The House of Thunder (edition 2009)

It's been quite a while since I've read anything by Dean Koontz, and I figured that it was about time to give him another go. This is one of his older books. That makes me feel old, actually, to say that, as it was published the same year I was born, but, it's true.

One of my favorite things about Dean Koontz is that he's able to keep me on my toes. He doesn't write the best dialogue, or write the best characters, but his stories are always twisty, and never end up where I think they're going.

House of Thunder was no different. I had many theories, several of them quite good (and maybe even better than what actually happened, if I do say so myself), but they were all wrong. The ending was actually pretty good, if a little dated, and it certainly felt plausible. But, I wish that there was just a little more background information given. There were so many strings out there, and so many loose ends that were all wrapped up in just a few pages, that I wish that there was just a little more information given to back up the abrupt resolution. Even with that missing, it was good, but it could have been great.

One thing that really did strike me as odd though, was the romance aspect of the story. Susan, the main character, awakes from a coma, and within a few days is 'in love' with her doctor, Dr. McGee. And then when things start getting crazy, and she begins to suspect that things are not what they seem, she is massively hurt that he could have betrayed her. In just a few days. I just couldn't really get my head around that one. Susan is described as being very much in control of herself and her life and as much of her environment as possible, so I really couldn't see how she could fall for someone so quickly and then be so hurt by her fears in such a short amount of time. It just didn't jive with me, and seemed like it was more of an addition to explain later events than any real attraction...

All in all, this was a pretty good story. I was never really sure what was going on, and it was very nightmarish and surreal, which is a plus. A quick read if you're looking for something to occupy a little bit of time. :) ( )

I couldn't put it down. Koontz tried with a few paragraphs at the end to write a contrived ending but he didn't quite succeed much to my happiness. ( )

This is one of those mysteries where you have absolutely no idea what is going on until the very end. Is she imagining things because of her brain injury? Is she really seeing ghosts come back from the dead to take their revenge? Or is it all just an elaborate plot to send her crazy? I really enjoyed most this book and I would have loved to give it a higher mark. Sadly, though, it was let down by the ending, which seemed to be rushed and didn't really fit the rest of the story. It is as if the author ran out of inspiration at a certain point and just tacked on a stock ending. I was left with a feeling of dissapointment and anti-climax when I finished this novel. Such a shame. ( )

Had read this book a couple times and never knew he wrote it under the Leigh Nichols name. Was in a used bookstore one day and found it, I immediately picked it up and bought it!

I really liked the concept for this book, the plot. It was nicely suspenseful and thrilling. I also found the writing particularly vivid, putting me right in the middle of the action. ( )