Idol is about a brilliant schizophrenic serial killer, Steven Wently, whose sensational murders of famous false idols receive universal publicity and public support. Wently imagines that the cumulative weight of revelations of crimes committed by false idols after their deaths will destroy humankind's faith in its heroes. He further reasons that such exposures will cast shadows over legitimacy of promises of man's immortality made by religious heroes like Christ, Hindu deities, and Muhammad. The result of civilization's loss of faith in its heroes and immortality will cause the collapse of civilization, Wently believes. He uses his wife's enormous wealth and her family's vast network of contacts to identify famous false heroes and create extensive dossiers of their crimes. As his alter ego, Idol, Wently tries, and executes these Pretenders, thereby destroying their mythical reputations before they die. His victims are varied -a prime candidate to replace the Pope, a U.S. Senator, a famous composer, a highly successful investment banker, a Supreme Court Justice, a former U.S. president, a United Nations Secretary General, etc. Over time, Wently builds an extensive organization to carry out his exterminations, a movement that becomes known as Idolism. Idolism attracts worldwide acclaim of millions, confounding government. Government, fearing that Idolism is unstoppable, takes steps to eliminate it, led by an utterly evil, maniacal assassin. Idol, like Budd's most recent thriller, Life Support, is an exciting amalgam of inventive plotting, extraordinary characters, spellbinding terror and edgy wit, and blurs lines between good and evil.
