In his previous series of novels, the Jane Hawk books, author Dean Koontz imagined a high tech dystopia, something like Skynet, where surveillance satellites and cameras were linked to super-computers to buttress the greatest tyranny the world ever knew. He doesn’t know who he works for, whether it’s an individual or a group or some kind of artificial intelligence. He comes in like a classic avenging angel, then proceeds to the next assignment. He suspects this amnesia has been induced, and that he volunteered for it. Nameless has no memory of his past up to a couple years ago. Nameless takes them down, protecting the innocent, avenging the dead. It’s always a case of some person or persons doing evil beyond the reach of the law – a serial killer, a serial rapist, an entitled psychopath. He listens to a digital recording explaining his assignment. There’s a large amount of money and necessary equipment, plus a gun. There’s a vehicle waiting for him, with a suitcase inside.

The man called Nameless characteristically arrives in a community to find preparations made. Well, it’s now possible for justice to be delivered nonetheless.” ( In the Heart of the Fire) If sometimes local law enforcement doesn’t want to find it or if the courts don’t want to hear it, or if those who expose it might be ruined or killed for their efforts. “…In this world of computers, satellite tracking, and so many other government surveillance tools, all of them accessible to hackers outside the government, the truth can be found with enough effort.

Dean koontz the mercy of snakes