cDog's Ultimate Dean Koontz Guide 2nd Ed. Page 3
Pub: 1995
Publisher: Knopf
Movie: TV
Audio Book: CD & Tape
Number CD's: 10
Abridged: No
Number of Cassettes: 12
Abridged: Yes
Hard Cover Pages: ?
Paper Back Pages: 436
British Fantasy Society (nominee)
In the space of 24 hours, self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer" Edgar Foreman Vess sets out to murder everyone in the home of Chyna Shepherd. But a drive even stronger than survival spurs Chyna to unexpected heights of courage and daring, thrusting her into a deadly confrontation with a remorseless, relentless killing machine. Knopf. * Unknown
My synopsis: Chyna Shepherd has a tormented past. She walked out on her mother, a junkie with a record of evil specimens as boyfriends, when she was sixteen. Now she studies psychology and she's going to spend a tranquil week-end with her friend Laura's family in Napa Valley. Yet she's about to experience a sudden, dangerous nosedive in a night of sheer terror, as she happens to be in the hunting territory of a vicious sociopath, a ruthless psycho who breaks into the house where she's hosted to massacre everyone he finds. * Tiscali
Edgler Vess is a self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer", who believes he's in such a deep communion with every living thing that he can draw upon their vital force in the very moment of their death. Chyna comes unscathed out of the mayhem but finds herself tangled in a web of intricate and terrifying situations as she stalks (or is stalked by?!) the killer through the whole night. She'll spend the following 36 hours in a pulse-pounding hide-and-seek in which her courage, hardened by a childhood of loathsome violence, will be her only lifeline.
* Tiscali
- Dark Rivers of the Heart
Pub: 1994
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
Movie: No
Audio Book: Tape
Number of Cassettes: 12
Abridged: No
Paper Back Pages: 592
FROM THE PUBLISHER
A Man and a Woman - she is a figure of mystery, he is a mystery even to himself - meet by chance in a Santa Monica bar. Suddenly - first separately, and then together - they are fleeing the long arm of a clandestine and increasingly powerful renegade government agency: the woman hunted for the information she possesses, the man mistaken as her comrade in a burgeoning resistance movement. The architect of the chase is a man of uncommon madness and cruelty, ruthless, possibly psychotic, and equipped with a vast technological arsenal: untraceable access to the government's electronic information banks, its surveillance systems, weaponry, and materiel. He is the brazen face of an insidiously fascistic future. And he is virtually unstoppable. * BN
SYNOPSIS
A man and a woman meet by chance in a bar. Suddenly, they find themselves fleeing from a powerful agency the woman hunted for what she knows, and the man mistaken as her comrade in a resistance movement. * BN
- Winter Moon
Pub: 1993
Publisher: Paperback Ballantine
Movie: No
Audio Book: None
Paper Back Pages: 480
"In Los Angeles, a hot Hollywood director, high on PCP, turns a city street into a fiery apocalypse. Five die. Heroic LAPD officer Jack McGarvey is badly wounded and lands in the hospital for months, uncertain he'll walk again. While he's out of commission, his wife and young son are left to defend themselves against both the criminals that control an increasingly violent city and the dead director's cult of fanatic fans. In a lonely corner of Montana, Eduardo Fernandez, the father of McGarvey's murdered partner, witnesses a strange nocturnal sight. The stand of pines outside his house suddenly glows with eerie amber light, and Fernandez senses a watcher in the winter woods. As the seasons change, the very creatures of the forest seem in league with a mysterious presence. Fernandez is caught up in a series of chilling incidents that escalate toward a confrontation that could rob him of his sanity or his life - or both. As events careen out of control, the McGarvey family is drawn to Fernandez's Montana ranch. In that isolated place they discover their destiny in a terrifying and fiercely suspenseful encounter with a hostile, utterly ruthless, and enigmatic enemy, from which neither the living nor the dead are safe."
* Tiscali
- Mr. Murder
Pub: 1993
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
Movie: Yes
Audio Book: Tape
Number of Cassettes: 10
Abridged: No
Hard Cover Pages:
Paper Back Pages: 481
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Because he has a happy marriage, two adorable small daughters, and a successful career, mystery writer Marty Stillwater counts himself a lucky man. But all this is shattered when a stranger breaks into his house one rainy afternoon to announce: "You stole my wife, my life, and my children. I want them back." Claiming to be the real Martin Stillwater, the madman wages a relentless and terrifying campaign to eliminate Marty and recapture the family and life he believes to be his. When even bullets fail to stop this savage intruder, the police are hard-pressed to believe the Stillwaters' harrowing account. Unable to rely on the protection of the authorities, the family goes on the run. But no matter where they hide, their enemy finds them. In Mr. Murder, Dean Koontz creates the most endearing family to appear in a novel in a long time, makes us love them and makes us tear for them as they cross the path of a psychotic killer unlike any who has previously haunted the pages of fiction. Exploring contemporary society's tendency to draw an ever-thinner line between fiction and reality, Mr. Murder is blisteringly paced, terrifying, thought-provoking, and utterly fresh. * BN
- Dragon Tears
Pub: 1992
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
Movie: No
Audio Book: CD
Number CD's: 11
Abridged: No
Hard Cover Pages:
Paper Back Pages: 401
Tuesday was a fine California day, full of sunshine and promise, until Harry Lyon had to shoot someone at lunch. From that first sentence, Dragon Tears explodes across the page with the excitement, chilling suspense, emotion, and deeply drawn characters that have earned Dean Koontz enormous worldwide popularity. Police detective Harry Lyon is a perfectionist who likes his condo immaculate, his suits well tailored, and his homicide files typed error-free. To Harry's dismay, his partner, Connie Gulliver, embraces chaos, urging him to "get in touch with the rhythms of destruction." But when Harry and Connie have to kill in the line of duty, the ensuing surreal nightmare makes Connie's cynical world view seem all too accurate. That same afternoon, a hulking street person prophesies that Harry will be dead by dawn, then self-destructs before his eyes. As twilight falls, Harry glimpses strange creatures in the shadows, and finds his rational world transformed into a place of bizarre surprises and unimaginable dangers. As dawn ticks closer, Harry is caught in a whirlwind of terror that threatens to sweep away not only him but Connie and everyone he loves. * Unknown
- Hideaway
Pub: 1991
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
Movie: Yes
Audio Book: None
Paper Back Pages: 400
Awards: Bram Stoker (nominee)
ANNOTATION
The New York Times #1 bestseller by the author of Dragon's Tears. Pronounced clinically dead after his car plunges into an icy river, Hatch Harrison is miraculously revived by a special team of doctors. Now Hatch approaches each day with a new appreciation . . . until he starts to see terrifying images of madness and murder. For he brought something back from his visit with death--and its murderous rampage has just begun. (Occult Fiction) * BN
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The New York Times #1 bestseller by the author of Dragon's Tears. Pronounced clinically dead after his car plunges into an icy river, Hatch Harrison is miraculously revived by a special team of doctors. Now Hatch approaches each day with a new appreciation . . . until
he starts to see terrifying images of madness and murder. For he brought something back from his visit with death--and its murderous rampage has just begun. * BN
- Cold Fire
Pub: 1991
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
Movie: No
Audio Book: CD & Tape & MP3 CD
Number CD's: 12
Abridged: No
Number of Cassettes: 9
Abridged: No
MP3 - Brilliance Audio
Abridged: No
Paper Back Pages: 448
Reporter Holly Thorne is intrigued by Jim Ironheart, who has saved 12 lives in the past three months. Holly wants to know what kind of power drives him, why terrifying visions of a churning windmill haunt his dreams, and just what he means when he whispers in his sleep that an enemy who will kill everyone is coming. * Unknown
- Strange Highways
Pub: 1991
Publisher: Warner Books Inc
Movie: No
Audio Book: None
Hard Cover Pages:
Paper Back Pages: 624
You are about to experience what may be the publishing event of the year. The author - one of the most prolific writers of our time, the creator of such classic New York Times bestsellers as Dragon Tears, Midnight, The Bad Place, Watchers, and Hideaway. The book - an extraordinary first-ever collection of two complete novels, plus a compilation of twelve novelettes and short stories, as only the man universally hailed as a master of imaginative fiction can create them. You are about to travel along the strange highways of human experience: the adventures and terrors and failures and triumphs that we know as we make our way from birth to death, along the routes that we choose for ourselves and along others onto which we are detoured by fate. It is a journey down wrong roads that can lead to unexpectedly and stunningly right destinations ... into subterranean depths where the darkness of the human soul breeds in every conceivable form ... over unfamiliar terrain populated by the denizens of hell. It is a world of unlikely heroes, haunted thieves, fearsome predators, vengeful children, and suspiciously humanlike robots. * Unknown
- The Bad Place
Pub: 1989
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
Movie: No
Audio Book: CD & Tape
Number CD's: 13
Abridged: No
Number of Cassettes: 10
Abridged: No
Hard Cover Pages:
Paper Back Pages: 427
Frank Pollard is afraid to fall asleep. Every morning when he awakes, he discovers something strange—like blood on his hands—a bizarre mystery that tortures his soul. Two investigators have been hired to follow the haunted man. But only one person—a young man with Down's Syndrome—can imagine where their journeys might end. That terrible place from which no one ever returns.
* Unknown
- Midnight
Pub: 1989
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
Movie: No
Audio Book: CD & Tape
Number CD's: 13
Abridged: No
Number of Cassettes: 10
Abridged: No
Hard Cover Pages:
Paper Back Pages: 477
Awards: Bram Stoker (nominee)
Four people are the last hope of Moonlight Cove, because one by one the rest of the citizens are changing into boogiemen, werewolves, mythical creatures, or something entirely new. They are the New People, willing victims of a seductive experiment in chemically induced evolution. They can transform their bodies at will and eliminate unproductive emotions, like grief and compassion. In fact, the only instinct left to the New People is self-preservation, and their only emotion is fear. And they want the rest of humanity to join them. * Unknown
- Oddkins
Pub: 1988
Publisher: Warner Books Inc
Movie: Yes
Audio Book: None
Hard Cover Pages: 192
"To the world, the Oddkins are just stuffed animals. But all of these soft, cuddly, sweet-faced toys share a wonderful, magical secret -- they're alive!
Created by Mr. Isaac Badkins, the old toy maker, the Oddkins are made only for very special children, those who must face something difficult in life and need a true friend. The Oddkins are given to these children to inspire them, help them, and love them as long as the children need them. Only now the toys themselves - Amos, the brave stuffed bear and his friends Skippy, Butterscotch, Burl, Gibbons and Patch - are the ones in need of help.
Mr. Bodkins has passed away before he can give his life-giving powers to Colleen Shannon, the toy maker he had chosen to replace him. Yet before he dies, the old man takes Amos aside, appoints him leader of the Oddkins, and gives him a dire warning: Watch out for an evil toy maker - and something much, much worse!
The Oddkins have only one choice: to go on a journey in search of Colleen Shannon's toy shop. The night is stormy and black; the way is filled with peril. And the Oddkins have to face a danger that threatens not only their magic -- but the magic in us all." * Tiscali
- Lightning
Pub: 1987
Publisher: Penguin Group
Movie: No
Audio Book: None
Hard Cover Pages:
Paper Back Pages: 363
Lightning strikes--and the blond-haired stranger appears to save Laura from tragedy again and again. Is he the guardian angel he appears to be or the devil in disguise? Or is he the master of a haunting destiny beyond this world--beyond time and space? "Lightning sizzles!"
Laura Shane leads a troubled life: she is orphaned, nearly molested twice and loses one of her closest friends in a tragic accident, all before her 13th birthday. Even worse events would have befallen Laura if not for the mysterious guardian angel who periodically appears with a bolt of lightning to miraculously rescue her. The ``angel,'' Stefan, is in fact a time traveler who rides the ``lightning road'' through time to follow Laura throughout her adult life; unfortunately, Stefan himself is being chased through time by a pack of equally mysterious villains, and their pursuit of Stefan and Laura spans the second half of the novel.* Unknown
- Door to December
Pub: 5/02
Publisher: Penguin/Signet
Movie: No
Audio Book: None
Hard Cover Pages:
Paper Back Pages: 528
The #1 New York Times best-selling author delivers a truly suspenseful novel of a mother who must save her daughter from a threat she can hardly understand. What happened to nine-year-old Melanie during the six years she was subjected to terrifying experiments? And what is the unstoppable power that she can unleash from behind the "Door to December"? * Unknown
- Shadowfires
Pub: 1987
Publisher: Avon Books
Movie: No
Audio Book: None
Paper Back Pages: 528
ANNOTATION
Rachel wants no part of her husband Eric's research empire or his fortune. She just wants to be free of his obsessions. Her request for a quick and clean divorce enrages Eric. Consumed by pure and terrifying hatred, he storms into the street--only to be killed in a horrible traffic accident. Rachel thinks her nightmare is over, but it's only just begun. Previously published by Avon under the pseudonym of Leigh Nichols. * BN
- Watchers
Pub: 1987
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
Movie: Yes
Audio Book: CD & Tape
Abridged: No
Number CD's: 13
Number of Cassettes: 10
Paper Back Pages: 512p
When Travis Cornell and Nora Devon meet "Einstein", they are touched by the dog's intelligence. Einstein is one of two altered life forms escaped from a top-secret lab. The other--The Outsider--is a deadly hybrid. To protect themselves, Travis and Nora must learn to be deadly as well. * Unknown
- Strangers
Pub: 1986
Publisher: Putnam Publishing
Group
Movie: No
Audio Book: None
Hard Cover Pages:
Paper Back Pages: 704
Awards: World Fantasy (nominee)
From Publishers Weekly
The author of Phantoms, Whispers and other thrillers takes an unconscionable time to tell his latest story. The "strangers" are thousands of miles apart when they begin to suffer inexplicable terrors. In California, Dom Corvaisis sleepwalks, fleeing from an unseen menace. In Massachusetts, gifted young Dr. Ginger Weiss's panic attacks threaten her career. A priest in the Midwest loses his faith suddenly, then finds he can heal fatally injured people. And, in Elko, Nevada, the owner of a motel a tough ex-Marine becomes paralyzed by fears of the dark. Mysterious clues bring these characters and others, similarly afflicted, to the motel, where apparently they had met long before. As they compare experiences, the victims realize they've been brainwashed and determine to find out why. That means facing death at the hands of a maniac in a scene that finally induces frissons of terror in the reader. But it's too late; Koontz has vitiated suspense throughout the narrative with numbing repetitions and long explanations of such matters as Jewish cooking, the baldachin over the altar at St. Patrick's Cathedral, a weaver's tools, etc. 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild dual selection. * BN
- New American * ?
AKA: Richard Paige
Pub: 1985
No more info available. Sorry. I couldn't verify this information with multiple sources. So who knows. The information was collected from * Fantastic