Bark at the Ghouls

I listened to the abridged version of this book.

The story reminds me very much of something Dean Koontz could have cooked up. It is fast paced (this author apparently doesn’t share Koontz’s proclivity for longwindyness) and tells a story of a boy and his dog infected with a cancer, gun-shot wound, burnt to a crisp curing, form of nano-technology. Don’t ask. My pea brain can’t comprehend it. Anyway, one of the scientists who worked on this technology is also infected with these nano-critters. But he went and infected himself with the bad kind (duh!) and instead of fixing whatever ails him they make him break out with big tumorous lesions and whomever he touches dies of plague-like symptoms. Why? You got me. Plague-man is desperately searching for the boy and his dog because he believes their blood will cure him. The boy, dog and their mom are hiding. Along the way he touches a few people and grossness occurs.

Scully, Mulder and The Smoking Man make a few appearances but this story doesn’t bring them to life in any exceptional way and it lacked Mulder’s morbid sense of humor. The book would’ve rated much higher if these characters came alive a bit more. Overall it was interesting, a little icky and very sad at times. It reminded me of a classic X-Files episode without the Mulderisms.