Archive for Dean Koontz
What the Night Knows – Book Review
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What the Night Knows
Dean Koontz
Bantam Books, 2010, 442 pages, $28.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-80772-1
Review by Wayne C. Rogers
The first book I read with Dean Koontz’s name on it was Demon Seed in 1973. A few years later, I read The Key to Midnight under his Leigh Nichols pseudonym and Funhouse under his Owen West pseudonym. It wasn’t until the publication of Whispers in 1980 that I began to think I’d found a new author who could seriously entertain me. When Phantoms was published in 1983, I became addicted to the writer’s fiction much like a junkie becomes hooked on heroin. After that, I needed a Dean Koontz fix every several months to keep myself from running out into the streets in my BVDs and shouting, “They’re coming! They’re coming!” I’m happy to say that after twenty-seven years, I’m still an avid fan of the novels by Dean Koontz. He never ceases to entertain and surprise me with each book that comes out.
Now, what does all of this have to do with his newest novel, What the Night Knows? Probably not a damn thing, except I personally think this book is the best piece of fiction Dean Koontz has ever written, which is quite a statement when one considers all the fantastic novels this man has created over the past forty years. What the Night Knows will literally grab you in a strangle hold within the first few pages and then not let go till you either die of asphyxiation or get to the last page. There’s no way you’ll be able to figure out what’s going to happen no matter how hard you try. I know because I attempted to guess the ending and was dead wrong. This book kept me on my toes as a reader, never letting up its whirlwind pace and surprising me with every twist and turn.
The story deals with John Calvino, a man who survived the massacre of his family at age sixteen by the psychopathic Alton Turner Blackwood, a villain so evil and hideous that his spirit comes back twenty years later to finish what he started. Calvino, who’s now a homicide detective, notices a stark similarity in the massacre of an entire household by its youngest sibling. When he questions the boy who murdered, tortured, and raped the members of his own family, Calvino is taunted and told specific information only Blackwood could have known.
But, Blackwood is dead, and has been for two decades.
John should know because he’s the one who shot the killer in the face several times when he came home from his girlfriend’s house one night, only to find his parents and two sisters violently murdered, and Blackwood performing his macabre rituals.
Calvino now suspects his greatest fear has materialized and the spirit of Blackwood has come back to get its revenge, but no one will believe him. The evil entity is now after Calvino’s wife and kids, and will use any means possible to kill them. The detective knows his family is targeted. All he has to do is to figure out how protect them against a ghost. As other families in the area are murdered, the clock is ticking for John Calvino and his loved ones. He just doesn’t realize how fast, or the special surprise the spirit of Blackwood has in store for him.
When I first started What the Night Knows, I found myself reading the sentences out loud because the words used by the author were so beautiful and breathtaking in their descriptions. It certainly showed me how far I still have to go as a writer. Of course, the author has also written over eighty novels. He’s like the Energizer Bunny on steroids when it comes to writing. Still, he outdid himself with his newest book. Not only are the words carefully chosen, but the characters are fully rounded, and you quickly get to know them as real individuals. The villain, Alton Turner Blackwood is certainly one of the most terrifying characters in fictional history and gave me the jitters that lasted for days.
The lead character, John Calvino, is much like the other male characters in the author’s previous books; brave, loving, truthful in most cases, filled with an inner sadness, and ready to do battle against those who might harm his loved ones. The wife and kids seem like the perfect family, which is why Blackwood wants to destroy them in the most horrible fashion. The plot has so many twists and turns in it that I finally gave up trying to figure out the ending and just went with the flow. I mean, how do you protect yourself against a malevolent spirit when no one believes you and even the Catholic Church won’t come to your assistance?
Right up till the last ten pages, I felt sure the Calvino family was going to be butchered, which is not the type of ending Dean Koontz is known for. Fortunately, he pulled a rabbit out of the hat and surprised me with the final outcome. Or, maybe the family was massacred in order to create a different type of ending from his unusual books. You have to read it to find out!
If, like me, you’re a Dean Koontz fan, don’t wait for the paperback to come out. Run to the nearest bookstore, or go directly to Amazon and buy the hardcover when it comes out near the end of December. You’ll want to grab this book up and find a secret place to read it. Why? So people will leave you alone! I lost count on how many individuals saw me reading this on the bus going to and from work. They wanted to know what it was about and if I would loan it to them once I was finished. My roommate, however, won the toss and now has the novel in her possession. I told her not to let Alton Turner Blackwood get under her skin, or she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night! Needless to say, this novel is highly recommended to those who want to sit on the edge of their seat, biting their fingernails in avid anticipation.
Editor’s Note: Wayne C. Rogers is the author of the horror novellas – The Encounter, The Tunnels, and The Cat From Hell. These can be purchased as Kindle e-books on Amazon for ninety-nine cents each.
What The Night Knows – Free Chapters
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What The Night Knows by Dean Koontz will be released on December 26th but you can read the first four chapters online today. Here’s where: What The Night Knows
Description: In the late summer of a long ago year, a killer arrived in a small city. His name was Alton Turner Blackwood, and in the space of a few months he brutally murdered four families. His savage spree ended only when he himself was killed by the last survivor of the last family, a fourteen-year-old boy.
Half a continent away and two decades later, someone is murdering families again, recreating
in detail Blackwood’s crimes. Homicide detective John Calvino is certain that his own family—his wife and three children—will be targets in the fourth crime, just as his parents and sisters were victims on that distant night when he was fourteen and killed their slayer.
As a detective, John is a man of reason who deals in cold facts. But an extraordinary experience convinces him that sometimes death is not a one-way journey, that sometimes the dead return.
Here is ghost story like no other you have read. In the Calvinos, Dean Koontz brings to life a family that might be your own, in a war for their survival against an adversary more malevolent than any he has yet created, with their own home the battleground. Of all his acclaimed novels, none exceeds What the Night Knows in power, in chilling suspense, and in sheer mesmerizing storytelling.
Here’s the book trailer:
What The Night Knows is also available in a signed, limited edition from Charnel House. You can find out more and pre-order here: What The Night Knows Limited
And finally, you can pre-order the regular edition through Amazon.com here: What The Night Knows
What The Night Knows
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Bantam is set to release the next Dean Koontz novel, What The Night Knows, on December 28th of this year.
Description: In the late summer of a long ago year, a killer arrived in a small city. His name was Alton Turner Blackwood, and in the space of a few months he brutally murdered four families. His savage spree ended only when he himself was killed by the last survivor of the last family, a fourteen-year-old boy.
Half a continent away and two decades later, someone is murdering families again, recreating in detail Blackwood’s crimes. Homicide detective John Calvino is certain that his own family — his wife and three children — will be targets in the fourth crime, just as his parents and sisters were victims on that distant night when he was fourteen and killed their slayer.
As a detective, John is a man of reason who deals in cold facts. But an extraordinary experience convinces him that sometimes death is not a one-way journey, that sometimes the dead return.
Here is a ghost story like no other you have read. In the Calvinos, Dean Koontz brings to life a family that might be your own, in a war for their survival against an adversary more malevolent than any he has yet created, with their own home the battleground. Of all his acclaimed novels, none exceeds What the Night Knows in power, in chilling suspense, and in sheer mesmerizing storytelling.
You can read a preview of the novel here: What The Night Knows
You can pre-order this one from Amazon.com here: What The Night Knows
Shadowfires Released In Paperback
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Shadowfires by Dean Koontz has been released in a new paperback edition by Berkley Trade. This was Leigh Nichols’ (a Koontz pseudonym) fifth and final novel, and her only outright horror novel.
In an essay about the book Koontz says, “In horror fiction, my personal taste runs toward stories that avoid gore, that emphasize dark wonder instead of graphic violence. I want stories that recognize a hemispherical mythos – by which I mean stories that display a genuine belief in the existence of both Good and Evil as real forces in the world, instead of portraying Evil in a strictly Good – free nihilistic context – and that have a strong sense of human dignity.”
You can read his complete essay here: Shadowfires
Description: A woman’s relief over the death of her husband gives way to mind-numbing terror in this shockingly suspenseful thriller.
Rachael’s request for a quick and clean divorce enraged her husband. She had never seen Eric so angry, so consumed by pure and terrifying hatred. Then, in the heat of the moment, Eric was struck down in a traffic accident. His death was instantaneous. Shocked and relieved, Rachael had nothing left to fear. Until Eric’s body disappeared from the morgue — and Rachael was stalked by someone who looked like her dead husband…
You can listen to an audiobook excerpt here: Shadowfires
Odd Is On Our Side – The Graphic Novel
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Odd Is On Our Side, the new graphic novel by Dean Koontz and Fred Van Lente is now available.
Description: When things get scary, it’s nice to know that Odd is on our side.
The one and only Odd Thomas is back—in his second edgy and enthralling graphic-novel adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling suspense master Dean Koontz.
It’s Halloween in Pico Mundo, California, and there’s a whiff of something wicked in the autumn air. While the town prepares for its annual festivities, young fry cook Odd Thomas can’t shake the feeling that make-believe goblins and ghouls aren’t the only things on the prowl. And he should know, since he can see what others cannot: the spirits of the restless dead. But even his frequent visitor, the specter of Elvis Presley, can’t seem to point Odd in the right direction.
With the help of his gun-toting girlfriend, Stormy, Odd is out to uncover the terrible truth. Is something sinister afoot in the remote barn guarded by devilish masked men? Has All Hallows Eve mischief taken a malevolent turn? Or is the pleading ghost of a trick-or-treater a frightening omen of doom?
You can read an excerpt here: Odd is On Our Side
You can purchase from Amazon.com here: Odd is On Our Side
Koontz Reads From The Good Guy
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Thought you might enjoy listening to Dean Koontz read a section from his novel The Good Guy.
About The Story: Timothy Carrier, having a beer after work at his friend’s tavern, enjoys drawing eccentric customers into amusing conversations. But the jittery man who sits next to him tonight has mistaken Tim for someone very different—and passes to him a manila envelope full of cash.
“Ten thousand now. You get the rest when she’s gone.”
The stranger walks out, leaving a photo of the pretty woman marked for death, and her address. But things are about to get worse. In minutes another stranger sits next to Tim. This one is a cold-blooded killer who believes Tim is the man who has hired him.
Thinking fast, Tim says, “I’ve had a change of heart. You get ten thousand—for doing nothing. Call it a no-kill fee.” He keeps the photo and gives the money to the hired killer. And when Tim secretly follows the man out of the tavern, he gets a further shock: the hired killer is a cop.
Suddenly, Tim Carrier, an ordinary guy, is at the center of a mystery of extraordinary proportions, the one man who can save an innocent life and stop a killer far more powerful than any cop…and as relentless as evil incarnate. But first Tim must discover within himself the capacity for selflessness, endurance, and courage that can turn even an ordinary man into a hero, inner resources that will transform his idea of who he is and what it takes to be The Good Guy.
Now that you’ve got a foundation, join Koontz for a short reading: The Good Guy
Darkness Under The Sun – Dean Koontz
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Dean Koontz’s all new ebook novella, Darkness Under the Sun, will be available as a Random House ebook everywhere October 25, 2010.
Description: The chilling account of a pivotal encounter between innocence and ultimate malice, Darkness Under the Sun is the perfect read for Halloween – or for any haunted night – and reveals a secret, fateful turning point in the career of Alton Turner Blackwood, the killer at the dark heart of What the Night Knows, the forthcoming novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.
There once was a killer who knew the night, its secrets and rhythms. How to hide within its shadows. When to hunt.
He roamed from town to town, city to city, choosing his prey for their beauty and innocence. His cruelties were infinite, his humanity long since forfeit. But still…he had not yet discovered how to make his special mark among monsters, how to come fully alive as Death.
This is the story of how he learned those things, and of what we might do to insure that he does not visit us.
You can also preorder through the Dean Koontz website here: Darkness Under The Sun
