Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 206-210 of 224
 Disappointing - rambling dog lovers tale (pun intended) December 8, 2007
Ian Kimbell (Heidelberg, Germany)
5 out of 14 found this review helpful
OK, so the standard "weird stuff happens to a single woman with child, no one believes her except the good looking man, crescendo, case solved" plot has a new twist here. Mostly child is replaced by dogs - but the whole thing just didn't seem to fit together.. it is a yarn which could not hold my interest - certainly not one of his best, although if you are a dog lover it may have some redeeming merits.
Didn't do it for me! December 7, 2007
Tracey
3 out of 12 found this review helpful
There were a few decent parts, but overall it was very boring and felt like it was lacking something. His older books are better and I had such high hopes for this one. I felt like it skipped around from person to person too much and just didn't have nearly as much to do with the dogs as I had expected. I'm glad I didn't buy it and got it from the library.
 Another page turner from a modern master!!! December 6, 2007
Mary W. (New York)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
A "master" is someone who has achieved greatness, and who is consistently brilliant. That said, Dean Koontz is a master!
Every book he writes is entertaining, suspenseful, and thought provoking. And every Koontz book is well crafted--no filler, no unnecessary words. The charaters are real, the plots original (not formula).
Kootz latest offering lives up to the standard of excellence he has set with his previous books.
Note to readers: You will not be disappointed!
Another well-crafted book for the holidays: Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voices.
 a bit of a disappointment December 5, 2007
PJSpeck (Boston, MA)
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
I am usually very excited about the newest book by Dean Koontz and this one was no exception. However, I found myself skimming through it in a way I've rarely done with any other book. There just seem to be far more descriptive exposition at times than is necessary. It's clear that Dean misses Trixie and the emphasis on the dogs and their beauty is understandable but a bit much at times--and I am a totally a lover of dogs.
There are a few surprises but overall, I've seen Dean do better work.
 A thriller with a soft ending December 4, 2007
Scott Baker (New York, USA)
8 out of 12 found this review helpful
The Darkest Evening of the Year
Dean Koontz is at the peak of his game - his blogged angst over the ending of this book notwithstanding. I won't let my wife read this though; she tends to get nightmares from much lesser stimulus than this. This is scary stuff. Koontz gives us not one, but two sociopaths. Of course he exercises his poetic license librally, especially near the end where the two protagonists and two antagonists lives are shown to be implausibly intertwined, but it still works. What I did find troubling, however, was the fallback to a psudo-religious "save" at the end. If I had wanted Christian Fiction, I would have bought Christian Fiction. It feels contrived, almost as if Koontz is thumbing his nose at his agent or publisher who warned him that a novel ending up in the dark direction it was heading until then would never sell. He could have resolved it a dozen different ways, but I found this one unsatisfying.
The dog parts are good - it's no surprise Mr. Koontz own(ed) his own Golden Retriever. He knows the doggy world very well (I know, I used to breed dogs myself). Like all highly skilled writers, he is able to paint his characters deeply with a few broad passages. We know the sociopaths for what they are after the first scene. They still get darker from there, however, and this book is not for the faint-hearted. It would be at home in the horror section as well.
In summary, a bit formulaic, but strong except for a weak ending.
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