I know... it's not even Sunday and I am at it again. I kind of had to.. trying to clear the backlog before I finish the next one (only 20 pages to go on my language one)... don't want to have things stacking up do we? Ahem..... yes, well....
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Strangers - Dean R Koontz
Yep, another one from the "No 1 Bestselling Master of Menace".
If I had to break this one down into a few key sentences they would be: several people are scared but do not know why. They go on a mission to find out what happened and then it all comes back to them. Also involves a Government cover up and an alien space ship. What's not to like? Koontz sets the scene and introduces all the players. Connect the dots and then delivers the grand finale. Simples, to quote a famous Meerkat.
As I said, the book starts with painting the picture of the main characters who are all scared but do not know why. We have Dominick Corvaisis who is sleepwalking and ends up barricading himself in his own house afraid that someone or something is going to get him. He is a writer and relatively new to it. It seems our Dom has been through a few changes recently and he has never really stopped to think why. He has a "loyal Sidekick"-friend who advises him on what to do and ends up playing a small pat in all of it too.
Then there is Ginger Weiss. A successful doctor from a Jewish background who is so capable of handling herself it makes you almost envious of her. She initially gets seriously scared of black gloves and has no idea why. She ends up so unable to cope that she as to go and stay with her boss for a while to get her balance back.
Next up is Ernie Block. Good old solid motel owner Ernie. He has a doting wife and a motel to run so he does not have time to get scared. Yet he is... of the dark. He is sure something is there and he keeps feeling he should get away. Oh, and then there is that spot by the highway....
Another day sees us meet another character. This time it is Father Brendan Cronin he is having some major issues keeping the faith and would probably even go as far to say as that he lost it completely. He is not sure why but it is just gone.
As if all these are not enough to get to grips with we now meet Jack Twist. A master criminal who used to be in the army but decided that after the army left him why should he care. Well he does care, about his wife who has been in a come for years. But that is all he cares for, all he lives for, all that makes him feel good and alive. Not even the most daring of crimes does that for him nowadays. What is it all worth if you have no-one to share it with anyway?
There are some late stragglers (Sandy and Ned) to be added to the list of those affected but they almost seem like a by product of the whole thing... just some more people whose story Koontz has to explain to file some more pages. They do not add anything to the story and it almost seems that they just happen to be affected as well and just happen to live near Ernie. The serve the convenient purpose of being an extra pair of hands in the final plan. Someone had to hold up that door and cook the dinner. Oh, and let us not forget Jorja and her cute moon obsessed daughter Marcie. Cute kid Marcie just keep her away from doctors.
Someone who is connected to the story but not completely involved is a really interesting character called Father Stefan Wycazik. God's very own little trouble shooter. The kind of priest you believe could probably blow up the Hoover dam as well as preach the living daylights out of Sunday Mass. He is a powerful man and an honest one. He is Father Cronin's boss and he tries to do the best for his charge in finding his faith again. He also serves as a very handy vehicle to move the story along in the right direction and to help us gather some vital clues.
Bit by bit you find out some clues to the story that connects these people. There are some mysterious pictures that some if the cast receive , Ginger goes as far as to undergo regression therapy (which does not end well for the therapist) but mostly it is their memories that draw them to the same place where the great reveal takes place. Some weir stuff happens along that way to. Father Brendan becomes a bit of a healer and hen there is this obsession with the moon for some of the characters. Through no small amount of freakish coincidences all the pieces to the puzzle get puzzled together. one by one the characters find out where they need to go and then what happened to them while they were there. Naturally this is partly thanks to some government agents who managed to grow an conscience somewhere between taking part in the cover up and participating in the events several months earlier. There is also the obligatory mad general with delusions of... well who knows really. Once the characters end up at the same place.... the pace where it all started. Things pick up the pace and there is wild driving, shooting, escaping and running around involved before we finally get to find out what has really gone on. I will not bore you with the details but as I said there is a government institution nearby and you did not hear it from me but conspiracy is rife over there in Nevada.
I thought is was a good read but it did seem to have a lot of characters to get to know and I have to say I did win a bet with myself about who was going to end up with who and I am really chuffed about that! However, in the end the "what happened to them" seems relatively small to the amounts of people you have had to meet to get to it. There were so many bits that had to come together and it was spread over so many characters that is almost seems to lose its impact. You wonder who brought what to the table again and where did that little bit of info come from. I would not be surprised if there are parts of the riddle that actually did not come from anyone. I never would have remembered!
Koontz' characters are nice enough and although stereotypes they are entertaining and fun to be around for 700 pages or so. What the book did do is draw me in. Its fault may be the amount of characters but the clever thing is that each of them remembers something different in a different way about what happened to all of them and you kind of need all of them to help you piece it together. What it also did is make me want to do was get to the end of it. I stayed up till about 1.00am to finish it one night because I just had to know how it ended. Partly because I just wanted it over with, partly because I wanted to see if the bad guys really died and the good guys really lived... most of them do.
Title: Strangers
Author: Dean R Koontz
710 pages
Headline
ISBN #0-7472-3516-3
Books to be read: 151
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