A haunting nightmare is the key to one woman’s mysterious past in this spine-tingling novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.Almost twelve years ago, American Joanna Rand arrived in Japan to become a singer in a nightclub. In all that time, she has never been able to escape the strange dream that haunts her night after night. Each time she awakens, she feels violated, … she feels violated, used—and terrified.
Alex Hunter knows that Joanna is not who she thinks she is, because he has seen her before—in photographs of a senator’s daughter who disappeared twelve years ago. And there is only one way to unlock the dark secret of her soul…
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Dean Koontz is at the top of my list for best authors!! Every book is a page turner and when I start one of his books, I can’t stop until the last page!
Brilliant
Love all his books
Loved as a child! Can’t wait to nab a copy for my kindle library!
Awesome Character builds, believable.
The Key to Midnight, Dean Koontz, 1979
Favorite quote: “The room was rapidly shrinking to the size of a coffin, and she foresaw the conditions of the grave so clearly that she could actually feel the cold, damp embrace of eternity.”
Characters: Joanna Rand, the woman without a past; Alex Hunter, the love interest; Oni Inamura, the doctor; Mariko, Joanna’s friend
Most memorable scene: When Joanna woke from a nightmare at six in the morning and Alex came in and started making out with her before she even had a chance to rinse with Listerine.
Strengths: The climax
Standout achievements: The absence of Koontz’s trademark super-smart golden retriever and unrealistically precocious child (I call it an achievement because, come to find out, his books are better without them)
Fun Facts: Key to Midnight is the first novel written under the Leigh Nichols pseudonym
Other media: N/A
What it taught me: While I’m a believer in following the rules of English, there’s such a thing as trying too hard — and there’s a lot of that in this one. Should you choose to give this book a gander, brace yourselves for such clunkery as “Joanna sat at the small rosewood desk on which stood the telephone.” Is it correct? Yes. Is it how people talk? No, and that’s why I’m listing this as one of the books that taught me the importance and power of conversational tones over semantic technicality. The goal, after all, is to reach the reader, not impress the scholars
How it inspired me: Aside from his tendency to get a bit too linguistically punctilious at times (see what I did there?) few writers understand the beauty of the language like Koontz. His ability to make anything pretty inspires me to dig deeper, to seek better, stronger ways of wording things — and every time I finish one of his books, I come away a little more informed
Additional thoughts: From her failed suicide attempt to her chronic state of angst, the character of Joanna is a drama queen of the highest kind. I get that she was brainwashed amid some government conspiracy and all, but holy eff, ya’ll. She kind of ruined the book for me
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Haunt me: alistaircross.com
Not one of Koontz’s best works. For me the book falls into the okay category.