CHASE by Dean Koontz

I am a longtime fan of Dean Koontz’s writing.  I enjoy all of Mr Koontz’s work, but I have a particular fondness for the work he produced in the 1970s and 80s.  I love his big genre mixing thrillers like Lightning, Cold Fire, and Twilight Eyes and more recently I have gained an appreciation for his earlier straight suspense novels like Shattered, After the Last Race, and Dragonfly.

I recently reread a short suspense novel written as by K. R. Dwyer titled Chase.  Benjamin Chase is a used up Vietnam veteran who received the Medal of Honor for an act he wants to forget.  He lives alone in an attic apartment.  He drinks to drown out the voices of the dead, and he wants to be left alone to grieve and regret.  His world tumbles into chaos when he saves a young woman from murder, and the would-be killer—a man who calls himself “Judge”—begins calling Ben on the telephone.      

Chase is a dark and disturbing novel.  It was written in the Vietnam-era and is infused with hard cynicism.  Chase is simple.  He is alone, guilty, and ashamed.  His isolation is perpetuated by the near hero worship, and simple minded patriotism, of the townsfolk.  He has judged himself as less than, but as Judge pursues his verdict against Chase, he is forced to face both himself and his demons.

Chase is all story, which is to say plot with a snatch of something close to meaning.  It is short and sleek.  It takes only a few pages to move from the opening scene banquet to the action.  That is not to say it is plotted from action scene to action scene because it isn’t; there is a legitimate mystery, and the psychology of the protagonist is interesting in itself, and the slow escalation of isolation between Chase and the police, and Chase and society creates a tension all its own.  The prose is crisp and with a touch of melancholy—

“Maybe it was better to be without a woman than to die and leave behind one who grieved so briefly as this.”      

It opens as a straight forward suspense novel—how will Chase save himself from Judge—to something approaching a vigilante novel.  The climax is both surprising and horrifying; even disturbing.  Its suddenness and violence surprised as much on my second reading as it did the first.  Chase isn’t one of Dean Koontz’s big novels, and it may not appeal to most of his current readership, but it a fine example of high velocity classic suspense.  But that ending is a killer.    

Chase was originally published by Random House in hardcover in 1972.  It was reissued in Mr Koontz’s collection Strange Highways in 1995.  The reissued version was touched up before its release, but what was changed, other than the addition of a brief opening chapter setting the time and place of the story, I’m not sure.

This review originally went live December 16, 2013.

THE HUSBAND by Dean Koontz

My patience with modern thrillers—anything late-1990s and beyond—is thin. They always open with potential and then become less interesting with each page. I start several each year, but seldom get past the 100^th page before cleaning the gutters is preferable. Dean Koontz is the exception to the rule; although labeling him as a thriller writer is similar to confusing a Corvette with a Kia Soul.   

I recently read his 2006 novel The Husband, and I was mesmerized from the first sentence to the last. Its opening is undeniably appealing:

“A man begins dying at the moment of his birth.”

Mitchell Rafferty is happily married, moderately successful with a two man gardening operation, and about to be pulled into nightmare. It begins quickly and without remorse. The day: Monday, May 14, 11:43 AM. Mitch is planting red and purple impatiens when his cell phone rings. A man’s voice:

“‘We have your wife.’”    

The kidnapper demands $2 million in exchange for her life. A sum that is not only unobtainable, but nearly unimaginable for Mitch. More revelation would spoil the meal, but there are a handful of brilliantly executed plot twists—none expected, anticipated, or doubted once revealed—and suspense alarming enough for sweaty palms, shallow breathing, and sleepless nights.

The prose—like everything Mr Koontz writes—is smooth and easy as glass. It is poetic in its simple, metered manner; easy to read and brilliant. But everything about The Husband is brilliant; from plot to prose to character to theme. And even better, it opens with death, but ends in a flutter of life:

“Although he knows her as well as he knows himself, she is as mysterious as she is lovely, an eternal depth in her eyes, but she is no more mysterious than are the stars and the moon and all things on the earth.”   

"Nightmare Gang" by Dean R. Koontz

I found an old science fiction anthology at a thrift store a few weeks ago. It is titled Infinity One and it advertises itself as “a magazine of speculative fiction in book form.” It is a mass market published by Lancer in 1970. It has 18 stories, sixteen appear to be originals, and the story—or its author at any rate—that caught my attention was a nifty short titled “Nightmare Gang” by Dean R. Koontz.

The editorial introduction for Mr Koontz is also of note (to me at least)—“Dean R. Koontz is another of the younger generation of science fiction writers.”—because I have never lived (at least as a reader) in an era when Dean Koontz was considered anything but a veteran bestseller. But here, in this anthology, Koontz’s name doesn’t even make an appearance on the cover—front or back. How times change.

“Nightmare Gang” is something approaching dark fantasy. It is a motorcycle gang story with a dark twist told in first person narrative. It opens with a knife fight between the gang leader and a member who would like to be leader. It doesn’t last long, and the leadership hierarchy is left unchanged. The leader, a man simply called Louis—there are no last names—uses the fight as an “object lesson” to scare the other gang members into line.

Louis has other advantages over the bikers besides physical strength. He is the only one who knows who each of the members are; none of them have memories of anything before the gang. Their timeline begins and ends with their gang initiation. There have been members who wanted out, but strange and unexplainable (if not terrifying) things happened to stop them.

“Nightmare Gang” was an unexpected find. It is early Koontz, but it is really damn good. It is written in a simple and almost stark style. The cadence of language is crisp and tight. It is written more like a hardboiled suspense story than science fiction—

“Cottery was a knife man. He carried six of them laid flat and invisible against his lean body, and with these half dozen confidence boosters giving him adequate courage, he challenged Louis to a fight, for he envisioned himself as leader of the gang. It was over inside of two minutes. Louis moved faster than he had a right to.”

The plot is well conceived and it is capped with a perfect ending. Mr Koontz gives very little away, and gives it a twist and nudge at the end. I think he may even have winked. I do know I smiled. I also know I enjoyed the story a whole lot. It also made me wish for a more complete volume of Dean Koontz’s short stories. His Strange Highways collection is a start, but it isn’t nearly enough.

Halloween Reading

This is a post that went live in October 2007. It is far from a complete list, but I still really like the novels and authors I chose to include. If I were to do it over I would also include a few other authors / books that have brought a nasty bit of entertaining fright and horror since I wrote this. A few—Cage of Night by Ed Gorman; Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson; Terminal by Brian Keene; and Afraid by Jack Kilborn.

Also, the numbering next to the authors name means absolutely nothing. It is simply a means to separate the authors into their own tidy category.

The end of October is in sight, and that means one thing: Halloween. Halloween is a favorite holiday of mine, and as it approaches I find myself filled with an unexplainable sense of excitement—it is the twelve year-old boy in me craving a past that no longer exists, but it is also more than that. It is the excitement of autumn—the days are shrinking, the shadows are lengthening, and nights are deepening. I love the cool crisp air, the idea of coming winter, but mostly the spooky chill that is Halloween.

So in honor of Halloween I’m going to list a few of my favorite horror writers—five to be exact. The only rule in this selection of authors is: there are no rules.

1. Jack Ketchum. The work of Jack Ketchum is truly frightening. He generally doesn’t employ the horror norms of demons, goblins, and poltergeists, but instead he creates truly frightening evil in the form of humanity. He shows us the worst elements that can exist in us all, and then unleashes it on the characters of his stories. If you haven’t tried Ketchum, do it soon.

My favorite Jack Ketchum novels are: The Girl Next Door, Off Season, Red, and his short story collection Peaceable Kingdom.

2. Richard Laymon. I discovered Richard Laymon in the autumn of 2000, and I quickly found and read every novel that was available in the United States for less than the price of a small automobile, which at the time was about sixteen of them. His work can be gross, violent, and very nearly pornographic in places, but somehow—especially in his better novels—he lightens it with humor, and adolescent innocence.

My favorite Laymon novels are: In the Dark, The Traveling Vampire Show, One Rainy Night, Night Show, Into the Fire, and Among the Missing.

3. Stephen King. This is a writer who truly needs no introduction, but I’m going to give him one anyway. Mr. King writes with a power that few modern writers have—he creates working class characters so real and vibrant that when he eases mysticism and fantasy into the stories it doesn’t feel forced or unreal. It is simply part of the story, and very believable.

My favorite King novels—specifically aimed at Halloween are: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Stand, ‘Salem’s Lot, and his short story collection Skeleton Crew. I have never read a Stephen King novel I didn’t like, but the aforementioned titles are spooky enough for any Halloween.

4. Douglas Clegg. Mr. Clegg probably has more raw talent than any other horror writer currently producing mainstream horror. His voice is strong, clear, and very frightening. His work runs from chilling ghost stories to vampires, to the more cinematic and gory. I have yet to find a Clegg novel I didn’t like.

My favorite Douglas Clegg novels are: The Infinite, The Attraction, The Hour Before Dark, and Nightmare House.

5. Dean Koontz. Mr. Koontz is another writer who needs no introduction. His work is difficult to categorize because he is able to mix and match genre elements with ease. His early work was mainly in the science fiction genre, but he also wrote in the suspense, horror, romance, and mystery genres—now all of these genres can be found in his work. I especially enjoy his work from the 1980s, but I really haven’t found a Koontz book I didn’t enjoy.

My favorite Dean Koontz novels--with a Halloween twist--are: Lightning, Midnight, The Bad Place, Twilight Eyes, and The Face of Fear.

An additional word on Dean Koontz. I have read several Dean Koontz novels in 2009, and with each reading I gain more and more respect for his work. He is the master of the big suspense novel. His style and ability allows him to write a large and complex novel without losing the intimacy of a smaller voice novel. He truly is the voice of modern suspense and his work, at least parts of it, should survive his and my generation. At least I hope it does.

Dean Koontz Interview with Tom Snyder

There is a 1996 interview with Dean Koontz over at YouTube--I've loaded it below--from the old, much lamented, Tom Snyder show. It feels less like an interview and more like a conversation, which is what separates the hacks from true interviewers. It is humorous, fun and extremely entertaining. Dean talks about his move to Las Vegas, his book Santa's Twin, a cruise, and even, briefly, The Book of Counted Sorrows. A title that any Dean Koontz reader knows very well.

The interview runs about twenty minutes and is very much worth a watch.

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3

Frankenstein: Dead and Alive Update

I have more good news. The third and final installment of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series is scheduled for release this summer. The exact date: July 28, 2009. The title: Dead and Alive. The first two novels in the trilogy--Prodigal Son and City of Night--were originally published in January and July 2005, respectively, and the third volume has been on hold for years. But, finally, it is here.

Dead and Alive will be published in a brick size mass-market paperback with a retail price of $9.99. The first two novels in the series will also be re-released with new cover art and the co-authors names removed from the cover. It has been a long wait, but it's finally over.

PRISON OF ICE by David Axton

Dean Koontz is a marvelously talented and prolific writer. His work carries back decades; his first published novel was one-half of an ACE Double SF titled Star Quest. He started out writing science fiction, but his work has evolved and changed extensively since his early days. And in his early days, like many writers, he worked in various genres and venues—he wrote science fiction, mystery, thriller, horror, and even gothic romance.

The bulk of Mr Koontz early work is out-of-print. I read once that when he hit the best-seller list he went on a buying frenzy—he purchased the rights of many of his early titles from the various publishers that owned them because he didn’t think most were worthy of marketing to his new, mainstream, audience. I’ve always admired that about Dean Koontz, but what I admire even more is his work. All of it, even the few titles I’ve read that he has made the decision to keep off the shelves, is pretty damn good.

I ran across his novel Prison of Ice in a thrift shop a few weeks ago and I couldn’t wait to crack it open. It was published in 1976 in hardcover by J.B. Lippincott, and then in mass market a year later by Fawcett Crest as by David Axton. It has since been updated—Koontz rewrote and republished it in 1995 as Icebound. He updated the technology and added something like 150 pages to the paperback. I’ve had Icebound in my collection for years, but never made time to read it, but when I found the original I couldn’t help myself.

A United Nations scientific team is conducting a research expedition in the hostile North Artic. They are studying the possibility of dislodging large segments of icebergs to transport and use as irrigation water in the western desert of the United States. The team consists of nine members, and when the novel opens eight are planting bombs in the ice in an attempt to separate a section from a large ice shelf.

A brutal storm is expected in the next few hours and the group is in a hurry to finish and get back to their base camp, but before they can a large tsunami-like wave hits the ice shelf—it was caused by multiple seismic incidents several hundred miles away on the ocean floor. The wave hits the ice shelf and separates the work area from the larger body of ice.

The team quickly realizes they are trapped on an iceberg that is slowly moving south with an artic blizzard brewing. Their only hope of escape are two trawlers several hundred miles away that can’t possibly forge through the bitter storm. They have limited supplies, and worse the bombs they planted are set to go off at midnight. Then, when their odds of survival are particularly bleak, one of their own is knocked unconscious in an attempted murder on the ice. No one knows who the murderer is, but everyone knows the murderer is a member of the expedition.

Prison of Ice is an homage to the work of Alistair MacLean—a fast and crisp thriller with enough betrayal, suspense, hardship—both from the physical elements and the intrigue of just who really is the bad guy—and adventure to keep the reader entertained without ever once questioning the very implausible action on the pages. There is even a tagline on the front cover that compares it to the work of Alistair MacLean—“Super suspense-adventure in the thrill-a-minute tradition of Alistair MacLean….”

The plot is sleek and fast. Mr Koontz moves the story quickly enough from crisis to crisis that the reader doesn’t have time to question and evaluate the happenings. Rather, the reader simply, and blissfully, straps in and enjoys the ride. The story is measured in time. It opens at 11:57am and closes twelve hours later. It is written in third person and the characters are built soundly enough to make them likable, and there are enough red herrings to keep the murderers identity a secret until the final climax.

The prose is perfectly matched to the story. It is sparse and stark without embellishment or unnecessary description: “Unclipping his flashlight from the tool belt that encircled his waist, he cut open the perfect blackness with a blade of light and looked at the snowflakes swirling inside.”

Prison of Ice is an excellent and entertaining novel. It is the only one of its kind and style that Dean Koontz has written, which is a shame because he has a knack for it. With that said, is it as good as MacLean’s early work? No, but still, it is a great and fun read that anyone who enjoys thrillers in this vain will absolutely love.

SHATTERED by Dean Koontz

The first novel written by Dean Koontz I read was Midnight. It must have been 1991 or 92—I was in my first year of college, the first go-around anyway, and I distinctly remember skipping class one morning to finish it. I also remember loving it. The characters were developed better than the average bestselling thriller and the plot was packed with tension, suspense, action and surprise.

Midnight was the first Koontz title I read, but it wasn’t the last. I’ve been reading two or three a year ever since. His work from the late-Eighties to early-Nineties has special appeal to me simply because it’s the first I discovered, but everything Dean Koontz writes is worth reading and a good deal of it is worth reading twice; Lightning, Midnight, The Bad Place, Night Chills, and From the Corner of His Eye instantly leap to mind, but there are others, many others, that are, or should be, classics in the suspense field.

The point? I took an older Dean Koontz novel off the bookshelf a few evenings ago and absolutely devoured it. The title: Shattered. It was originally published in 1973 as by K.R. Dwyer and it has lost none of its power over the intervening years.

Alex Doyle is a commercial artist who fell in love with a ready-made family. His wife Courtney and her younger brother Colin are Alex’s entire world, and when the newlyweds decide to move from Philadelphia to San Francisco Courtney flies out ahead to ready their new home while Alex and Colin make the cross-country trip in Alex’s new Thunderbird with the excitement of seeing the country coast-to-coast and a terrific chance for the two to bond.

The trip begins easily enough with the big Thunderbird eating away the miles, but it isn’t long before Colin spots a moving van that seems to be following. Colin is a sensitive and creative kid who quickly creates a story around their suspected tail—it’s the FBI following them with false information that Alex is a desperate criminal. It’s all fun and games, but Alex can’t help the low swell of unease that overcomes him.

As the day wears down the van seemingly disappears and Alex and Colin adjust to the normal routine of long distance travel, but the next morning, not too far from the motel the two spent the night, Alex spots the van in his rearview mirror. The unease of the previous day quickly turns to a blister of fear and he knows something is very wrong.

Shattered is the type of thriller you don’t see much anymore. It is concise, stark, and to the point. The plot is relatively simple—it reads something like Richard Matheson’s superb story “Duel,” but with the added narrative perspective of the believable psychopath that has become Koontz’s trademark. There is enough backstory blended into the narrative to create believable and likable characters, but not so much it bogs down. The action is choreographed well and easily matches the intensity of suspense created by the lucid and stripped down prose style.

Shattered is a step or two down from Koontz’s later work, but all the elements are there: the strong characterization, the well-built and believable plotline, and the murderous and paranoid bad guy. Not to mention, it’s both entertaining and good fun. If you have a chance to read this one, you should because they just don't write them like this anymore. And how I wish they did.

Dean Koontz Podcasts

I’m a massive nerd. I’ve been snooping around the Internet the last few days trying to find more than my five or six daily stops—I hit the same sites over and over again and then wonder why I’m bored with the Internet. There is so much out there and some of it is worth visiting and reading, or watching, or listening, or whatever.

And now the nerd part. I discovered that Dean Koontz does a podcast. The podcasts are posted sporadically, but when he is posting, about one per week appears. There are a total of 26 podcasts; the first from June 19, 2006 and the most recent from June 23, 2008. Each of them have a defined subject. The latest two are about the Book of Counted Sorrows—a book of poetry Dean wrote and used portions of as epigraphs in many of his novels. The opening is humorous and describes the mail Dean has received about Book of Counted Sorrows, most of the mail from librarians who have spent an amazing amount of time searching for this, until recently, unpublished title for patrons. He also reads part of the book. It’s pretty cool.

There are also a sundry of other interesting subjects that are told with humor, humility, and a very entertaining style. A few of the subjects include a meeting with author Ed Gorman, a few of Dean’s experiences with editors, publishers and readers, and several that deal with his own work. These podcasts are fun and interesting, and you should check them out.

Click Here to go there now.

Book Trailer: The Good Guy by Dean Koontz

I'm usually a little slow in getting any kind bookworld news other than the latest titles coming out from my favorite writers and publishers, so most of you may have seen this, but I really liked it. It's a book trailer for Dean Koontz’s novel The Good Guy. I haven’t read it, but the trailer really makes me want to.



I’m really just discovering book trailers, and if there are any out there you would recommend please do.

Five Writers for Halloween

The end of October is in sight, and that means one thing: Halloween. Halloween is a favorite holiday of mine, and as it approaches I find myself filled with an unexplainable sense of excitement—it is the twelve year-old boy in me craving a past that no longer exists, but somehow it is also more than that. It is the excitement of autumn—the days are shrinking, the shadows are lengthening, and nights are deepening. I love the cool crisp air, the idea of coming winter, but mostly the spooky chill that is Halloween.

So in honor of Halloween I’m going to list a few of my favorite horror writers—five to be exact. The only rule in this selection of authors is: there are no rules.

1. Jack Ketchum. The work of Jack Ketchum is truly frightening. He generally doesn’t employ the horror norms of demons, goblins, and poltergeists, but instead he creates truly frightening evil in the form of humanity. He shows us the worst elements that can exist in us all, and then unleashes it on the characters of his stories. If you haven’t tried Ketchum, do it soon.

My favorite Jack Ketchum novels are: The Girl Next Door, Off Season, Red, and his short story collection Peaceable Kingdom.

2. Richard Laymon. I discovered Richard Laymon in the autumn of 2000, and I quickly found and read every novel that was available in the United States for less than the price of a small automobile, which at the time was about sixteen of them. His work can be gross, violent, and very nearly pornographic in places, but somehow—especially in his better novels—he lightens it with humor, and adolescent innocence.

My favorite Laymon novels are: In the Dark, The Traveling Vampire Show, One Rainy Night, Night Show, Into the Fire, and Among the Missing.

3. Stephen King. This is a writer who truly needs no introduction, but I’m going to give him one anyway. Mr. King writes with a power that few modern writers have—he creates working class characters so real and vibrant that when he eases mysticism and fantasy into the stories it doesn’t feel forced or unreal. It is simply part of the story, and very believable.

My favorite King novels—specifically aimed at Halloween are: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Stand, ‘Salem’s Lot, and his short story collection Skeleton Crew. I have never read a Stephen King novel I didn’t like, but the aforementioned titles are spooky enough for any Halloween.

4. Douglas Clegg. Mr. Clegg probably has more raw talent than any other horror writer currently producing mainstream horror. His voice is strong, clear, and very frightening. His work runs from chilling ghost stories to vampires, to the more cinematic and gory. I have yet to find a Clegg novel I didn’t like.

My favorite Douglas Clegg novels are: The Infinite, The Attraction, The Hour Before Dark, and Nightmare House.

5. Dean Koontz. Mr. Koontz is another writer who needs no introduction. His work is difficult to categorize because he is able to mix and match genre elements with ease. His early work was mainly in the science fiction genre, but he also wrote in the suspense, horror, romance, and mystery genres—now all of these genres can be found in his work. I especially enjoy his work from the 1980s, but I really haven’t found a Koontz book I didn’t enjoy.

My favorite Dean Koontz novels—with a Halloween twist—are: Lightning, Midnight, The Bad Place, and Face of Fear.

A few honorable mentions: The Night Class by Tom Piccirilli, The Manitou by Graham Masterton, Cage of Night by Ed Gorman, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, Curtains of Blood by Robert J. Randisi, and…so many more that I’m forgetting.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween—I know I will.

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Trilogy: DEAD AND ALIVE

I have a friend who loved the first two novels in Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein trilogy, and every once in a while she complains that the third book hasn’t been published. So I, finally, did a little research and thought I would share what I found.

The first two novels came out more than two years ago—the first was co-written with Kevin J. Anderson and titled Prodigal Son, and the second was titled City of Night and co-written with Ed Gorman. The third was scheduled for release—at least in the United Kingdom—this past May, but it never showed up. It’s title: Dead and Alive.

It turns out that Dean Koontz had some misgivings about subject matter and story location in our post-Katrina world. I found an interesting email quote—it is allegedly written by Dean Koontz—that gives me hope the third title will be released, and not too far in the future.

“After finishing the first two books, I decided not to try again with a collaborator but to plunge into the third novel myself. Hurricane Katrina presented an unprecedented narrative problem. After the tragedy and suffering endured by the citizens of New Orleans, I could not bring myself to set loose Victor and his creations to wreak more havoc on the city, so I had to figure out how to include the hurricane and work around it in a graceful way. This slowed things down. But I expect to finish Book Three soon, for publication in Spring 2008. No publishing date has been set.”

While I was doing the research I stumbled across a terrific website—the website I stole the Koontz quote from—that has a large (complete?) listing of the novels published by Dean Koontz over the years, including those hard to find science fiction novels he wrote in the 1970s. There is also a cover scan for every book listed, many of them I have never before seen. It is well worth checking out.

Click Here to go there now.

Q&A with Dean Koontz

Fumbling around Amazon.com a few days ago I found some great question and answer segments with Dean Koontz--he answers a few of the questions readers ask him, and then posts them on Amazon. One answer I particularly enjoyed was for the question does he (Koontz) purchase, or borrow from the library the books he reads?

The answer:

The correct thing, the courteous and moral and courageous thing, the wise thing, is to buy a book to read, buy a second copy to maintain in pristine condition in a vacuum under glass, buy a third copy to donate to the library, buy a fourth copy as a sign of solidarity with the author, and buy a fifth copy as an attaboy for Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of movable type. In our library and at various other locations throughout the house, we have close to 40,000 volumes--even after I conducted a ruthless culling of the collection four years ago.

40,000 volumes? Wow. It makes my scant horde seem like nothing at all. I must admit I have been known to pick-up more than one copy of a book. One to read, one to keep. Hell, every once in awhile three copies, but I will never, never, never admit to owning five of the same title. (Doesn't mean I don't, just that I won't admit to it.)

To read the other Q&As go Here.