GM Ford broke the mold on what I’d read of him before, coming up with a new lead character (a stand-alone character, as the flyleaf said); several lead characters, to be sure. The person I thought was the lead character at the beginning of the book was not the same as the lead character who appeared next, and who was not the lead that finally evolved from the mist of the story, although the first lead did reappear later in the book, and again in the closing chapters, then becoming a co-lead. It was an ambitious, confusing, ultimately satisfying, and entertaining journey.
Nameless Night is a story of intrigue, gruesome slaughter, comedy, more gruesome slaughter, suspense, action, drama, and still more gruesome slaughter, with the end leaving you pensive, but satisfied. It’s a story of a man who sleepwalked for a number of years, marching to his own drummer, and living in a group home.
One day he’s hit by a car, and in an unlikely twist of fate, the driver of the car, a software millionaire, pays to completely repair the horrific damage done to our hero, who remains sort of nameless throughout most of the story. Just when you think his identity is finally to become known, Ford throws a slider across the plate. As you prepare to connect with the ball, it makes a little vertical jink that leaves you hitting a grand slam air ball that you suddenly hear smack into the catcher’s mitt.
It’s also a story about how two seemingly broken human beings come together. The way the book ends, you’re not sure if they’ll stay together. My thought is that Ford wasn’t sure whether they’d stay together, either. He’s leaving himself a couple of openings. When the author takes the hero from a schlumpf with the IQ of a turnip to a handsome, intelligent, strong-and-silent type, I think he’s made his decision, even though he doesn’t realize it.
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