Hideaway by Dean Koontz

Hideaway by Dean Koontz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 4 days

Pages - 413

Publisher - Mass Market Paperback

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Strange visions plague a man after he survives a near-death experience in this chilling thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.

Surviving a car accident on a snowy mountain road is miraculous for Lindsey Harrison, but even more so for her husband, Hatch, who was clinically dead for eighty minutes.

After experimental procedures bring Hatch back to life, he awakens with the terrifying feeling that something is it out there . But it soon becomes apparent that the evil stalking Hatch is within him—a dark force of murderous rage that hides within us all...


My Review

Lindsey and her hubby Hatch are plunged into a freezing river, Hatch is clinically dead for eight minutes. However a doc has been working on Resuscitation with his specialised team to bring back people after they have been clinically dead for longer than the normal resuc time. Hatch is a perfect candidate and things are looking up. There is a sadistic depraved killer on the loose, not only is he killing and desecrating the bodies but he believes he is more than human and desperate to get back into Hell. When Hatch is back living his life he starts getting horrific and terrifying visions, seeing through the eyes of the killer. If Hatch can see into the killer, can the killer see through him and is he and or his family at risk?

The book is different, the resus stuff was interesting to read and different. The killer is a shocking vile creep, zero regard for human life and the more he desecrates the body as an offering to the devil the more chance he feels he has getting back into Hell, the only place he feels he has ever really belonged.

It is a different type of book, a mix of medicine and revival (only for the start of the book really), the sadistic serial killer and his killing spree, the visions between the two. Hatch trying to get back to normal, both him and his wife had been lost in grief and now they have a new lease of life & look to bring another into their family who btw I absolutely loved, sassy.

Bit of a mixed bag but I liked it, creepy, eerie and a bit of everything mixed in, 4/5.

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Plague by Dean Koontz

Plague by Graham Masterton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 384

Publisher - Head of Zeus

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

-A horrifying story, a deadly prophecy

Oceans are infested, beaches turn black, cities reek with poisonous pollution. The entire eastern seaboard of the United States has been sealed off - all those attempting to flee the contaminated zones will be shot!

As men, women and children murder and loot in a world gone mad, one man and his daughters struggle to survive. The bond of love between them strengthens and grows as they fight desperately to keep their fragile hold on hope - and life.

Father and daughter - caught in a terrifying world ravaged by an unknown, virulent, super-plague. Will an antidote be found... in time?


My Review

Echoes of the stand and a crossover of Covid - despite this being written in the 1970s that is the vibes I was getting. A small child infected, potentially patient zero with what turns out to be highly infectious and huge kill rate. Set in America, kicking off in Miami, when the medics try to warn the government they of course know better and give faff and lip service to the media. By the time they actually pay attention it has spread far and wide, society as we know it has gone to pot and every man is for themselves.

Ooft guys this is a very very dark read and will have multiple triggers for folks to approach with caution. Like I read loads of horror, true crime, dark stuff (in amongst fluffy/light) but I was a bit like God this is rough. I think maybe because we went through (and even now) such a lackadaisical/selfish response/period when the pandemic hit and even now you still see people very me me and not caring about their fellow man. So I think that hit a bit hard for me. You have chaos as society falls apart, folk robbing the dead, lack of care for human life and then the degenerates who use/abuse people they come across. Like there are no morals (well some of the characters do) and there are episodes of abuse/desecration of bodies, SA so just go into it knowing it is dark/dark themes and quite brutal.

Koontz really does create very believable worlds/characters and shows the good and bad sides of humanity. I thought it was well written, kept you hooked with a mixed bag of characters but it was pretty dark, soulless and some will love how it wraps up, some not so much, 3.5/5.

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Night Chills by Dean Koontz

Night Chills by Dean Koontz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 3 days

Pages - 369

Publisher - Berkley books

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

The fever is spreading. Seizing the men and women of Black River. Plaguing them with night chills. Driving them to violent acts of rape and murder.

The fever is spreading. Designed by top scientists, and unleashed in a monstrous conspiracy - its deadly spell can unlock the most frightening potential of the human mind.

The fever is spreading. The nightmare is real. And death is the only cure.



My Review

Imagine tapping into a power where you have absolute control over other people, control to push people to do literally anything you wish. That is what we have here, mastering the formula to manipulate people in every way possible a trio decide to try it out in a small town. One of them then goes to see first hand just how much they can do/push/try/control and the results are shocking!

It took me a wee bit to settle into it but the book gives you the background on how they managed to accomplish the mind control and how to distribute and test out their new invention. Warning, as you would expect when people have complete control over other humans without fear or reprimand, repercussions or exposure things go to the darkest extremes.

It is an interesting idea and Koontz gives us a bit of, this is already in place look at x,y,z and it isn't a whole leap to thinking this could come to fruition which is terrifying. A small town, sexual deviancy, violence, abuse, murder, manipulation, SA, suicide, the book takes more than a few dark turns, 4/5 from us, approach with caution.

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The Other Emily by Dean Koontz

The Other Emily by Dean Koontz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 3 days

Pages - 352

Publisher - Thomas & Mercer

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

A decade ago, Emily Carlino vanished after her car broke down on a California highway. She was presumed to be one of serial killer Ronny Lee Jessup’s victims whose remains were never found.

Writer David Thorne still hasn’t recovered from losing the love of his life, or from the guilt of not being there to save her. Since then, he’s sought closure any way he can. He even visits regularly with Jessup in prison, desperate for answers about Emily’s final hours so he may finally lay her body to rest. Then David meets Maddison Sutton, beguiling, playful, and keenly aware of all David has lost. But what really takes his breath away is that everything about Maddison, down to her kisses, is just like Emily. As the fantastic becomes credible, David’s obsession grows, Maddison’s mysterious past deepens—and terror escalates.

Is she Emily? Or an irresistible dead ringer? Either way, the ultimate question is the same: What game is she playing? Whatever the risk in finding out, David’s willing to take it for this precious second chance. It’s been ten years since he’s felt this inspired, this hopeful, this much in love…and he’s afraid.



My Review

Author David Thorne has never gotten over the love, Emily, of his life disappearing. He returns to the same place to write his novels & visit a killer who he believes knows what happened to Emily. When he meets the beautiful and mysterious Maddison he can't believe his eyes, she is just like Emily. the more time he spends with her the more she seems like and reminds him of her but Emily would be ten years old and Maddison is like she was back then. What is going on? How can Maddison be so like Emily and can the serial killer Jessop give him any answers?

This book has a bit of everything in it, it is weird, there are doppelgangers, romance, relationships, chats with a serial killer.....David needs to know the truth but he is also loving Maddison being there, it is like having Emily back.

This book is a bit of a genre mash up we have fantasy mixed in with the usual suspects, some creepiness, violence and a bit of a love story. The reader goes on a journey with David desperate to find out what happened, despite having a chance of happiness - some questions just need to be answered. The serial killer is a wee bit different too from some of those we see in books, the guy is in jail, guilty but still has a bargaining chip & feeds on emotions of others. I would like to read more about him actually I would have liked to have . I think this will be a marmite book, I liked that it was different and a mesh of genres, I would have loved it to be thicker. More history on the characters, more backstory and I hope we see David in another story, 4/5 for me.

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Lost Souls by Dean Koontz

Lost Souls by Dean Koontz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 350

Publisher - Bantam

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

FRANKENSTEIN: LOST SOULS

The war against humanity has begun. In the dead hours of the night, a stranger enters the home of the mayor of Rainbow Falls, Montana. The stranger is in the vanguard of a wave of intruders who will invade other homes . . . offices . . . every local institution, assuming the identities and the lives of those they have been engineered to replace. Before the sun rises, the town will be under full assault, the opening objective in the new Victor Frankenstein’s trajectory of ultimate destruction. Deucalion—Victor’s first, haunted creation—saw his maker die in New Orleans two years earlier. Yet an unshakable intuition tells him that Victor lives—and is at work again. Within hours Deucalion will come together with his old allies, detectives Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison, Victor’s engineered wife, Erika Five, and her companion Jocko to confront new peril. Others will gather around them. But this time Victor has a mysterious, powerful new backer, and he and his army are more formidable, their means and intentions infinitely more deadly, than ever before.


My Review

Book four in the Frankenstein series, if you haven't read other others you could get away with starting here but you will have missed so much. Victor survived - well in a fashion and his plan is back, worse than before, humanity is at risk and they don't even know it.

The invaders, mimics, replacers, replicas are back, more effective, organised and primed to do what Victor initially set out to do. With only a handful of people aware of what is going on humanities chances are slim but we have Deucalion and an unlikely couple of allies.

The book isn't really giving us anything new from the last three, we know the plan, we know the players and this is I think two years on from the last book. Its the earth shaking just as it had settled and the players involved thought everything was ok. It is almost, I felt, like a bridge book, bringing in a few loose ends, bringing everything from the previous together and building up to prepare for the grand finale. They have changed tactics a bit from the original series so that is new and all so brutal and methodical. If you liked the previous books I think you will "enjoy" this as part of the series. I have high hopes for the last book, I liked this I just didn't love it, 3.5/5 for me.

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Frankenstein by Dean Koontz book 1

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Volume 1: Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 4 days

Pages - 496

Publisher - Harper Collins

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

In the nineteenth century, Dr. Victor Frankenstein brought his notorious creation to life, but a horrible turn of events forced him to abandon it and slip away from the public eye. Two centuries later, a serial killer is on the loose in New Orleans, gruesomely salvaging body parts from each of his victims, as if trying to assemble a perfect human being.

Detective Carson O’Connor is cool, cynical, and every bit as tough as she looks. Her partner, Michael Maddison, would back her up all the way to Hell itself–and that just may be where their new case leads. For as they investigate the strange killings, O’Connor and Madison find themselves drawn into a weird underworld of deception and secrets where a man named Victor Helios has created an entire race of perfectly engineered people who are meant to take humankind’s place one day. But something is happening to some of Helios’s creations, and it may be that this bizarre serial killer is the least of the detectives’ worries.


My Review

EVERYBODY know the story of Frankenstein, rather Frankenstein's monster. A few hundred years after the legend and low and behold both where real, Frankenstien and the monster. Known in the book as Deucalion, living away in a quiet existance until he is alerted that his creator, Victor Helios, still lives. Deucalion has learned to control his anger and now he is going to complete the job he failed at, killing his "father".

On top of this we have a kick butt cop, Carson O’Connor - strong female lead who has a love interest she tries to keep at bay whilst investigating a horrific serial killer. Her partner Michael Maddison is willing to follow her anywhere, both will soon be confronted with beings that shatter their preconceptions of humanity as they know it.

I loved when we heard more from Deucalion as the movie(s) I seen growing up you didn't really get much from the monster, no insight. Here we are a few hundred years on from the version I know and you get back story, up to present day and the mad scientist is even more off his banger. He has taken his "science" so much further, money is no issue so he has free reign pretty much. He has perfected his creations so much so he know has a wife (he abuses her horrifically) and has zero value for human life. I really liked it and as soon as I finished it I ordered book two, it is a 5 book series so will buy the third sometime soon, 4.5/5 for me this time.

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Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz

Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 752

Publisher - Bantam

Source - Bought in America

Blurb from Goodreads


The girl who said no to death.

Bibi Blair is a fierce, funny, dauntless young woman—whose doctor says she has one year to live.

She replies, “We’ll see.”

Her sudden recovery astonishes medical science.

An enigmatic woman convinces Bibi that she escaped death so that she can save someone else. Someone named Ashley Bell.

But save her from what, from whom? And who is Ashley Bell? Where is she?

Bibi’s obsession with finding Ashley sends her on the run from threats both mystical and worldly, including a rich and charismatic cult leader with terrifying ambitions.

Here is an eloquent, riveting, brilliantly paced story with an exhilarating heroine and a twisting, ingenious plot filled with staggering surprises. Ashley Bell is a new milestone in literary suspense from the long-acclaimed master.

My Review

Bibi is a writer and doing pretty well for being in her early twenty's. When she is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer it kicks off a chain of events that changes not only her life but for that of everyone around her. Who is Ashley Bell, why is she so special and how will Bibi find and save her before it is too late?

The book, for me, broke into different sections, the pre and diagnosis and then everything that kicked off after it. Dealing in the occult Bibi opens herself up to supernatural but she needs answers and when the unlikely happens Bibi knows her life is now about Ashley and keeping ahead of "the bad guys".

The book covers so many themes, Bibi's boyfriend is a soldier and we flip through chapters with him undercover and no idea what is going on with Bibi. The others who are threatening of Bibi, the journey to finding Ashley and who are the killers chasing Bibi that will stop at nothing to get her.

The book got a bit confusing at points for me, then would become clear then something else would be started or said and I wasn't sure where it was going. Certainly an interesting story with different tangents and supernatural spookiness, murder, family and health issues. I do like Koontz but think maybe if I got the thinner version maybe I would have enjoyed it more as some parts, to me, just seemed to have little to no bearing on the actual tale. I will read this author again but this isn't my favourite of his to be honest, 3/5 for me this time.

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Sole Survivor by Dean Koontz

Sole Survivor by Dean Koontz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 403

Publisher - Bantam Books

Source - The Works

Blurb from Goodreads

A catastrophic, unexplainable plane crash leaves three hundred and thirty dead--no survivors. Among the victims are the wife and two daughters of Joe Carpenter, a Los Angeles Post crime reporter.
A year after the crash, still gripped by an almost paralyzing grief, Joe encounters a woman named Rose, who claims to have survived the crash. She holds out the possibility of a secret that will bring Joe peace of mind. But before he can ask any questions, she slips away.
Driven now by rage (have the authorities withheld information?) and a hope almost as unbearable as his grief (if there is one survivor, are there others?), Joe sets out to find the mysterious woman. His search immediately leads him into the path of a powerful and shadowy organization hell-bent on stopping Rose before she can reveal what she knows about the crash.
Sole Survivor unfolds at a heart-stopping pace, as a desperate chase and a shattering emotional odyssey lead Joe to a truth that will force him to reassess everything he thought he knew about life and death--a truth that, given the chance, will rock the world and redefine the destiny of humanity.



My Review

The one year anniversary since his wife and children's plane crashed and Joe is no closer to getting over his grief. When he happens upon the mysterious Rose, taking photographs of his loved ones grave then witnessing her being attacked, curiosity is piqued. Joe embarks on a journey to find out who she is, what she knows about his family and who then men are that have been following him.

I would say this book, for me, split into two stories. The first is all about Joe, grief, the relatives of those on board the aircraft and of course the mysterious Rose. Joe finds she has visited other families who lost someone on the crash and what befell them after her contact. The second part of the story we find out all about Rose, some mysterious happenings and the need to suspend belief a wee bit. There are so many parts I could talk about, humanity, what is right and wrong, ethics however to do so would go into spoilers, something I refuse to do. Would love to gab ideas though with folk who have read it, in a private forum or gabbing so as not to spoil it for anyone else. Certainly interesting ideas and sure conspiracy fans would love it and suggest stuff like that already happens somewhere in the world.

Interesting, different and certainly I wanted to find out what was coming next. Read Koontz before and will read him again, I like this I just didn't love it. I also preferred the first half of the book I think, 3 out of 5 for me this time.

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Tick Tock by Dean Koontz

Tick Tock by Dean Koontz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - Dipped in and out over 3 days

Pages - 352

Publisher - Headline Book Publishing

Source - Birmingham Horrorcon

Blurb from Goodreads

Tommy Phan, a successful detective novelist, comes home one evening to find a small rag doll on his doorstep. That night, with the popping of two stitches, something terrifying will emerge to tear apart the fabric of Tommy's reality--and his life.


My Review

Tommy is having issues with his family, he is Vietnamese-America, embracing his American half where his family want him to embrace the Vietnamese heritage. Tommy is struggling, he is a successful novelist making good money but it will never be acceptable by his mother. Just when he celebrates buying a flash new car, he happens across a doll that changes everything. On the run for his life, he comes across an unlikely ally in Del, a waitress he met earlier and are thrown together. Between them and her dog, the three try to stay ahead of the killer and stay alive before time runs out.

I have read Koontz before but think this book is a bit different, a monster yes but it has humour, family, family issues, attraction and I bloody love Del's dog, I only wish it had bigger parts in the story. Lots of hair raising moments, a deadly pursuit, life or death situation and Del, despite coming in as the second main character, actually steals the show. She is strong, quirky, seems to know so much more than she is letting on, talks in riddles and her dog, mother and home are all fantastic.

Pacey, intriguing and keeps you wanting to know what is coming next. The chapters are quite long, although there are wee page breaks so you can dip in and out reasonably well. I don't think there is a follow up to this book which is a shame as I would have loved to have seen more of these characters. I also wish the book had been longer as it seemed to round up really quickly, they do say a good author leaves you wanting more, 3.5 stars for me this time.

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