Dean R(ay) Koontz 1945 -

"I believe the best fiction does three things well: tells an involving story, makes the reader think, and makes the reader feel."

His Life:

Dean Ray Koontz was born on July 9, 1945, in Everett, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Bedford. His father, Ray Koontz, was a salesperson who had trouble holding a job for any length of time. He was also a violent alcoholic. "I was always in physical fear of my father," Koontz told Andrea Chambers in People, "because he would get drunk, smash furniture and carry on terribly. My childhood was almost unrelenting terror." Koontz's mother, Florence, worked as a sales clerk and provided her son with love and some sense of stability. She died in 1969 after suffering a number of strokes.

Koontz's bad relationship with his father had a huge effect on who he would become. As an escape, he would often read comics and science fiction books, as well as works by Robert A. Heinlein, Elmore Leonard, and John D. McDonald. At age eight, Koontz began to write stories and sell them to relatives for a nickel. After graduating from high school in 1963, Koontz attended Shippensburg State College, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1966. As an undergraduate, he won an Atlantic Monthly fiction writing contest for the short story "The Kittens," and later was quite proud when he sold the piece for $50.

While continuing to write, Koontz took his first job out of college in 1966 with a governmental initiative called the Appalachian Poverty Program, working as a teacher and counselor in the former mining town of Saxton, Pennsylvania. When he took the job, he was unaware that he would be responsible for some of the area's children with the worst discipline problems, and that the man who had filled the post before him had been run off the road and beaten up by his own students.

After spending a year with that program, Koontz taught high school English in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, from 1967 to 1969 while continuing to sell his work. His first novel, the science fiction story Star Quest, was published in 1968.

His wife, Gerda, at one point told him that he could quit his day job and concentrate on writing, and she would support him for a maximum of five years with her job in a shoe factory. Kontz says that his early books were not very good "both because I was so young and unself-critical and because the low earnings of each book forced me to write a lot of them in order to keep financially afloat." For his first novel, he received just $1,000. In 1970 alone, he saw five more published.

During the 1970s and into the 1980s, Koontz wrote under various pen names, depending on the type of book. His pen names included Brian Coffey (which he used for crime/suspense novels), Deanna Dwyer (gothic), K. R. Dwyer (suspense), John Hill (science fiction) Leigh Nichols (romantic suspense), and Owen West (horror).

He considers his first work as a "real" author to be Chase, 1972, written under the name K. R. Dwyer. It was a suspense novel that dealt with the effect of the Vietnam War on a veteran.
Novels as K. R. Dwyer included Chase, 1972; Shattered , 1973; and Dragonfly, 1975.

His Books:

His Books: As Dean Koontz

Just picture this - a man with a limp and a woman are alone in an office building, trapped with a serial killer in the middle of a snowstorm. The only thing these weaponless, vulnerable victims can do to defend themselves from this gun - totting serial killer is to run and not look back. It is a long, suspenseful, and enjoyable chase scene. "And I mean it when I say enjoyable. You will love it. For Dean Koontz, only the highest praises. Mr. Koontz, between you and me, I honestly think you outdid Stephen King on this one. As for writers out there who want to write suspense fiction - Dean Koontz is the master to learn from. Face of Fear is truly the most thrilling novel ever. "

The central character of this book is Mary Bergen, a sweet, sensitive, psychic. She endured a torture at the tender age of 6 that she can't remember. Through the physical and emotional trauma at that tender age, she developed psychic ability. She uses that psychic ability to help police solve homicide cases and find the killers. With her during these endeavors is her devoted brother Alan. Also there is her tough, but tender husband, Max. Max is depicted as a tough character with eyes of cold steel that only show tenderness when he is with Mary. Of course Alan and Max don't get along, each hating the other. Soon a series of brutal murders begin to take place. Mary sees the crimes committed, can feel the pain of the young women who are murdered, but never manages to develop a vision of the killer's face. Soon, she knows, this killer is going to come after her. Can she solve this series of brutal crimes before she becomes the next victim?

He's back--the terror that stalked Hilary Thomas as a child is back in her life, in her house, at her bedroom door. She killed him once. But he keeps coming back. Again. And again... Koontz has created one of the most memorable villains. The reason why this one is so special is because it's not the typical EVIL character. You really get to symphatize with him more than once. On the other hand is the victim, Hilary, a woman who has fought all her way up to the top and is scared that everything she has accomplished so far may crumble down any second. " The final chapter is by far the best and keeps the suspense at its peak literaly until the last page."

The lights are on in Snowfield, California, a cozy ski village nestled in the Sierra Madres, but nobody seems to be home. When Dr. Jenny Paige returns to the small town, she finds tables set for dinner, meals being prepared, and music playing in living rooms, but there's no trace of the people who put the water on to boil or set an extra place for company at the dinner table. As she explores the town, Paige finds friends and neighbors felled by a mysterious force--the bodies show no visible signs of violence or disease, and no known plague kills victims before the ice in their dinner drinks has time to melt. But the deep quiet that surrounds her offers few clues about the fate of the town's inhabitants. Dean Koontz's Phantoms strikes fear in readers from the very beginning. The mystery deepens, paving the way for a chilling journey toward the truth. If you plan to catch the film version, starring Ben Affleck and Peter O'Toole, remember that you'll be experiencing this terrifying story in a dark theater. So bring an arm to grab! -

"This is an action packed story that deals with a fanatical religious cult called the Servants of the Twilight. They are led by a woman named Mother Grace, who claims that she has visions from God. Joey Scavello is the perfect six year old kid, and he is being raised alone by his mother Christine. Mother Grace's newest vision is that Joey is the Antichrist. Mother Grace convinces the Servants of the Twilight that he must be killed. To protect themselves, they hire the resourceful and highly successful private investigator Charlie Harrison. Charlie is determined to find out more about the cult and keep Joey and Christine safe. The only problem is that no matter where they go, the Servants are waiting... "Midwest Book Review

A group of seemingly unrelated people experiences sensations of numbing terror and fear and, groping their way toward one another, discover their sinister, shared secrets in a chilling climax that changes their lives forever. Dominic Corvaisis is a famous and talented writer whose nightmares cause him to sleepwalk. Ginger Weiss is a talented surgeon who fears black leather gloves and has constant paranoia of being followed. Jack Twist is a highly skilled criminal whose fear causes him to lose interest in commiting crimes all together. Jorja has a daughter named Kara that has nightmares about and obsesses on the color red. Brendan Cronin is a priest whose constant fear has caused him to start to lose his faith. This group of strangers is also driven by the common need to find the truth and each other. The truth is waiting for them at the Tranquilty Motel. But unfortunately, it may be the end of them all.

Nomatter what age or genre of books you like this is a classic. This is about two escaped lab experiements, an human intelligent monster and a dog with human intelligence. The dog is being hunted by the monster and his ability to locate the dog. From a reader, " It has very great details and is a great story. "

Rachel Leben’s violently possessive ex-husband was killed in a freak auto accident, but his hideously mangled body has disappeared from the morgue. Now someone, or something, is watching her. Stalking her. And, although no one will believe her, Rachel knows who it is. His walking corpse a grotesque mockery of life. His brilliant, warped mind once again “alive” and seething with jealous rage. He seeks an unspeakable revenge from beyond her worst nightmare, stalking her with a murderous lust that will not die . "A fearful divorcee is relieved when her enraged ex-husband dies in a freak accident, but her terror returns when his body disappears and she is stalked by a man who looks just like him. "

A storm struck on the day Laura was born, saving her from a botched delivery. The stranger that saved her that day keeps appearing throughout her life. He claims to be her gaurdian angel, but could something more sinister be involved? And why is that he never seems to age? This book is full of drama, suspense, evil and love. Everytime Laura is in trouble her "stranger" would appear, and save her from harm. A reader writes, "It's great, exciting, and wonderful!!! READ IT!!!"

Whether you are an adult in the workforce or an 11-year old child, this book is a must read. Dean Koontz, who normally doesn't write children's literature, has created an abosultely incredible book. This is a book which parents should read to their children. "My mother read it to me when it came out, and I loved the story then as much as I do now. She still reads it to her fifth grade class, and they love it. Truly, this is one of the best written books I have ever read."

This is an hallucinagenic, creepy precursor to "Fear Nothing." Starting in the mid-1980s, Dean Koontz hit his stride with a series of terrific cross-genre novels, starting with "Strangers," which was about alien contact; "Watchers," which was about genetic engineering; and "Lightning," which was about . . . well, you'll have to read that on your own. "Midnight" continues the trend, though it veers more toward horror than the others. The novel is set in a small town in Northern California, where an experiment has been transforming humans into "something else." An FBI agent and a ragtag group of survivors bands together to respond to the horror.

Dean Koontz has a knack to which no one can compare. "After this, I thought, I wonder what kind of dreams does he have at night? One thing I found that separates him from other Horror writers, is that they're not all horror, but humor, suspense included, and they're context are topics which can really happen. Many we've seen today. People of having paranormal ability; those who channel it for good and those who channel it evil of unbelievable levels. When you read it, you'll find the answer to many of your questions. Yes, it can happen, evil is everywhere among us. This just sheds light on matters we never thought about. "

Only a mad man is dead certain of his sanity. Or is he? Take a mysterious journey to a lighthouse with pschic Jim Ironheart and his arresting blue eyes and misremembered past. Tag along with the lovely newspaper reporter, Holly Thorne who thinks she is in love with him, whoever he is. Maybe camping out in his backyard will get him to notice her. Along the way meet a pair of unnatural enities named "The Enemy" and "the Friend." It's a journey you will not long forget.

Koontz's novels crest bestseller lists not only for their heart-pounding horrors but also for their celebration of righteousness and redemption. Here, the author offers his most overtly religious tale yet--a fiercely exciting battle between two men who have returned from the dead. The California-set conflict is as simple as good vs. evil. In a roaringly suspenseful opening, antique-dealer Hatch Harrison, the soul of sweetness, drowns during a car accident that nearly kills his wife Lindsey as well, and is surgically ``reanimated'' after a record 80 minutes dead. Upon awakening, Hatch's first words are ``Something's out there''--for he now suffers a psychic link with a man whp calls himself, Vassago, And at the same time, Vassago flashes on Hatch's world, including Lindsey and spunky, crippled Regina, the orphan the Harrisons have just adopted in their new embrace of life after years of mourning a son lost to cancer. Deciding that vibrant Regina would make the perfect final offering to Satan, Vassago--revealed through tense and brutal flashback as the homicidally deranged son of the surgeon who saved Hatch--cuts a bloody path to the Harrisons' door, kidnapping Regina off to his underground lair. IA grandly melodramatic morality play that will have Koontz's fans--both here and in heaven--cheering.

Martin Stillwater is a novelist with a wife and children he adores -- and an imagination he can't control. One rainy afternoon, a stranger breaks into Martin's house and accuses him of stealing his family, his name, and his life. Martin has no choice but to take his family and flee, even as he questions his own sanity. But wherever they go, the stranger is right behind them.

Detective Harry Lyon and his partner, Connie, are opposites; he likes order and she chaos, he safety and she danger. But both have the same reaction when they discover they are being stalked by an unseen force that sends monsterous golums with red eyes to torment them and tell them they'll be dead before dawn. They resolve to find this force ... and kill it. Harry and Connie have given this monster the name, Ticktock since ticktock is his favorite word when taunting them -- has heightened the game by freezing time. Ticktock cannot be killed by bullets. He cannot be burnt by fire. He can appear anywhere and everywhere without notice. The childishly sadistic force behind him must be having a high old time.

It seems these nasty octopi have invaded Montana. At first, you don't see them. Then they go inside raccoons and squirrels and crows and make their brains explode. Shotguns won't stop them. Uzis won't stop them. Fire won't stop them. Only mind control works. The mind of the innocent: young Toby McGarvey, son of that brave policeman Jack McGarvey, who was nearly killed ridding the earth of scum down in L.A. The family comes to Montana because they inherit a ranch from Eduardo Fernandez, whose only son was Jack's slain partner. There's also some stuff about a crazed movie director out on a killing spree, but it's never quite connected to the octopi. Are the octopi symbolic of the evil that slinks and oozes among Angelenos? Probably not. Does Koontz mean to trade upon the contemporary myth of cattle mutilations? Maybe so.

Enjoy a novel which packs in suspense: a man and a woman, each a nomad and loner, meet in a bar and join to flee a common, illegal agency. A mad agent tracks them, with his government connections and powers seemingly infinite. Do you dare step through the red door? Spencer Grant had no idea what drew him to the bar with the red door. He thought he would just sit down, have a slow beer or two, and talk to a stranger. He couldn't know that it would lead to a narrow escape from a bungalow targeted by a SWAT team. Or that it would leave him a wanted man. Now he is on the run from mysterious and ruthless men. He is in love with a woman he knows next to nothing about. And he is hiding from a past he can't fully remember.

Dean Koontz's "The Door to December" revolves around a girl named Melanie. She was kidnapped by her dad when she was three. For six years she is subjected to tons of abuse and numerous amounts of torture. Six years later, Melanie's mother Laura receives a call from the police telling her that they have found three dead bodies, and one of them is her ex husband. Frantic to know what has happened to her daughter, she rushes over. Dan Haldaine is the detective that is in charge of the investigation. The one thing they don't find is Melanie. Later that night , she is found wandering the streets with a blank look in her eyes. She is now catatonic and borderline autistic. Laura, Dan Haldaine, and a bodyguard named Earl team up to find the truth behind Melanie's past. Along the way they incounter an invisible and unstoppable creature that is responsible for killing anyone associated with Melanie and her past. The key to unlocking the past lies within the unknown Door to December.

The King of Creep is back, not with a novel, however, but with his first collection of short fiction. The title piece, one of the two very long works in the collection, is the tale of a young man's hallucinations; the other long story, entitled "Chase," is a dark, almost dank psychological suspense yarn. An out-and-out monster appears in the shorter "Black Pumpkin," and "Bruno" is a combination sf and detective story. Other stories take different approaches to tingling the reader's spine, but all are successful. Koontz's legion of fans won't be let down. STRANGE HIGHWAYS is Koontz's spellbinding collection of tales interconnected by the strange highways of human experience-the adventures, terrors, failures, and triumphs encountered on the roads that are chosen, and on those detoured by fate.

A young woman staying as a guest in a Napa Valley farmhouse becomes trapped in a fight for survival with a self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer", and races to warn his next intended victim. Unrelentingly terrifying, this book lives up to its name.

A team of enthusiastic scientists are finishing up the task of planting explosives in an Artic iceberg. It's part of a revolutionary, new idea to provide fresh water to a drought-stricken United States. Just when it seems that the expedition will wrap up in a state of tremendous success, the worst of the worst chain of events make for an exciting story of chance and heroics. A secret Arctic experiment turns into a frozen nightmare when a team of scientists, stranded on a drifting iceberg with a massive explosive charge, battle the elements for survival, only to discover that one of them is a murderer.

The scene is Las Vegas... After the supposed death of her son, Danny, Tina Evans starts obsessing over the belief that he is infact still alive... This is an intense story filled with action and science fiction along with an interwoven love story. " could not put it down. This is a great read and I would recommend it to any Dean Koontz or Steven King fan."A woman is convinced her supposedly dead little boy is still alive. He seems to be supernaturally manifesting himself around her, but she's sure he isn't a ghost. Someone believes her, and helps her track the boy down. Is the boy still alive? And if he is, why would someone be holding him incommunicado?

Tommy Phan is a successful detective novelist, living the American Dream in southern California. One evening he comes home to find a small rag doll on his doorstep. It's a simple doll, covered entirely in white cloth, with crossed black stitches for the eyes and mouth, and another pair forming an X over the heart. Curious, he brings it inside. That night, Tommy hears an odd popping sound and looks up to see the stitches breaking over the doll's heart. And in minutes the fabric of Tommy Phan's reality will be torn apart. Something terrifying emerges from the pristine white cloth, something that will follow Tommy wherever he goes. Something that he can't destroy. It wants Tommy's life and he doesn't know why. He has only one ally, a beautiful, strangely intuitive waitress he meets by chance--or by a design far beyond his comprehension. He has too many questions, no answers, and very little time. Because the vicious and demonically clever doll has left this warning on Tommy's computer screen: The deadline is dawn.
Tickktock
Time is running out.

This new edition of Demon Seed is an updated version of a novel that Koontz wrote in the 70's (of which a film version was made). The basic plot of the story is that a super-intelligent computer named Proteus becomes self-aware, and falls in what he thinks is love with the wife of the scientist who helped design him. He enters her fully-automated house by way of the controlling computer, and soon has her trapped inside. After being made into a movie in 1977 (which I haven't seen, but plan to), "Demon Seed" was revised into the current edition you're looking at right now. In the afterwards of this book, Dean Koontz claimed it (the movie) was so bad that it caused him to "develop the squint-eyed look of Clint Eastwood" from wincing so much.

If you think you've got it tough, meet Christopher Snow, the hero of Dean Koontz's novel Fear Nothing. Not only did his parents die under mysterious circumstances, but he's also being stalked by shadowy characters who want Snow to stop trying to find out how they died--or else they'll bump off his remaining loved ones (his supersmart, beer-lapping dog, Orson; his best surfing buddy, Bobby; and his late-night deejay girlfriend, Sasha). And as if being on the lam in his own hometown, Moonlight Bay, California, isn't bad enough, Snow has to outrun his pursuers without leaving town.

Joe Carpenter, the hero Sole Survivor, is a man nearly paralyzed by grief. One year earlier, his wife and two children had been among the 230 victims of a plane crash that left no survivors. So when Joe encounters a woman who claims to have been aboard that plane and survived the catastrophe, and then she almost immediately disappears, he is understandably riled up. In the course of trying to track this woman down, Joe finds himself entangled in a web of shadowy conspiracy and perilous secrets. This book takes the reader along with Joe as he investigates and discovers the truth about the plane crash that striped his family from him.

Chris Snow, the light-phobic, oddball hero of Dean Koontz's Fear Nothing , is once again caught in the middle of something ugly. The children (and pets) of Moonlight Bay, California, are disappearing. The first to go is Jimmy Wing, the son of Snow's former girlfriend, Lilly. Then Snow's own hyper-intelligent dog goes missing. Snow decides that he will find them, but what he uncovers is more than just a simple kidnapping; before he can turn back, he's up against an age-old vendetta, an active time machine, and a genetic experiment gone awry.

Horrormeister Koontz looks heavenward for inspiration in his newest suspense thriller, which is chock-full of signs, portents, angels, and one somewhat second-rate devil, and a guy named Junior Cain who throws his beloved wife off a fire tower on an Oregon mountain and spends the rest of the novel waiting for the retribution that will surely come. But not before a series of tragedies ensues that convince Junior that someone or something named Bartholomew is out to exact vengeance for that crime and the series of other murders that follow. Bartholomew's own troubles begin with his birth, which transpires moments after his father is killed in a traffic accident as he is taking his wife to the hospital, and continue with the loss of his eyes at the tender age of 3. Young Bartholomew has visionary gifts, though to his mother, he's just a particularly smart kid who can read and write before his second birthday.

It's a fear more paralyzing than falling. More terrifying than absolute darkness. More horrifying than anything you can imagine. It's the one fear you cannot escape, no matter where you run...no matter where you hide. It's the fear of yourself. It's real. It can happen to you. And facing it can be deadly. It is fear for your mind. Martie Rhodes is a successful video game designer married to a good man named Dusty. Her best friend Susan suffers from agoraphobia ( fear of open spaces) and stays locked up in her apartment everyday. She depends on Martie to take her to her weekly therapy sessions. Martie's life is turned upside down when she too becomes inflicted with a deadly fear - the fear of yourself and what you might do to others. Dusty begins a frantic search for clues to tell him what's going on. Unfortunately, Dusty begins to find himself inflicted with a condition that is even worse than Martie's.

Micky Bellsong is a young woman at a crisis point in her life, using a stay at her Aunt Geneva's to sort things out. Then the precocious and deformed Leilani Klonk walks into her life, telling stories of her stepfather and drugged-up mother, who believe aliens will beam the girl into their mothership and heal her deformities before her 10th birthday. But tales of the stepfather's vicious past, including his hand in several murders, leave Micky believing that a far more terrible fate awaits her friend. So when the parents take off with Leilani, Micky pursues.

The story begins when Jilly, Dylan, and Shep's lives collide in a motel where a mad-scientist type character injects them with "stuff" and promises that "it does something different to everyone." Indeed, Dylan begins to feel psychic spoors on objects he touches, Jilly sees visions/mirages, and Shep learns how to "fold" the world around him (read the book to find out more). As they focus their abilities, these characters are bound together in a race to save lives and divert heartache and pain. A group of seemingly unrelated people experiences sensations of numbing terror and fear and, groping their way toward one another, discover their sinister, shared secrets in a chilling climax that changes their lives forever.

Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it. As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tock spends long hours walking the corridors between the expectant fathers' waiting room and his dying father's bedside. It's a strange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of the storm's fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the frist and last time since his stroke.

What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson—five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face. The first is to occur in his twentieth year; the second in his twent-third year; the third in his twenty-eighth; the fourth in his twenty-ninth; the fifth in his thirtieth.

Every city has secrets. But none as terrible as this. His name is Deucalion, a tattooed man of mysterious origin, a sleight–of–reality artist who’s traveled the centuries with a secret worse than death. He arrives as a serial killer stalks the streets, a killer who carefully selects his victims for the humanity that is missing in himself. Detective Carson O’Connor is cool, cynical, and every bit as tough as she looks. Her partner Michael Maddison would back her up all the way to Hell itself–and that just may be where this case ends up. For the no–nonsense O’Connor is suddenly talking about an ages–old conspiracy, a near immortal race of beings, and killers that are more—and less—than human. Soon it will be clear that as crazy as she sounds, the truth is even more ominous. For their quarry isn’t merely a homicidal maniac—but his deranged maker.

In one of the most dazzling books of his celebrated career, Dean Koontz delivers a masterwork of page-turning suspense that surpasses even his own inimitable reputation as a chronicler of our worst fears—and best dreams. In The Taking he tells the story of a community cut off from a world under siege, and the terrifying battle for survival waged by a young couple and their neighbors as familiar streets become fog-shrouded death traps. Gripping, heartbreaking, and triumphant in the face of mankind's darkest hour, here is a small-town slice-of-doomsday thriller that strikes to the core of each of us to ask: What would you do in the midst of The Taking.

On the morning that will mark the end of the world they have known, Molly and Niel Sloan awaken to the drumbeat of rain on their roof. It has haunted their sleep, invaded their dreams, and now they rise to find a luminous silvery downpour drenching their small California mountain town. A strange scent hangs faintly in the air, and the young couple cannot shake the sense of something wrong.

They are stronger, heal better, and think faster than any humans ever created—and they must be destroyed. But not even Victor Helios—once Frankenstein—can stop the engineered killers he’s set loose on a reign of terror through modern-day New Orleans. Now the only hope rests in a one-time “monster” and his all-too-human partners, Detectives Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison. Deucalion’s centuries-old history began as Victor’s first and failed attempt to build the perfect human–and it is fated to end in the ultimate confrontation between a damned creature and his mad creator. But first Deucalion must destroy a monstrosity not even Victor’s malignant mind could have imagined—an indestructible entity that steps out of humankind’s collective nightmare with one purpose: to replace us.

It's another boring day in paradise for gardener Mitch Rafferty, planting impatiens on a rich client's lawn. Then his cell rings. It's Holly, his wife, and she doesn't sound good. Someone slaps her, she screams, and a man comes on to tell Mitch that he has 60 hours to raise $2 million to ransom her. Just so Mitch knows they mean business, the man says, see the guy walking a dog across the street? Mitch looks and blam! A bullet to the head kills the dog walker. Let this be a warning, too, that the kidnapper-killers will know if Mitch says word one to the cops about his predicament, and Holly will suffer. Where is a gardener supposed to get $2 million? The sinister caller says he'll let Mitch know; just be a good machine and follow instructions. Despite his terror, Mitch does until . . . But uh-uh-uh, nothing should be given away about this sinuous nail-biter's developments. Suffice it to say that Mitch's intensely warped family, managed according to his rigidly materialistic psychologist-father's theories; two betrayals, one of Mitch, the other of the kidnappers; a slick child pornography entrepreneur; a humane but persistent police detective; and a New Ager psychopath all help ratchet up the suspense

Odd lives always between two worlds in the small desert town of Pico Mundo, where the heroic and the harrowing are everyday events. Odd never asked to communicate with the dead—it’s something that just happened. But as the unofficial goodwill ambassador between our world and theirs, he’s got a duty to do the right thing. That’s the way Odd sees it and that’s why he’s won hearts on both sides of the divide between life and death.

A childhood friend of Odd’s has disappeared. The worst is feared. But as Odd applies his unique talents to the task of finding the missing person, he discovers something worse than a dead body, encounters an enemy of exceptional cunning, and spirals into a vortex of terror.

Odd has retreated to a monastery in the Sierra Nevadas that permanently hosts a billionaire physicist in an underground lab. The mogul has given his entire fortune to support the monastery and attached convent in their work of housing and educating severely damaged children, the most interesting of which is now a 25-year-old artistic savant. As the story opens, bodachs--animated shadows that gather in anticipation of lethal violence, which only Odd among the living sees--are invading the children's quarters. Can Odd mitigate the coming cataclysm? Of course he can, despite the arrival of murderous bone creatures and grim Death itself, for the monks include quite a contingent of reformed martial sinners, most memorably Brother Knuckles, formerly of the New Jersey Mob, and another guest, a mysterious Russian librarian from Indianapolis, who is more and different than Odd thinks he is. Koontz salts Odd's narration with some wonderful zingers at the expense of cultural degeneracy and political folly.

Amy Redwing's risk-taking on behalf of desperate dogs is legendary. With money she inherited from a source she will never discuss, she founded and runs a group that rescues abandoned or abused golden retrievers. She has a treasury of astonishing rescue stories -- and she'll be broke by the time she's forty if she carries on funding the work. Is it this reckless devotion to her work that prevents her making a commitment to the love of her life, Brian McCarthy? It seems so when a particularly thrilling and bizarre rescue brings Nickie into her care. Nickie is instantly recognized as pack leader by Amy's own two dogs, and her bond with Amy is like no other dog's. But at this moment of joy an unknown and dangerous person arrives on the scene. Amy believes her attacker is Wes Greeley, just released after an eighteen-month stretch for egregious animal cruelty thanks to Amy's testimony. Subtle intrusions escalate into terrifying assaults on everything Amy holds dear.

Timothy Carrier, a quiet stone mason having a beer in a California bar, meets a stranger who mistakes him for a hit man. The stranger slips Tim a manila envelope containing $10,000 in cash and a photo of the intended victim, Linda Paquette, a writer in Laguna Beach, then leaves. A moment later, Krait, the real killer, shows up and assumes Tim is his client. Tim manages to distract Krait from immediately carrying out the hit by saying he's had a change of heart and offering Krait the $10,000 he just received. This ploy gives the stone mason enough time to warn Linda before they begin a frantic flight for their lives. While it may be a stretch that the first man wouldn't do a better job of confirming Tim's identity, the novel's breathless pacing, clever twists and adroit characterizations all add up to superior entertainment.