#1523 A King of Infinite Space by Tyler Dilts

 

This is the first review of a novel by Tyler Dilts. A King of Infinite Space is the first of a four-book series with homicide detective Danny Beckett as the protagonist. It was suggested to me by my brother-in-law who recently retired from The Department of English at Long Beach State University. Stephen Cooper knew that I write a book about thrillers and murder mysteries and he thought I might enjoy this debut novel by Dilts, written in 2010. He is correct, and I’ve already downloaded the second book in the series, The Pain Scale.

 

Beckett is assigned to solve the murder of a young high school English teacher, a woman whose murder was particularly violent and gruesome, and it occurred in her own high school classroom. Beckett’s partner was a young female detective who brought a definite balance to the story about Beckett. He had lost his family nine years before in a horrific traffic accident following a big row between himself and his wife. He had avoided all relationships since that time, and he was clearly drinking too much alcohol as an ineffective means of coping with his loss, an event which continued to plague him with nightmares.

 

The title of the book comes from a line in Hamlet in conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about Hamlet’s perception that Denmark was a prison, and Rosencrantz counters that it Hamlet’s ambition that makes it so. Hamlet responded, “O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space – were it not that I have bad dreams.” There are actually several books that have borrowed that same line as a book title.

 

I thought Dilts did an excellent job with both the plot and character development. I look forward to taking up the second novel soon, but I have a writing queue that will keep me from that for the immediate future. You should know that in the nearly 1,400 reviews on the book in Amazon, that he was given a 4.5/5 star rating. Beckett is a compelling character.