Horror at its best

I’ve always been a fan of Dean Koontz novels and picked this one up on a trip to a used bookstore in old town. I have never been disappointed with a Koontz book, though some are better than others. This one is definitely one of his better ones with an excellent plot and many sub plots that lead into it.

Characters
Frank Pollard – The main character who is plagued with amnesia and often finds himself waking up in strange places with strange evidence as to where he’s been.

Robert Dakota – He co-owns a private investigator firm with his wife. He has a sense of humor and often does not take life too seriously.

Julie Dakota – Roberts wife and co-owner of the firm. She takes life a little more seriously than her husband. To two of them have a dream they’re working towards.

Thomas – Julie’s younger brother with Down’s Syndrome. He lives in a care facility and Robert and Julie visit him frequently. He has a telepathic ability and a simple view on life.

Candy – Frank’s brother.


The Plot
The story starts with Frank waking up in a strange alley at night. He has no clue where he is or how he got there. He does not even remember who he is or much about his past. But, he has a feeling he’s being chased and he grabs the strange duffel bag next to him and takes off. Ending up in a deserted apartment building, he narrowly escapes a strange blue light chasing him. He later steals a car and find he has many fake licenses on him and a bag of money. He checks into a hotel and wakes up in the morning with blood on his clothes, more money and a strange looking bug he can’t identify. He’s also feeling very tired and still has no clue where he’s been. It seems every time tries to sleep, he ends up going on adventures he can’t remember and is actually not getting any sleep at all.

Fed up and not sure if what was going on was legal or not, he decides to look for help from a private investigator. So he finds himself in the office of Robert and Julie Dakota presenting his story. Julie is very reluctant about taking the case, not sure what to think about Franks problems or the dangers they might be exposed to. Robert, or Bobby, is enthusiastic about taking the case and likes Franks. He’s looking forward to helping him. After many arguments with Julie, they both finally agree to take the case and immediately start investigating because they’re not sure how much more of this Frank can take.

In the early process of researching Franks evidence, the blood on his shirt, the strange bug he brought, the case became stranger and stranger. Both Bobby and Julie realized that they may not have much time to solve this with Franks health slipping due to his lack of sleep. Bobby is now starting to get a bad feeling about the case and what is going on.

During this, both Julie and Bobby visit Thomas frequently and Thomas finds himself fearing the thought that something bad might happen to them soon. He tries to concentrate on his fear, figure out what he was fearing and warn Bobby and Julie before it’s too late.

My Opinion
I was really impressed with this book because it was fast paced and never seemed dull. In the beginning, it had many little sub plots that kept me wondering how they were going to tie together. There seemed to be plenty of character development. Also, things kept getting stranger in the story. The story detailed what each character was driven by vary well and the characters seemed strong throughout the story. In other words, the decisions they made and things they said seemed accurate with their development.

I highly recommend this book to any Koontz fan or anyone that is into horror/thriller novels. I would not recommend it for children many under 15.