What The Night Knows Dean Koontz ISBN: 978-0007326914 (Harper Collins)

After the form of his previous few releases I approached this Koontz novel with some trepidation – and feeling it might be the last of his I choose to read. I was very much surprised. This is almost like the Koontz of old and reminds you he is the author of such greats as Watchers and Strangers.

As a kid Detective John Calvino witnessed the murder of his family by a deranged serial killer. But he’s overcome his past and built the perfect life. That is until the murders start again even though the killer is long dead. And Calvino knows his family will be next.

Unlike many of Koontz’s recent novels this is creepy. It gets under your skin in exactly the way good horror should. It’s unsettling. The author is back to his most productive stomping grounds – the supernatural. Koontz has a gift for making otherworldliness believable heightening its fear factor, a fact that makes his recent forays into soft-sf tropes and Frankenstein all the more regrettable. (Could he have been producing work like this instead? – if only.)

It’s also full of great characters. Koontz spends the time to let you know his cast just as that other great of modern horror Stephen King does. He takes you into their lives and makes you feel with them. It raises tension levels wonderfully. Koontz knows that readers must care about those he endangers to get the right level of scare. This is a horror great on top form.

Page updated 25 March, 2011