cmaw63's Full Review: Dean R. Koontz - Phantoms: Library Edition
Dean Koontz creates, another, can't put down thriller with Phantoms.
When Dr. Jennifer Paige brings her 14 year old sister, Lisa, to live with her in Snowfield, California, the first thing they notice is how quiet the town is. The second thing is how unnaturally quiet it is. They soon discover the reason Snowfield is silent...all 500 of the people who live there are dead or missing. All of them.
With the phones and electricity working only when allowed to, by whatever has a hold on Snowfield, Dr. Paige gets one phone call out...to Sheriff Bryce Hammond in Santa Mira. Sheriff Hammond puts together a team of 6 men to go to Snowfield and solve the mystery.
It's a mystery that will have them testing the limits of their imagination, bravery and belief in
God. Impossible things appear, disappear and wreak havoc...yet, how can it be impossible if they are killing people? A giant prehistoric looking moth...changing to a wolf...changing to a wounded dog...dead people coming back to life...or are they? Something is controlling these shape-changers...something millions of years old.
It's a mystery that goes beyond any imagination, except one mans. Dr. Timothy Flyte has imagined it and written about it. Is what he believes enough to save the people that are now trapped in Snowfield...slowly dying...one by one?
Phantom Thoughts
This is one of those books that keeps me reading to find out what happens next...and there is something happening right to the end. Strong characters, even the minor players, have me interested and rooting for them.
Dr. Paige and her sister, Lisa, are typical of the strong female presence found in Koontz books. I like the fact they aren't crying at everything that goes "boo" and get right into the fight when needed.
The sub-plot involving Sheriff Hammond gives depth and compassion to his character. It, also, ties in neatly with the storyline, without a hitch.
I'm a big fan of psychological thrillers. Phantoms gave me something to think about, as it used true life events to give a sense of reality to the story. Who can explain these events...and why not Dean Koontz's theory in Phantoms?
Phantoms was originally written in 1983. In the afterword that Koontz wrote, in the back of my 2001 publication of Phantoms, he states that this book is one of the "10 biggest mistakes of my life." I say it's one of the top 10 books he's written.
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