Nobody True

James Herbert

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

I wasn’t there when I died.

I was having one of those out-of-body dreams, the kind where you feel your spirit has left your body and it isn’t really a dream. You may have read about the phenomenon, you might even have experienced it yourself.

But somebody murdered me while I was away.
Mutilated me. Chopped me to pieces.
Left nothing for me to come back to.

Who did it? That’s what I asked myself.
The serial killer who was terrorizing the whole city? Or someone closer, someone known to me, someone who maybe had a grudge, a score to settle? But I had no enemies. At least, I didn’t think I had.

Then I began to discover things about myself. And about the people I thought loved or liked me. My best friend, my business partners, my mother... my wife. Funny what people say about you when they think you’re dead.

And it’s scary when you meet the serial killer, when horror is followed by even greater horror, when your own family is threatened and only you can stop the killings.

So what do you do? You’re invisible, you can pass through solid walls, you can kind of fly.
But you have no substance, no real power. You cannot even touch.

What the hell do you do?

I had to find a way. Fast. I had to prevent more brutal slayings, the awful mutilations, and the desecrations. I also had to avenge my own death.

But how?

How...?

Review by Nigel (151003) Rating (8/10)

Review by Nigel
Rating 8/10
The title of James Herbert’s new book has several meanings, not least of which is that the main character, James True, has no body. While having an Out of Body Experience (OBE) James is murdered. Upon his return he is a little surprised to say the least to find a cooling corpse... and not a very pretty one since James has been well and truly butchered.

What immediately follows in the story is an examination of James’s life as he observes how his nearest and dearest think about him now that he has gone... imagine if you could listen to all those conversations without being seen or heard. During this stage of the book there are moments that stretch the emotions in every direction. One minute I found myself having fits of hysterical laughter as James attends his own funeral (sounds odd but it really is funny in a black comedy sort of way) to great sadness as truths are slowly exposed that reduce his life to a lie.

While all this soul searching and introspection is going on the main plot is developing. A serial killer is on the loose and it seems James has become the latest victim. As the police investigate and James follows the case he becomes closer to the killer... and that is all I’ll say about the plot as this is the type of novel best approached without too much prior knowledge.

As I have said before the outstanding thing about any James Herbert novel is the quality of the writing. The stories just slide effortlessly from the page into the mind’s eye... not an easy thing to achieve. Nobody True is no exception.
Nigel (15th October 2003)