I love Dean Koontz but some of his books are fantastic while others are just ridiculous. Unfortunately this one falls closer to the ridiculous than the fantastic. John Calvino is a detective who goes off on a tangent (well he actually starts working a case that is not his and gets put on unpaid leave so he can work on it undisturbed???). His family is completely unrealistic. His beautiful perfect wife doesn't even bat an eyelash when John tells her he's lied to her for almost 2 months...it was for her own good after all. And his kids are completely perfect and never get into trouble or fight with each other and they are home-schooled. Who the hell home-schools their children in this day and age? A rich artist that's who (his wife) because Nicki has all the time in the world to devote to her children. Um what about her paintings that basically support the family? John's children are more than precocious and are extremely mature for their age. The 13 year old boy, Zach is obsessed with one day being a marine and thinks how what he does now will impact his future career. 11 year old Naomi is a know-it-all who makes fun of her scaredy-cat baby sister (only in her mind of course). And 8 year old Minnie is some kind of psychic prodigy who designs complicated lego sculptures that have no basis in gravity or reality (and of course save the day in the end at the story).

I did think that the ghost of Alten Turner Blackwood was creepy and reading journal which was apparently written well after events happened gave interesting insights into his thoughts and his personality. However the repetitiveness of how the ghost inhabited victim after victim was annoying and way overdone.

It seemed to me that Mr. Koontz had a thesaurus at hand while writing this novel as some of the vocabulary was way out there. The 11 year old kept using "perspicacious" in almost every sentence. Also used were badinage and persiflage and even after checking my dictionary I still don't know what they mean.

Oh well, all in all not a great story but not exactly terrible either.

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This is a good book, more like the classic Dean Koontz that hasn't been evident in his last several books. It is a fairly quick read and I found it to be very spooky. It has some unexpected twists and is hard to put down. Very compelling. It is not among his best, but refreshingly closer to the old Dean we fans know and love. A scary, fun read I recommend.

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What I thought would be a great murder investigation mystery turned into a weird hocus-pocus novel that I really didn't want to finish - I did finish though because I had a week invested already. Strange - but that's Koontz for ya!

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To me Dean Koontz has always seemed to be a "wordy" writer and sometimes you just want him to get-on-with-it! In this story you don't mind so much the repetitious $65 words. I was glued to each page breathless with anticipation. Mixing a real life serial murderer with the occult Mr. Koontz has written a scary psychological thriller you will not want to put down.

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Part way through the book I realized I can't read scary stories about families now that I have my own. I am giving it four stars because it was gripping and terrifying, which is what I think Dean Koontz readers want!

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I loved this book it was very good.

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Definitely on the scary side! A good read, but found his overuse of the word "perspicacious" and "perspicacity" very annoying.

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I found the first half of this book to be slow paced, and I almost did not finish it. I am glad I did though, because the second half really picked up! The latter part of the book was dark, suspenseful, and very scary. It is worth slogging through the first part.

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When he was a teen, Detective John Calvino lost his family to a vicious serial killer. Now twenty years later his own family is at risk.

I am a fan of Dean Koontz but this book does not live up to previous writings. The book drags and the storyline is repetitive. This book lacks Koontz's usual flair. I decided to bypass the long wish list and get it from the library. I am so glad I did. This is not a keeper for me. I can't wait to return it.

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BEWARE !!!!!!

Description does not match the book.
See Amazon for correct one.
Book is set in current day, not the past.

Paperbackbookswap needs to correct this.

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This is a seriously scary book, one of those "don't open that door" screamed out loud kind of book

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I'm right dead on with Barbara S.'s review. Koontz has been a favorite of mine for way too many years to count. I absolutely loved the first couple of Odd Thomas novels with the exception of the 4th one - Odd Hours. I have never forgotten "Midnight", "Lightning", or "Watchers" among others that I probably read 20 years ago; however, Koontz sometimes writes the most unbelievably unrealistic characters ever. Everything Barbara S. said about the people - especially the perfect kids who are generally some type of psychic "wunderkind" has become more the norm than the exception with Dean, and has been so for a number of years now. It drives me nuts sometimes. Also, the part about the vocabulary utilized is also spot on. Dean Koontz has set out on a one man mission to teach advanced vocabulary to the entirety of the literary world - or at least the apparently huge portion of it that reads his novels. **[Funny how that includes me despite this lecture]** Sometimes I really enjoy the verbage and vocabulary lessons he builds into his stories - within reason. I like looking up the occasional word to verify if it means what I think it does. But I've written a full length thriller novel of my own and have a bacherlors degree and writing awards and still get tired of wondering what the heck he just said..

Well, sorry for the diatribe above. As for the book. It kept my interest enough to finish it while simultaneously making me wonder why. I too really liked most of the journal entries from the ghostly past. I just can't take another perfect psychic autistic kid with a teleporting dog (different Koontz book, same type of thing...) Read Barbara's review for better information. BTW - Read '77 Shadow Street' - Now that's better Dean Koontz.

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