A Review: One Door Away From Heaven by Dean Koontz

• Mass Market Paperback: 704 pages

• • Publisher: Bantam; First Thus edition (October 29, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0553582755
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553582758

Part  X-Files, part thriller, this book is unique in more ways than one.  The characters are typical of Koontz in that they are never boring, never ordinary.  Micky Bellsong is at a critical time in her life, staying with her Aunt Geneva while trying to sort out her problems and begin anew.  Micky and Geneva meet their new neighbor Leilani, a young girl living with her drugged out mother, Sinsemilla and stepfather, Preston Maddoc.  Preston believes that the elderly, infirm and handicapped should be killed so they don't become a drain on society.  And since Leilani has physical handicaps, she knows what is in store for her.  She tells Micky and Geneva that Preston is planning to pass off her imminent death as a benevolent alien abduction.

Add to the mix a motherless boy, a strange boy who goes by the alias Curtis Hammond and is the quarry of two cross-country manhunts, one led by the FBI and the other by mass murderers who, like the messianic Curtis, may not be what they seem.

All of the characters eventually come together in rural Idaho in a desperate  attempt to save Leilani and as a result find true wisdom and joy.

Never have I read a book with so many nutty, eccentric characters without it being just plain silly.  However, put all of these nutty characters together and they just seem to work.  Micky is one of the more attractive heroines, but the real star is Leilani, whose spunky nature and sparkling and humorous dialogue easily make her this books most memorable character.  Underneath the tragedy, mystery and adventure lies a story about good vs evil, revelation and friendship. 

If I had to say one negative thing about the book it would be that it was too long.  On occasion the narrative seemed to drawn out and really unnecessary.

Synopsis (from the author's website)

In a dusty trailer park on the far edge of the California dream, Michelina Bellsong contemplates the choices she has made. At twenty-eight, she wants to change the direction of her troubled life but can’t find her way—until a new family settles into the rental trailer next door and she meets the young girl who will lead her on a remarkable quest that will change Micky herself and everything she knows—or thinks she knows—forever.

Despite the brace she must wear on her deformed left leg, and her withered left hand, nine-year-old Leilani Klonk radiates a buoyant and indomitable spirit that inspires Micky. Beneath Leilani’s effervescence, however, Micky comes to sense a quiet desperation that the girl dares not express.

Leilani’s mother is little more than a child herself. And the girl’s stepfather, Preston Maddoc, is educated but threatening. He has moved the family from place to place as he fanatically investigates UFO sightings, striving to make contact, claiming to have had a vision that by Leilani’s tenth birthday aliens will either heal her or take her away to a better life on their world.

Slowly, ever more troubling details emerge in Leilani’s conversations with Micky. Most chilling is Micky’s discovery that Leilani had an older brother, also disabled, who vanished after Maddoc took him into the woods one night and is now “gone to the stars.”

Leilani’s tenth birthday is approaching. Micky is convinced the girl will be dead by that day. While the child-protection bureaucracy gives Micky the runaround, the Maddoc family slips away into the night. Micky sets out across America to track and find them, alone and afraid but for the first time living for something bigger than herself.

She finds herself pitted against an adversary, Preston Maddoc, as fearsome as he is cunning. The passion and disregard for danger with which Micky pursues her quest bring to her side a burned-out detective who joins her on a journey of incredible peril and startling discoveries, a journey through terrible darkness to unexpected light.

A Review: Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (October 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553591711
• ISBN-13: 978-0553591712

Ryan Perry is 34, wealthy and in a loving relationship with Samantha.  Ryan made his fortune as an internet entrepreneur with his wildly successful social networking site.  He has the world on a string, until he begins to have frightening symptoms that are diagnosed as cardiomyopathy.  Without a heart transplant, Ryan has no chance of survival.

It seems luck is looking after Ryan because after only a few months, a perfect match is found and he receives the operation.  After a year, Ryan is healthy with no apparent signs of rejection.  His future again looks bright until he begins to experience strange events in his home...a bag of white valentine hearts with the words "Be Mine" found on his pillow, a heart shaped locket found in his bedroom.  There is no explanation because his house is armed with a state of the art security system.  How did someone get in without his knowing it?

Then he encounters a woman who looks exactly like his heart donor who tells him,  "Your heart belongs to me.  I want it back."

Although it's not Koontz's best, it's suspenseful enough to keep us on the edge of our seats with a suspenseful page turner.  

Synopsis (from the author's website)

From the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense comes a riveting thriller that probes the deepest terrors of the human psyche–and the ineffable mystery of what truly makes us who we are. Here an innocent man finds himself fighting for his very existence in a battle that starts with the most frightening words of all…

At thirty-four, Internet entrepreneur Ryan Perry seemed to have the world in his pocket–until the first troubling symptoms appeared out of nowhere. Within days, he’s diagnosed with incurable cardiomyopathy and finds himself on the waiting list for a heart transplant; it’s his only hope, and it’s dwindling fast. Ryan is about to lose it all…his health, his girlfriend, Samantha, and his life.

One year later, Ryan has never felt better. Business is good and there’s even a chance of getting Samantha back in his life. Then the unmarked gifts begin to arrive in the mail–a heart pendant, a box of Valentine candy hearts. And, most disturbing of all, a graphic heart surgery video accompanied by a chilling message: Your heart belongs to me.

In a heartbeat, the medical miracle that gave Ryan a second chance at life is about to become a curse worse than death. For Ryan is being stalked by a mysterious woman who feels entitled to everything he has. She’s the spitting image of the twenty-eight-year-old donor of the heart beating steadily in Ryan’s own chest.

 And she’s come to take it back.

A Review: Relentless by Dean Koontz

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Bantam; First Edition first Printing edition (June 9, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0553807145
ISBN-13: 978-0553807141




We are introduced to the sweet but goofy Cubby who is a best-selling author. His wife, Penny is the daughter of survivalists and also an author, but of of children's books. They are the parents of six year old Milo who is a genius and currently working on a project he is unable to even begin to explain to his dad. They have a very interesting dog who, although not a collie, is named Lassie. Lassie is indeed, a very special dog.

Cubby and his family are plunged into a nightmare when book reviewer Shearman Waxx reviews Cubby's recently released book and skewers it. Despite Penny's warnings to "let it go", Cubby just can't. When he finds out that the reviewer frequents a restaurant where he and his family dine, he takes Milo to lunch in order to check the guy out. A brief encounter in the restaurant bathroom soon has Cubby wishing he'd followed his wife's advice.

Koontz has done a great job developing the characters and plot. The good guys were thoroughly likable...the bad guys thoroughly evil. At times funny, always terrifying, this book has it all. If you're a Koontz fan, you will enjoy this book. I know I did...I read it in a matter of hours.

Synopsis

Bestselling novelist Cullen 'Cubby' Greenwich's book is an across-the-board triumph - except for the vicious, inaccurate remarks by the much-feared, seldom-seen critic, Shearman Waxx, in the nation's premier newspaper. Cubby knows he should ignore the review. His wife, Penny, a children's book author and illustrator, knows it. Their brilliant six-year-old, Milo, affectionately dubbed 'Spooky,' knows it. Even their non-collie, Lassie, seems to know it.
Cubby only wants to get a look at the mysterious recluse whose mere opinion can make or break a career - or a life. But Shearman Waxx isn't what Cubby expects; and neither is the escalating terror that follows what seemed to be an innocent encounter. For Waxx has ways of dealing with those who cross him that Cubby is only beginning to fathom. Soon the likeable family man finds himself in a desperate struggle with a relentless sociopath. And just when things can't seem to get any worse, he and those he loves are introduced to the mother of all evil in a character only Dean Koontz could invent: Shearman's mom.

A Review: Whispers by Dean Koontz

Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam (January 1, 1980)
ASIN: B001O5N39A






The story begins with a fairly simple plot. Successful screenwriter Hilary Thomas does not know she is being stalked by Bruno Frye, a winery owner she met while doing research for one of her movies. That is until he confronts her in her home and attempts to rape and murder her. She scares him off by shooting at him but when she reports the incident to the police, they do not believe her. Detective Tony Clemenza is the only police officer who gives her the benefit of the doubt. However, when Frye returns to kill her, she stabs him to death and after finding his body, the attitudes of the police change.

Here's where it begins to get complicated. Frye believes that his dead mother, who abused him terribly as a child, is returning from the dead in the bodies of women who resemble her. But when Frye returns even after he has been found dead, autopsied and embalmed the terror returns for Hilary and Detective Clemenza.

If you read the author's words you will learn that writing this book took a physical and emotional toll. At first he didn't realize why. A decade later, he could look back on the book and understand that he was writing out of painful personal experience. The main characters in Whispers suffer terrible, violent childhoods. Some overcome those traumas, and some do not; indeed, one of them becomes a serial killer. Koontz had lived through a childhood marked by physical and psychological violence and although his experience was not like that of Hillary, and certainly not like that of Bruno, he was nevertheless drawing upon his own life for the emotional content of the novel.

This book is a definite page turner, absorbing and full of suspense.

Synopsis:

Hilary Thomas is still struggling to cope with the nightmarish memories of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her parents. Tony Clemenza is a police detective who dreams of earning a living as an artist. But he lacks faith in his talent and takes refuge in the fact that he is, at least, a good cop. Bruno Frye is rich but unhappy, insecure. Frye is a killer, compelled to slaughter beautiful women. But there's a special dark place, filled with menacing whispers, where something hideous waits to kill Frye. Some people think Hilary/s report of Frye/s first attack on her is a lie or the work of a fevered imagination. But Tony believes and tries to help her. Tony and Hilary fall in love, but their chances of living to enjoy each other are slim. Frye is a persistent, efficient killing machine. Nothing will stop him; not even death.

A Review: Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Jan 1993
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399137734
ISBN-13: 9780399137730






I have to say, I didn't really care for this book nearly as much as other Koontz novels. It was OK but it just seemed to take a long time to get into it. I found it to be rather slow paced and at times, difficult to focus on. The characters are likable and interesting and although the villain is sufficiently creepy, he is sometimes a little too predictable.

Behind most scary stories, there is a little niggling feeling that the described events could possibly happen (even though in the common sense part of your brain, you know they won't). That didn't happen to me with this story. I couldn't find anything believable about this villain.

Description (from author's website):
Harry Lyon was a rational man, a cop who refused to let his job harden his soul. His partner urged him to surrender to the chaos of life. But Harry believed in order and reason. Then, one fateful day, he was forced to shoot a man—and a homeless stranger with bloodshot eyes uttered the haunting words that challenged Harry Lyon’s sanity…

“Ticktock, ticktock. You’ll be dead in sixteen hours…Dead by dawn…Dead by dawn…Dead by dawn…”

Excerpt:

The day had started out so well, but it sure had gone to hell in a hurry.
He was determined to get it back on track. Paperwork would help. Nothing like official reports and forms in triplicate to make the world seem ordered and rational.
Out in the street, the whirlwind had gathered more dust and detritus. Earlier the ghost dancer had appeared to be waltzing along the blacktop. Now it was doing a frantic jitterbug. As Harry took a step away from the tree, the column of debris changed course, zigged toward him, and burst upon him with startling power, forcing him to shut his eyes against the abrasive grit.
For one crazy moment he thought he was going to be swept up as Dorothy had been, and spun off to Oz. Tree limbs rattled and shook overhead, shedding more leaves on him. The huffing and keening of the wind briefly swelled into a shriek, a howl--but in the next instant fell into graveyard stillness.
Someone spoke directly in front of Harry, voice low and raspy and strange: "Ticktock, ticktock."