Customer Reviews

The Double Human

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First, it's worth noting that although the detail page and the cover materials do not mention it, this novel is not a stand-alone work. It is a sequel to "The Human Disguise." I have not read "Disguise," but it's almost certainly better than its sequel, as it's hard to imagine a publisher commissioning a follow-up to a book as sloppily written as "The Double Human."

The author has clearly worked very hard on his setting, which involves a quarantined portion of south Florida and a potpourri of right-wing bogeymen: global cooling, Hugo Chavez (here, "The Hitler of South America") Central American jihadists, etc. But he hasn't bothered to convey it in a plausible way. Instead, people drop jarring explanatory notes into conversations, and muse to themselves about the history of the region at the slightest opportunity:

"This was his first serial case. The other murders he had investigated involved single or gang killings. There hadn't been a report of a serial killer in Florida since the first of the Islamic terror attacks in Miami. The added law enforcement after the tanker bomb that took out three square blocks in the center of Miami and killed three thousand scared away a lot of the criminals. Then, when the anthrax was blown through the Dadeland Mall's air-conditioning and caused sixty-five hundred people to die, the army was sent in. After the mass migration and fear of the bioplague, it was easier just to abandon the southern tip of Florida rather than to save it."

The story progresses awkwardly. Although ostensibly a procedural, the police work is completely incidental to the revelation of the mysteries, and no detective discovers anything except by chance. The plot demands that the protagonist not recognize the serial killer he fought with during an extensive sequence at the beginning of the novel, and then later demands that he recognize him in a picture taken shortly after that fight. The killer is victim to a series of cringe-worthy coincidences that derail his attempts to murder his adversary and end the pursuit; in the span of a few chapters, there are two scenes in which he is about to strike his target, only to be foiled by the lucky arrival of the same policeman.

There's an extensive side-plot about immortals whose existence is a closely-held secret, except that the only characters who aren't in on it are quickly informed of the details by one of the very same immortals.

This is an embarrassingly bad book. Avoid.

As a former lawman myself, and having read the first in the series, I was waiting with bated breath for this next "chapter".

I was not disappointed, in fact, I was pleased beyond my expectations. O'Neal's grasp of current law enforcement, and trends to be in the future are quite evident in this book.

Not a big sci-fi fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this book in spite of that. Well, maybe it's because of that. This is not your Daddy's sci fi.

His cast of characters continue to expand, and you actually felt a warmth at re-connecting with some from the previous issue.

And there's plenty of room for further expansion. That's a good thing! This is one sci-fi series I'm sold on.

You will be too.

I enjoyed this book on a number of levels. It is a solid police novel that feels absolutely real. The imaginative details of the near future are thoughtful and made me look at the problems of today in a new light. The characters are deep and interesting and the plot flows along with a lighting pace.

The issue I have, if there is one, is with the book jacket copy. Even the photo makes it look like this is a vampire novel. Nothing could be further from the truth. The killer, who stabs his victims in the throat is nicknamed "The Vampire". There is no vampire or blood sucking.

The book is a fast, fun, interesting read. That's what I like. I would recommend this novel to any SF fan as well as mystery buffs.

THE HUMAN DISGUISE by James O'Neal was one of my favorite books of 2009. It introduced Tom Wilner, a South Florida cop in the Unified Police Force in what is left of that area in the first third of the 21st century. Plague and nuclear war have taken their toll on the United States. Terrorist attacks on September 11th take place with regularity. Miami is all but deserted, a free-fire zone that is the subject of a tug of war among warring interests. And, as is known only to Wilner and a few others, an undocumented species, a branch of humanity that is the stuff of legend, sits and waits. The Simolits and the Hallecks are the two main families comprising this species; while not immortal, they are extraordinarily long-lived and extremely difficult to kill. The Hallecks have historically defended homo sapiens, often from the Simolits, though the two families formed an uneasy alliance against Hitler during World War II and have since engaged in a series of off-again, on-again truces.

If this sounds like Mad Max meets Alien Nation, that's not quite right but it's close. "Miami Vice" after the bomb works; Ed McBain collaborating with Robert Heinlein wouldn't be far off either. In any event, THE DOUBLE HUMAN, the second book in the series, has just been published, and it's even better than its predecessor. You might want to read THE HUMAN DISGUISE first to fully appreciate all of the nuances of the sequel. What O'Neal has done here is to totally knock down the barrier between detective and science fiction. His Miami of 2035 or so is perfect: you can see it coming right now, and in some areas of the city it has already arrived. If the first book focused on setting up this post-apocalyptic Miami, the follow-up concerns itself with Wilner's crime-fighting abilities.

A serial killer has manifested himself in the Miami Quarantine Zone, one whose trademark method of mayhem involves a mortal wound to the throat. The murderer, who is quickly dubbed "The Vampire," appears able to walk among the populace and dispatch at will. Aided in his investigation by his UPF partner, Steve Besslia, Wilner makes a startling discovery: similar killings have been occurring in the greater Miami area for over 50 years. Wilner suspects that the killer is a rogue member of the Simolit family, but the Simolits --- whose relationship with Wilner remains prickly following the events of THE HUMAN DISGUISE --- deny any foreknowledge of such a person and in fact maintain that they want to catch him as badly as Wilner does. Wilner has no idea how close the Vampire is to him, or to his new love interest, a schoolteacher who works in the Quarantine Zone and is a heartbeat away from being the Vampire's next victim.

O'Neal, under his government name James O. Born, is a highly regarded author of crime fiction and an officer with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He knows the territory, and can analyze and talk about it. His prescient abilities combine with an almost unparalleled knack for storytelling to make THE DOUBLE HUMAN a non-stop and addictive read. And someone, somewhere has to adapt this for a television series. Then we'd only have to wait until next week rather than next year for a new installment.

Due to overseas intervention, anthrax deployment in malls, oil dictatorships and domestic political discord at home, the once United States is disintegrating. In this increasingly lawless society in which the central government is non-existent and New York City is a wasteland, terrorist anthrax attacks supplemented by radical climate changes have turned Miami into a deadly anarchistic "Quarantine Zone".

Florida United Police Force detective Tom Wilner enters this dead zone in search of the serial killing "the Vampire", who is Undead. There he meets benevolent teacher Mari Saltis of Columbia who refuses to leave the Quarantined Zone as she feels the children need her. As their attraction flourishes within this dark area, the insane predator he chases after wants both of them dead.

This is an entertaining futuristic science fiction-horror police procedural that requires leaving the plausibility at home. The story line is filled with action-packed subplots although some are left dangling (like that of the alien arrival) for a sequel. James O'Neal provides some of the back story as to what happened to Southern Florida and elsewhere as civilizations collapsed; thus this dystopian thriller can stand alone but is enhanced by first reading its predecessor The Human Disguise.

Harriet Klausner

I read the Human Disguise and decided that the series had some major potential. James O'Neal creates an incredible future where there is an approaching alien ship, quarantine zones throughout the country, a constant threat of terrorist attacks, and a secretive hominid species living among the humans undetected. There is a ton of interesting concepts here to play off of. In the second book of the series, the plot revolves around a serial killer from a quarantine zone.

I have always thought how refreshing it was to see that O'Neal decided to not take the vampire route with his sci-fi novel, though it initially seemed like he was in the first book. I love the evolutionary branch that he decided to go with in this series. The approaching alien vessel also created a fantastic red herring in the first book. Unfortunately in the sequel, the mediocre plot is poorly executed.

The main character, Tom Wilner, is extremely one dimensional. He comes across as a little too perfect. His love interest is a little rushed. It goes from innocent crush to full on love in a matter of a week. The killer had potential, don't get me wrong, but the reveal of his character was poorly done. You find out his identity very early in the book, seeing part of the narrative from his perspective. Near the end of the book you understand a little more of his psychosis, but at that point it is hardly relevant. The only character I cared for was Tom's best friend Steve, who showed many flaws, but made up for it with chutzpah. I found his storyline to be far more entertaining, and really wanted to see him succeed.

It may seem to some that I am nitpicking this book, but even the most easygoing critics must admit that there is some very lazy storytelling in this story. Far too often the story depended on last second coincidence in order to either save a character or progress the story. I can understand once in a story, but when it happens more than that, it just comes across as a little too convenient.

Don't get me wrong, despite the lazyish storytelling, I will read another book of this series. As I stated in the beginning, the setting is just too good.

A very good read. More of a good cop thriller than science fiction novel. But that may change as the story line progresses. As a native Floridian, I am very familiar with the locations in the story line. An enjoyable book. Hope to see more in this series.

I just finished reading it and I can see it would be an awesome movie! Wilner, the lead character, is the best part. I saw the review in the Sun-Sentinel by Oline H. Cogdill, and from the sound of it I could tell it would be one of my favorites. Here's his review:

Twenty-five years in the future, South Florida doesn't sound like a pleasant place.

With war and disease rampant throughout the world, Miami has become more a prison for its residents. Gone are the hot weather, beautiful beaches and the good life; they're replaced by dreary cold, ramshackle apartments and a "Wild West" mentality.

James O'Neal doesn't depict an appealing South Florida in his second futuristic mystery. But O'Neal, the pseudonym of Lake Worth author James O. Born, does deliver a gripping plot steeped in the tenets of the police procedural. Although the setting is pure science fiction, O'Neal's reliance on gripping hard-edged cop drama makes "The Double Human" realistic.

Tom Wilner, a detective with the nearly bankrupt Florida's Unified Police Forces, stumbles across something unheard of in decades - the trail of a serial killer. While violence and crime are commonplace in this new world order, no one has seen a case like this for at least 25 years. Tom also discovers another anomaly - the murderer dubbed "The Vampire" has been around for more than 50 years, successfully staying off the grid.

To solve the case, Tom goes undercover in one of Miami's most ravaged areas. He learns that some people there have carved out a decent life amid this vast wasteland. The believable characters show a future that, however bleak, has hope.

Working in the post-apocalyptic genre gives O'Neal a chance to be as outrageous as possible - from creating godlike hominids who live for centuries side by side with humans to positing new laws that wouldn't be tolerated now. While the reader hopes the landscape O'Neal writes about is pure fiction, the current reality of earthquakes, volcanoes and oil spills make the prospect of this apocalyptic future all too uncomfortable believable.

Devotees of both police procedurals and science fiction will be drawn to O'Neal's affinity for storytelling in "The Double Human."

Oline H. Cogdill

Editor Review (reviewed on May 1, 2010)

An engaging sequel that melds post-apocalypticstyle science fiction with a serial-killer thriller.

O'Neal, who has a real-life background in law enforcement (and who has written several crime novels under the name James O. Born, including 2008's Burn Zone ), revisits the violent, war-ravaged world of his novel The Human Disguise (2009). His latest is a variation on the serial-killer police procedural. Tom Wilner, a Unified Police Force detective from just outside the deadly Miami Quarantine Zone, is on the trail of a killer who murders people with a single puncture wound to the neck--an M.O. that's earned the killer the nickname "The Vampire." As Wilner and his partner, Steve Besslia, investigate, they find that the killer's been at it for some 50 years, and is stronger and faster than a normal person--and Wilner realizes that the killer may not even be human at all. O'Neal stages his tense action scenes with style and verve, and the sections that delve into the killer's mind are also chilling and effective. The author's world-building is also consistently well-thought-out, and he uses his setting's grim atmosphere to create a truly gritty and disconcertingly lawless society.

Once again, a worthwhile amalgam of the science-fiction and mystery genres.

Agent: Meg Ruley/Jane Rotrosen Literary Agency

While i enjoyed the first book alot and found the second one quite entertaining up until the last few pages, it is important to point out that this book lies. The book jacket leads you to believe leonard(the killer) and his victims are not human. When in reality not only is leonard human, and his ending is boring and unsatisfying. There is also no mention of his victims being anything other then human. I am done with james o'neal after this bold faced lie.