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Iris Johansen has grown an enviable fan base the old-fashioned way, one that never goes out of style. It can be summed up in two words: hard work. She has written enough novels over the course of her career to make more than one library shelf groan in protest. If you check the bookcase of a mystery reader and find one Johansen novel, you more than likely will find several, if not all, of the multiple genre books that she has written over the course of a quarter-century. Such fans should make room immediately for KILLER DREAMS, her latest work.
Johansen's legion will take comfort in the familiarity of the basic plot, as well as the characters within. There is Sophie Dunston, the intelligent, independent woman who is the damsel in distress; Matt Royd, the avenging and defending knight in tarnished, battered but extremely effective armor; and Robert Sandorne, who poses a specific danger to Dunston and generally to the entire world. Dunston helped to develop for Sandorne's company a drug that was supposed to control and eliminate night terrors. The drug's unforeseen side effects, however, led to disastrous consequences not only for a number of individuals, including Royd, but also for those close to Dunston. Sandorne wants to eliminate Dunston because she can prove that his company was complicit in marketing the drug even as its unfortunate side effects were apparent; Dunston, in turn, wants to kill Sandorne due to the personal price she has paid for the release of the drug.
KILLER DREAMS is in large part a cat-and-mouse game with Dunston and Sandorne switching roles, depending who is on which end of a deadly device. Dunston also plays the same game with Roy, who is so irritating to her that she can't resist him. The fact that he saves her bacon (among other things) doesn't hurt his cause either. The book roars along to an apocalyptic, if familiar, conclusion, but it is one that Johansen's readers not only will welcome but also will expect.
While the bedrock upon which KILLER DREAMS is built contains few surprises, Johansen remains at the top of her game here. For those who are interested in such things, Johansen also plays an internal name-drop game, naming characters after such real-world people as a British rock star whose cult following remains strong after several decades, and naming Royd "Royd" for reasons that will be made apparent. There are other names to watch for, but the most important name is the one on the book spine.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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