*This
review contains spoilers*
During
a typical day on the police force, Harry and Connie, partner detectives, are
forced to kill a man who shoots up the diner where they are having lunch. Shortly
after, they find themselves in some inexplicable circumstances when a man who
can change shape, throw fireballs, and freeze time targets them for death. With
no one to depend on but each other, they must find this maniac who uses his
psychic powers to destroy.
Koontz
has a way of weaving several different points of view, including that of a
dog’s, to keep this story moving quite effectively. However, putting a face on
evil is another of Koontz’s gifts, and he does a remarkable job in this. I
found myself feeling a bit sorry for this villain. Is he a monster? Yes. Is
there any other way to stop him than to kill him? No. But this antagonist also
turns out to be a 20-year-old young man who was born to a woman who first abused
her child invitro by trying all kinds of alternative measures to abort him, and
then subjected herself to self-mutilation rather than being faced with the
responsibility of raising him. He ends up living with his grandmother, an older
woman who might have had some mental issues of her own and growing up in an
atmosphere where the only way he could gain attention was to use his unique
powers to cause pain. Given that he never had the chance to learn that fear and
love are not the same thing, I found this to be a rather tragic bad guy. A
good, if somewhat predictable, story is the result.
