For thirty-five years,
Bruno Frye has lived in the shadow of the mother who made his heart beat
with constant fear. And even though she died five years ago, the
whispers still haunt him in the dark…enough to make him kill—and kill
again… Hilary Thomas is one of his intended victims. And she’s about to
learn that even death can’t keep a bad man down…
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I've read two Koontz this year so far for the challenge, and I must say both this and Watchers are a little similar and remind me of each other. This one also has a serial killer who we keep jumping to, with his bizarre viewpoint. His outlook is even more bizarre than the one in Watchers though, and surprisingly I liked this one better than Watchers, which is something I didn't guess would happen before I read them.
The plot itself wasn't anything fancy until later on - it seemed an almost stale serial killer book, but then the mystery showed itself, and it was indeed strange. Not easy to solve either; I kept thinking twins, twins, twins, but that kept getting shot down. At the end I was starting to wonder if there was actually going to be some sort of supernatural explanation involved.
It's purely suspense, little horror present. Pacing is strong and tight, with a good dose of suspenseful moments injected in stalking scenes. Violence is brutally implied and sometimes graphically written. The ending especially induces some arm-hairs to raise.
This book was likely enjoyed more since the characters were an improvement. They weren't as cheesy in their interactions, and the ending showed an unraveling of motives which fascinated me. I liked how Koontz had the characters come together to explore the mystery through interviews with characters who would add a bit more of the puzzle when they were announced.
The backstory was intriguing as hell so the book picked up much when it came to these scenes. Koontz had improved on dialogue and writing style with this one, as well, perhaps because it was written later. This book shone out more because of the villain, not because of the heroes, which isn't the normal thing. Bruno as the bad guy was interesting and his back-story is what really kept me glued here.
I did wish the ending would have continued a little longer, just to find out a few more details on what happened, it felt slightly cut off. Overall good stuff though, even if a little generic (while Koontz manages to put in some truly bizarre, different stuff too). I now want the next Koontz book I read to be a different sort of plot though to get a chance of pace from the suspense serial-killer.
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