Prodigal SonStir together Dr. Frankenstein, his most famous monster, a serial killer, a sideshow freak, two homicide detectives, and the mad doctor’s new race of creatures that he hopes will replace us regular humans and what do you get?  Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein Book One:  Prodigal Son.  Whew.  That’s a helluva title right there, Sonny Jim.  Too bad it’s not a helluva a book.

There’s pulp, there’s good pulp, there’s bad pulp, and then there’s Dean Koontz.  And Kevin J. Anderson assisting with this one.  It’s proper there are two authors, I guess, because there’s enough plot for them both, and then some.

Deucalion, the original monster, is called from the Tibetan monastery he’s been living in to go to New Orleans.  The good doctor, now a creature of his own design, has set up shop there under a new name and has started a biological research company and has infiltrated New Orleans high society.  Deucalion arrives to stop him.

There is also a serial killer on the loose in New Orleans.  This demented guy has been collecting parts from women to make the perfect mate.  He has collected a few internal organs from men, as well, for some unknown reason.  Trying to stop this fun guy are detectives Carson O’Connor and her partner Michael Maddison, her sometime lover.  Carson has a little brother who is autistic, which figures into the plot because Dr. Frankenstein has a kid named Randall Six (if I remember correctly) who believes himself to autistic.

There are also some renegade creations revolting against their programming, thus enraging Dr. Frankenstein.


Told ya, there’s a lot here.  And it might be best to judge this series, like a lot of others, on the entirety of the work.  But from this first book, by golly, I don’t want to read the succeeding three.

Prodigal Son has its interesting moments, but they are all too brief.  When I wanted to know more, the authors abandoned the threads.  It breezes right along, but never delves deep enough to matter; for such complex characters, the story is rather simple.  And the buddy cop portion of the story is filled with too many bad jokes.  Hammy and unfunny.

And I’m not screaming blasphemy for what Koontz has done to Mary Shelley’s baby.  I was looking forward to the new take on the timeless tale.  There are some fascinating ideas going on, but Prodigal Son doesn’t stand-out and never quite shakes the feeling of being a trussed up Lifetime Television movie with cheap Gothic window dressing.

2.5 out of 5
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