James Herbert Nobody True

Nobody True

James Herbert

Tor, Sep 2005, $25.95, 400 pp.

ISBN: 0765312123

His first out of body experience (OBE) was caused by a hot potato when James True was six years old; he has plenty of them since. However, the current OBE proves different for thirty-three years old Jim when he returns to his body only to find his mutilated dead corpse was not capable of receiving his essence.

Jim wonders who killed him. Could his art design business partner, brilliant copywriter Oliver Guinane, started again using the drugs that enhanced an unknown anger that Jim married Oliver's former girlfriend Andrea Dodds and they have a daughter Primrose though seven years have passed?; Oliver was physically abusive towards Andrea when he used drugs. Could it be bad happenstance that someone like the serial killer terrorizing the city did him in? Although limited in a three dimensional physical world, Jim plans to learn the truth and hopes to find a way to nail his killer, but the horror of his death pales to what he will find out as true.

NOBODY TRUE is a gripping paranormal amateur sleuth thriller that will remind readers of D.O.A. (both versions) except that the beleaguered movie hero had 24 hours while Jim is past due. The exhilarating story line works on two planes as Jim searches for his murderer while also learning that his perfect personal life was filled with major tremors that he failed to realize existed when he was alive. Suspense thriller fans with a fascinating twist will appreciate this tense tale that never slows down while Jim learns that the truth is fatal.

Harriet Klausner