Home > Fiction, Mystery, New Release, Thriller > New Release: What the Night Knows

New Release: What the Night Knows

513MJx60m6L._SL160_By Dean Koontz
Bantam | 464pgs
Release Date: December 28, 2010

Summary:

Bestselling thriller writer Dean Koontz conjures up a modern day ghost story with his new novel What the Night Knows. Alton Turner Blackwood, the villain from Koontz’s short story Darkness Under the Sun, wreaks havoc on a small town, killing several families. His murderous rampage is finally brought to an end on the night he attacks a fourth family, when he is killed by a 14-year-old boy, the only one to survive Blackwood’s savagery. Many years later and miles away from his childhood trauma, the boy, John Calvino, is now a man with his own family, when evil strikes again. Working as homicide detective, Calvino begins investigating a series of murders that bear a sickening similarity to the tragedy of his childhood. The unsettling and inexplicable events surrounding these new crimes cause Calvino to intensely fear for his own family’s safety and believe that he must fight a killer whose power extends beyond the grave.

In a letter to fans posted on Amazon.com, Koontz explains how the unique villain, Alton Turner Blackwood, was conceived. The character first appeared to the writer in a Benedryl-fueled dream. When he awoke, Koontz wrote down a brief description of the killer, which was later incorporated into the novel, verbatim: “He stood six feet five, scarecrow-thin but strong. His hands were immense, the spatulate fingers as suctorial as the toe discs of a web-foot toad, large bony wrists like robot joints, orangutan-long arms. His shoulder blades were thick and malformed, so that bat wings appeared to be furled under his shirt.”

What critics are saying:
Early editorial reviews have been mixed for Koontz’s latest ghost story, with some critical of “clunky prose” or some “less than suspenseful” plot points. Despite its flaws, most critics agree that What the Night Knows is an entertaining read. A review for the Associated Press declares: “Dean Koontz, one of the suspense giants, has written one of his best horror novels in years. Koontz has been hit and miss lately, but he’s back in fine form…What the Night Knows is true terror in print, and it will be interesting to see if the movie that likely follows will be half as good.”

Share
  1. Steve
    January 3rd, 2011 at 14:28 | #1

    Forget Koontz and forget his book “What the Night Knows” (a ghost vengeance story, been there, done that), instead read a book that’s really been BANNED like “America Deceived II” by E.A. Blayre III.
    Last link (before Google Books bans it also]:
    http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526

  1. No trackbacks yet.

Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree