Fear Nothing

Dean Koontz

Christopher Snow has XP--xeroderma pigmentosum--a rare genetic affliction that forces him to avoid light. Cumulative exposure to sun, fluorescent lights, and the like will eventually give him cancer. Chris' mother, a scientist, died in a car accident two years before the novel starts. His father, an English professor, is dying of cancer. As the novel starts, he receives the final phone call to the hospital.

Afterwards, when Chris goes down to the morgue he sees some people taking his father's body and substituting a vagrant's body in his father's place. Chris finds himself involved in a mystery that seems to include him and his dog, Orson. People are hunting him, monkeys menacing the neighborhood and his friend Bobby, the police are meeting with the body snatchers, houses are burning down, and people are being killed. He spends the night travelling through storm sewers, the beach, friend's homes, the streets of town, the rector's attic, and hiding in a Christmas creche.

Chris realizes that his home of Moonlight Bay is forever changed. Friends he had known all his life tell him strange stories. They talk about becoming. Now he wants to know what they are talking about. How was his mother involved? Why are the monkeys that are traveling around so malevolent? What does Orson know that he's not telling?

I usually avoid horror. It is not my genre. Yet I have been told many times how good Koontz' novels are. So when I needed a book on tape for the car, I borrowed it from the library. What a nerve wracking novel! I kept getting creeped out. Did you hear that sucking sound? That was me being pulled right in. I'll agree, Dean Koontz does write some excellent work. That doesn't mean I'll ever read another one (well, maybe the sequel, Seize the Night). While this is not true horror, it rode the edge enough for me to remember why I don't like horror. 10/06 You'll notice more Koontz reviews in these pages. I've learned he has a broader range than horror and I like what I read.