept me entertained. I do have to say that the book was predictable, as I had The Other and Clocker figured out well before Mr. Koontz got around to that plot development.

With all that being said, there aren't many books that keep me guessing til the end, that is a downfall to being an avid reader. I am however still a huge Koontz fan and always will be. I am fond of his writing style, his ability to tell a story, as well...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Patricia J. O'Brien rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow. I had to make myself read this after a friend suggested I might find it interesting to study the way Dean Koontz alternated POVs, including the antagonist's viewpoint. Usually, I don't read psychological thrillers, because I'm a wimp and get too scared. This book captivated me with riveting story, clean prose and wonderful characterizations. It also suprised me a number of times. Excellent storytelling, and I'm so glad I got over my scaredy-catness and read it. And I have to agree that he h...more

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About Dean Koontz

Acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.

Dean R. Koontz has also published under the na...more

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Quotes from Mr. Murder

“En el punto donde esperanza y razón se separan reside el lugar en que la locura se dispara.” — 1 person liked it

“Was the dividing line between life and fiction as hazy for other people as it was for a writer?” — 1 person liked it

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