It’s been years, YEARS since I read a Dean Koontz novel. I haven’t read any of his current books in quite sometime. Maybe someone can give me a rec or two of his work? Of all the three books I’ve read by him back to back to back, I remember Lightning quite fondly. Do you like time travel? Adventure? Action?
The book is shelved in horror but it is somewhat difficult to classify his books. I’ve read Dragon Tears that did use supernatural stuff and there’s Whispers which didn’t but it did have violence and killers and a pretty good twist in the end but I digress. Koontz books are hard to classify as they are not all horror novels. Lightning is one such book.
Koontz fascinates me with his plotting and dialogue. The opening of Lightning was quite an opener. You have a stranger coming to the home of a doctor who is a lush and full in his cups, on his way to the hospital to deliver a baby. The stranger seems to know a lot about the good doctor and what he’s about to do. So, he helps the good doctor out of his car and into his home, and makes him call the hospital and tell them that he is indisposed. The hospital then calls another doctor to handle the delivery.
Why the interest in this particular delivery? You’ll have to read the book to find out why. Lightning is one of those books that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It does have a subtle and bittersweet romance in it that is quite memorable. I still think about it to this day. I must say that the romance was the biggest draw as well as the action and of course the mysterious hero who seems to know every body’s fate and has an intense interest in one particular person’s fate. I don’t want to say more in fear of spoiling the story for you but trust me, this book is very good. One of his best books actually. OK, I haven’t read all of his books to make that type of assessment about his work — - so take that opinion with a grain of salt. It’s no big secret that Koontz usually has a romantic subplot in most of his books. In Whispers, he had a pretty good romance in there as well but again, I digress. Koontz use to write regency romances under a pen name. I once found such a copy and sold it for $62.
Anyway, this book was another page-turner and another book that has fared well with time. I think many romance readers would get a kick out of this book if you don’t mind reading all the other stuff that comes with it. Like action scenes and even more action scenes.
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Lightning is one of the few of his that I haven’t read, but this is the second strong recommendation for it I’ve received in less than a week. I’ll take that as a sign that I should pick it up.
My favorite of his is Watchers, and it also has that mix of horror and…other that’s so hard to classify. And it does have a sweet little romance with a heroine that should have aggravated me in her mousy-virginal transformation to confident-sexpot (although nothing in the lovemaking is explicit) but somehow it just worked. The dog is fantastic, the monster is well-done — in fact, the only place the book fell short for me was with the human villain.
I’ve also heard wonderful things about Odd Thomas. I picked it up, but haven’t been able to get into it yet, even though I like the voice. I think I just wasn’t in the mood at the time.
Hi Meljean,
I loved Lightning. It was the second book of his that I read. I enjoyed Whispers and Dragon Tears. Then I stopped reading him for some reason. Also, I have Watchers in my TBR stack. I’ll have to find it.
What was the pen name?
My favorites of Koontz’s more recent works are: THE FACE, THE TAKING, and LIFE EXPECTENCY. I’m a long-time fan of his and enjoy most of his work, though. :-)
Deanna Dwyer is the pen name he wrote some of his romances under and they are VERY hard to find. I found my copy in good condition in a used bookstore in Georgia.
Lightning was the second Koontz book I’d ever read and to this day it’s one of my favorites of all his books. My other fave by him is Watchers. I haven’t read much of his newer work since From The Corner of His Eye came out, though.
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