Twenty years ago a brutal serial killer named Alton Blackwood killed four families including young John Calvino’s parents and siblings.  John survived.  Now, he’s a cop with a family of his own and when a young 14 year old boy kills his own family, John recognizes similarities in the murders to those of Blackwood’s long ago. Is the spirit of Blackwood back?  If so, then John knows his family is in danger.  He’s about to have to face Blackwood again.

Believe it or not, this is the very first Koontz book I’ve ever read although Koontz has just about as many books out as Stephen King, if not more.  And I can honestly say I’m hooked!  This book gave me the chills I wanted from recently read author Michael Koryta. Koryta is good at suspense and mystery with a supernatural thriller, but Koontz goes one step farther.  He’s just sick and twisted, for lack of better words. He’s also a bit more descriptive and brutally honest.  He hold’s nothing back.

What I really liked about this book is the multiple point of views which were each unique and interesting and really brought the characters to life.  And since I cared about each character and good follow them so easily, I didn’t get any of them confused.  Sure, I had to pause occasionally to remember who a minor character was, but I never had to look back at what I’d already read to figure it out.

For instance, Calvino has three kids: Zach, Minnie, and Naomi.  Each kid is very different and Koontz gives them their own chapters where they explore mysteries taking place in their house.  Zach, 14,  checks out a service mezzanine above his bedroom that can be accessed through his closet.  He wants to be a marine so he takes a weapon from the kitchen. He’s brave, but being a kid he’s still a bit scared at times.

Minnie and Naomi have an odd encounter with the mirror in the bedroom.  Naomi, 11, is imaginative and quite the young lady who is obsessed with stories of dragons and princesses.  She’s convinced the other world in the mirror is a magic kingdom. The spats she has with her sister are well written and quite funny.  Koontz really draws these kids out and makes you appreciate them as characters.

The minor characters which Blackwood haunts are also each given their moment to shine as they come alive on the page and downright frighten you.  There’s an intense scene with a possessed cop in a hospital that really had the pages turning. Calvino later seeks guidance from an excommunicated priest who was an exorcist. As he confesses as to why he can’t help Calvino, even he will make you shiver although his appearance only takes up a few pages.  I’d love to see Koontz develop him more in a later book.

Koontz is definitely a master and I can easily see why he has such a large following.  The book is certainly not without its flaws though which for me became cliche at times.  For instance, the repetition of certain words.  By the time I noticed them a few times, I would just roll my eyes.  One such word was “darkle.”  Koontz obviously loves that word because he uses it numerous times!  He also likes to describe the weather and it seems he does it at the beginning or end of every chapter.  There was so much mention of the leaves blowing on trees and the wind that later when those things were important, it was hard to pay attention.

Minus these distractions and a lackluster, and a bit predictable, ending, I enjoyed the book immensely.  It’s 442 pages and I finished it in 7 days.  That’s a record for me because I usually frown at 300+ pages and it takes at least 2 weeks if not more for me to get through it.  So, it was definitely a page turner for me which I couldn’t put down!  Its also made me want to seek out some of his other books to read until the next one comes along.