Rating: 
Summary: Caught Me By the Heart
Review: I'm not surprised to see reviews all over the board on this one, and yet still, it is such a wonderful novel. Yes Koontz has taken a more spiritual and fanciful turn but who can read this book and not ALWAYS think of "walking where the rain isn't". The characters are real and stay with you long after you've finished the book. I would wish that people who read it would just lay back and enjoy the ride. I was up several nites later than I should have been because the story line is so engrossing. But please, don't anyone tell my employer.
Rating: 
Summary: From the Corner of His Eye
Review: I have read all Mr Koontz's work, including that published under other names. I have never found Dean Koontz to be a flashy or extremely immaginative writer. What I have found him to be is absolutely reliable. He just tells a good readable story from the beginning to the middle to the end. I have never once regretted the hardcover purchase price of a Dean Koontz book. And that is high praise indeed.This latest book, From the Corner of His Eye, is not Mr. Koontz's finest. Good and evil are too finely drawn with no in between fuzzy area where I might have felt comfortable. The evil vilian Junior Cain, a pyscho/sociopath serial killer, is so evil the only way to humanize him was to have funny things happen to him after he killed somebody. Imagine a man so rotten his own digestive system doesn't like him. The rest of the characters are so good, they are perfect, even the batty Issacson brothers pull themselves (sort of) together out of love for their sister Agnes and her astounding child Barty. Read this book. I'm probably nitpicking here. This is a better story and Dean Koontz is a better writer than about ninety eight percent of what is out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Wait for the paperback, if then
Review: I usually enjoy Koontz, but this time he blew it. The novel moves much too slowly and with one excepton, his characters are one dimentional, either all bad (irritating is a better word) or all good (and irritating). It's a bad thing when one doesn't care who comes out the winner, but with this book, just let it end, please.
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to par...but still has a few "hooks" for fans!
Review: Koontz? Love reading him; easy, escapist fiction, great characters (for the most part) and books are hard to put down. This book is different - like other reviewers, it took me over a week to read, and usually I find enough spare moments to finish in 48-60 hours. If it takes longer, it probably didn't hold my interest. Excellent weaving of several plots together, but there is way too much "goodness" in the book. The heroes and heroines have very few, if any, flaws and so their characters are relatively uninteresting. Junior Cain, the villain, becomes a bumbler before the book ends, but Koontz gives us interesting insight into the mind of those depraved enough to kill their loved ones and commit the brutal act of rape. By completely misreading everyone's reaction to him, and attributing false motivation to his victims (e.g., he falsely believes the women he attacks are interested in him and giving him "come hither" signs), the Cain character helped me to really think about how a brutal person thinks. So, Dean, congratulations on the villain, but please, don't bring the story back....go to another stream of thought and work as hard on the characters as you did on Cain!
Rating:
Summary: different, but still good
Review: I have read everyone of Dean Koontz's books and it's amazing what a great storyteller he is. He is so talented and oh, what an imagination! This book was very humorous in spots and had me laughing outloud. I found it to be a bit sluggish in spots but the love of the characters made up for it. Especially Barty who was so kind he brought tears to my eyes. The sensitivity Koontz expresses with his books is what makes me read him. I hate for people to even compare him with the likes of Stephen King or other horror writers as he is so much more than that. I enjoy the way Koontz creates both good and evil in his books and the good always overcomes, whether the evil is of a spiritual nature, an alien nature, or real flesh and blood. By the way his flesh and blood evil stories are the best as they are the most believable-like False Memory. You will adore the many characters in this story, even the villian in a way!! He is the most fun to read about. The way his logic works is hilarious. This is not Koontz's best book but somewhere in the middle.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining read
Review: I enjoyed this latest thriller from Dean Koontz. The story is rather different than your typical Koontz thriller. As many here have mentioned, there is no dog, and there are no characters on the run because of a government conspiracy. Ironically, out of all of the characters in the book, the one I enjoyed the most was Junior Cain. I found him to be a very likeable character. However, towards the middle of the book, as the story begins to unfold, I realized that he was a vicious serial killer. Soon he is on the run. As always Koontz demonstrates his gift of creating "life-like" characters for whom you get to develop great sympathy. Agnes is a very likeable character with a great heart, and her son's birth, under very tragic circumstances, makes the reader wonder who she was able to survive through all of the misfortune. I agree with some readers on this forum that the end was somewhat cheesy, though I wonder if it was because Koontz had thought it inappropriate for such a likeable character to face another fate. One of the things I found really interesting in the book is the humor. More than once during my reading I stood my head up from the book and nudged my wife, telling her "This Koontz is hillarious!" The story took place during the 60's. I wasn't around then (I'm only 25), but I thought his descriptions of that time to be very vivid. All in all this book was a great read, though it wasn't one of his best (My favorite is still probably "Watchers," considered by many to be his greatest work), and I would've given it a five had it not been for what I think is a mediocre, if not ridiculous, ending. I trust Koontz will come up with a better ending for a book in the future.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful book, start to finish
Review: I was really disappointed in the last Koontz book, "Falso Memory." I am an avid fan and have read most of what he's written over the years... this book, "From the Corner of His Eye" is added to my shortlist of favorites, including "Watchers." I have long believed that Koontz will be remembered 50 years from now as a modern American Master ... for the beauty of his prose (instead of gracing the Horror section). From the first page, I was hooked with the following passage: "Each smallest act of kindness reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it's passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each expression of hatred, each act of evil." I firmly believe in this and live my life by it. If that seems "preachy" as one reviewer put it, then this book might not be for you. Koontz blends the supernatural and the spiritual and does it beautifully ... I loved this book. Laughed, cried, and turned pages with fear ... and was so touched by some passages that I've copied and sent it to friends.
Rating:
Summary: Not your typical Dean Koontz
Review: Only brief mention of a dog! I loved the emotional depth of this book, and for someone without children of his own, he does an excellent job of not only creating dialogue for children, but depicting the loving relationships between parents and children. The villain in this book is one of his best. Cain is evil, murderous and easy to hate, but on a quest for self-improvement that includes reading the collected works of Caesar Zed, who's motto he needlepoints on a pillow - "Humility is for losers". Great stuff! I highly recommend this action packed, love-filled book - it's wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: Middle-of-the-Road Thriller
Review: Dean Koontz's newest novel starts out very well, fizzles in the middle, and comes back to finish in a somewhat satisying, if a bit rushed and ridiculous, way. The novel has a big ensemble cast of characters, the most we've seen from Koontz since 'Strangers'. At times, the number of characters seems excessive, but ultimately they all weave together an engaging tale. The main three stories of the mysterious child prodigy Bartholemew, the psycho killer Junior Cain, and the impromptu family of Celestina and Angel tie together in ways that don't become clear until the waning parts of this winding tale. Along the way, we switch back and forth between them, getting to know all of them in small ways, but because there are so many background characters, we really don't get as much as we need. Too much time is spent on the murderous Cain, a thoroughly unlikable human being. The plot loses its way toward the middle because of this and becomes a chore to plod through. Koontz's novels are usually a very quick read, but this one took me over a week to get through. The ending ties everything together almost too quickly. Yet with as slowly the story has moved before this, it is a welcome change of pace. 'From the Corner of His Eye' is a fair read, not one of Koontz's best, but worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: A good bad guy wasted.
Review: I don't want to reveal too much about the book, but a couple of points. Is it possible to create a good bad guy, but place him in the wrong story? I think that is what happened here. Cain Jr. is a very interesting antagonistic. But he seems rather out of place in a book filled with good guys(and gals)with superhuman powers. About halfway through the book I realised poor Cain didn't stand a chance. So there is really no suspense or excitement at the end of the story. Just Cain running around killing off secondary characters that are within his abilities to do away with. When he finally does run into young barty, it is like a moth flying into a electric bug zapper.
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