Par Lance

This was my first Dean Koontz read, and it had been recommended to me by several friends.

To me, his writing is different, and it is certainly disturbing. I came out of the end of this book wondering if the author himself is more than a little bit twisted. But then, that could be an indicator of extremely clever writing.

Following the same lines as Psycho, the story hinges on the convincing of the victims that they are suffering from pshycological problems, and that they need help. Hypnotism is the key, and the keywords and triggers associated with that art or science are the essential ingredients to some very scary plot lines.

To go any further might spoil the read for you, but what I have said so far is blatantly apparent very early on in the book.

There are parts of this which were too predictable for me, but that complaint is counter-balanced by the fact that there were many events which were not predictable, and which were downright gruesome.

This is a great read and I would recommend it to any adult who can cope with the violence and the fear. Enough of it is realistic enough to have one looking over one's shoulder, although there are parts which made me think "that could never happen."

I woul dhave been tempted to give this five stars if it had been less than five hundred pages. The size of the volume has often put me off reading Koontz before now. Luckily, I was on vacation, so I had plenty of time to wade through this one in a couple of days. Maybe next year I shall pick up another offering from this author.