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'''False Memory''' is a novel by the best-selling author Dean Koontz, released in 1999. The main idea of the story is the creation of false memories or a memory that never occurred. In the novel, Martie Rhodes is a young woman who accompanies her friend Susan Jagger on visits to Doctor Ahriman, a doctor who specializes in mental diseases. Susan is said to have agoraphobia, or the fear of open spaces.
''False Memory'' was first released by Cemetery Dance Publications as a limited edition hardcover (ISBN 1-881475-85-9) that came in two different versions:

★ A limited edition of 698 signed, numbered, and slipcased copies (signed by Dean Koontz and Phil Parks who did the illustrations for the Cemetery Dance versions).

★ A lettered edition of 52 signed, lettered, and traycased copies (also signed by Dean Koontz and Phil Parks)

Contents

Synopsis

Links and references

Synopsis

While Martie deals with her friend Susan, Martie's husband, Dusty Rhodes, is also dealing with his brother Holden Caulfield, who goes by the name of "Skeet". His brother was in rehab for drug use, and when he first appears in the story, he is high and tries to commit suicide by taking a plunge off of a roof that he is supposed to be repairing. Dusty ends up having to take him back to rehab due to drug overdose.
The novel switches viewpoints between Dusty and Martie, showing the trials each one is going through throughout the novel. During many visits to Doctor Ahriman's office, Martie suddenly develops a mysterious case of fear of autophobia, fear of oneself, and returns home on the current day in the novel to find herself frightened her own reflection. Later, her condition worsens, and soon she becomes afraid of pointed objects, although she is actually afraid of the harm she might cause with them.
When the novel switches back to Dusty's viewpoint, he is with Skeet in a room in the rehab center, and later, when Dusty leaves, he notices a shadow lurking in his brother's room window. From this point on, strange things begin happening to both Dusty and Martie, involving Skeet, Martie's autophobia, and hypnotism.

Links and references

Limited Edition information on Cemetery Dance Publications' website