"Intensity" by Dean Koontz

A great book! -- 4-1/2 Stars (Originally written November 21, 2005)

As I mentioned when I reviewed "By the Light of the Moon," I have long been a fan of Dean R. Koontz. I often like his work even better than Stephen King's. The only drawback is that once you've read a few of his books, you soon realize that the majority of his male and female main characters are the same: A man with a sad background; a woman with a terrible background; they find one another in this crazy world; etc.

But in "Intensity," although we still get the same woman with a terrible background (and MAN, does Koontz know how to come up with HORRIBLE afflictions for these poor young women!), we are spared her male counterpart. And so I was able to REALLY get into the story this time.

And what a story! It's the ultimate being in the wrong place at the wrong time tale, with a young lady named Chyna staying with a friend on the very same night a psychotic killer arrives to murder the entire family!

What follows is one tense situation after another; the book is aptly named. I don't want to give too much away, but if you enjoy being on the edge of your seat, this book is perfect! Koontz also does some interesting tricks with the past and present tense telling of the story. The only books I have read with anything like it would be King's "The Cycle of the Werewolf," though the tense only changed once in that book, and Christopher Andrews' "Pandora's Game," which played similar tricks with the POV. Koontz's technique was effective and creepy.

The ONLY thing that prevents me from giving this book a 5 star rating (and believe me, it was close) was that there is an "element" (again, I don't want to give too much away) to the psychotic killer that I think was hinted at a little too early. It is revealed near the end, and I'm pretty sure that it was SUPPOSED to be a huge surprise. But I became suspicious of it about 1/3 through the book, and convinced I was right about ½ through the book. I kept hoping I would either be wrong, or that the "secret" would be revealed earlier and not be so much of the climax. But ... not to be.

But again, "Intensity" IS a great novel. And I recommend it strongly to anyone who enjoys thrillers!