Dean Koontz's Novel Midnight

I recently finished reading Dean Koontz's novel Midnight. Quite a ride, if I do say so. If you've been reading this blog regularly, then you may already know how much of a fan I am of Stephen King's works. Midnight would stand up well to most of them, in my opinion.

Midnight is about how an FBI investigator comes across a mysterious, heretofore relatively sleepy coastal California town whose death rate has suddenly spiked over the previous few weeks. Upon arriving there, he also discovers that large segments of its population are behaving in unusual ways (this is difficult for me to describe, as I don't want to give away the story). He also comes to believe that this town's leaders, as well as its police, are "in" on what's going on. And so he finds himself isolated and eventually trapped while trying to uncover the increasingly sinister mystery there.

There is the usual mix of compelling, character-flawed, and evil characters in Midnight that is present is most other novels of this genre. When reading novels, I like to discover the "wild-card": a character whose allegiances are uncertain and unpredictable, and who ultimately determines the story's outcome. I wasn't disappointed with Midnight's wild-card character.

I have read one other Dean Koontz novel: Shattered. Midnight and Shattered are really two different kinds of stories, although both are suspenseful, life-and-death struggles with heroes and villains. I moderately like Shattered, although not enough for me to pursue Koontz's other novels. But Midnight has me interested in his now-vast library of stories. And my handy-dandy public library has a treasure trove of them for me to check out.

Move over, King, here comes Koontz!