Stranger Inside

by Steven Krane

From the author of The Omega Game ...
There's something inside Jimmy-and it's burning to get out...

For five years, Nate Adriano has been on the most bizarre case he's ever encountered, a situation hidden by the government. Fifteen teenagers have died, seemingly from internally generated fires. But one teenager, Jimmy Somerset has all the symptoms, yet has defied the odds-and may hold the answer to what exactly is inside.

Genres: Science Fiction

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 4, 2003

About the author

Steven Krane is a pseudonym of S. Andrew Swann.

S. Andrew Swann is the primary pseudonym of Steven Swiniarski, who also writes as S.A. Swiniarski, Steven Krane, and S.A. Swann.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stranger Inside is an enjoyable (if occasionally overly complex) thriller with supernatural flavor about a boy, Jimmy Somerset, who's raised on the outside fringes of the welfare system but who's forced into a government-sponsored program, TRACE, when he's seventeen. He may be the key to a wave of spontaneous-combustion immolation deaths of young people that's sweeping the country. There's an agency led by a computer genius named Nate Adriano that leads to Jimmy, who spends a lot of time scripting a comic book featuring Cain, his alter ego. The agency is shown in a rather refreshing light of people who want to help rather than as shadowy militarists looking for a new weapon, and the ending is satisfactory if a little too easy. It would've been better if it were maybe 20% shorter to increase the pace.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this in my stacks forever. I think I got it because I'd just read Teek.

I'm not too sure what exactly it is about the book I like but I find it haunting. The comic strip outline, the characters, the bleakness of the story... something draws me in.

I would recommend this to science fiction lovers who want something a bit different and who are over the age of 16. Some of the story is awfully graphic.

[Candida Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally I would have given this book a 4 star, however by the end I was done with it. The plot starts falling apart and the end was most unsatisfying. Perhaps this is just me, however I was disappointed in the book, having high hopes for it and seeing where it could have been a great read.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of his better books written under something other than S. Andrew Swann.