Showing posts with label bad place. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad place. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

"What the Night Knows" by Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz has been my favorite author since I first picked up a copy of “The Bad Place” back in 1990. I liked it so well that I subsequently purchased nearly every book he has ever published. When I was selected to be an early reviewer for “What the Night Knows”, I was beside myself with joy and anticipation. Let me just say, the book did NOT disappoint.

Two decades ago as a young boy, John Calvino snuck back into his house only to discover his parents had been brutally murdered. When he hears the strange sound of bells ringing in his sisters’ room, he locates a gun and investigates to find the sinister, hulking, misshapen form of Alton Turner Blackwood standing over his dead sister, his other sister already viciously and violently killed as well. After taunting John and issuing a promise to revisit the atrocities on his future family, Blackwood turns and John shoots him and empties the ammunition into the killer’s face.

Later, John learns that his family was the last of four families that Blackwood intended to kill, 33 days apart. Now a homicide detective, John Calvino learns that impossibly, the murders are somehow happening all over again. With his own family to protect, John has to figure out a way to stop the cycle from repeating and deal with Alton Turner Blackwood once and for all.

“What the Night Knows” is a suspenseful, riveting, pulse-pounding, spine-tingling, creepy, supernatural thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat and checking your closets, mirrors and crawlspaces for things that literally go bump in the night. Never before has Koontz dealt so well with the topic of ghosts, malevolent spirits and demons. This is definitely one of his best works to date and is a must-read, especially if you are looking for a gripping page-turner!

Cheers!
~ Peter West

Advanced Reader Copies

I have been lucky and fortunate enough over the past couple months to have been selected to receive Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of Dean Koontz’s “What the Night Knows” and Brian James Freeman’s “The Painted Darkness”. I am currently reading “The Painted Darkness” and will be posting a review once I have finished it. So far, it has been a decent read. I am highly anticipating “What the Night Knows” since Dean Koontz is one of my favorite authors. I first discovered him in the early 90′s when I was a member of a book of the month club and received “The Bad Place” as a monthly selection. I was hooked from the start. I practically read it cover to cover and it left me wanting more, so I purchased “Cold Fire” next and also read it over the course of a few days. That summer, I ended up buying and reading all of the books that Koontz had published to date, which was 21 or 22 books I believe. I couldn’t get enough of his writing. Since then, every time he has published a new book, I have bought it as soon as it is released in paperback. My Dean Koontz collection now encompasses an entire bookcase next to a bookcase with all of my Stephen King books. I appreciate how much of a master Dean Koontz is with language. His stories are vivid and nearly life-like. Reading his books is like watching a movie in my head. I admit that I have had to pull out a dictionary once in a while, but I enjoy doing that as it helps me to expand my vocabulary as a writer. His work has inspired me to be better as a writer. So I simply cannot wait until “What the Night Knows” arrives.

Cheers!
~ Peter West