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At first the police thought they were dealing with a psychopath or a vicious gangland war. Then, they heard the eerie sounds in the ventilation system and saw the silver eyes in the night. In a city paralyzed by a blizzard, something watches--something whose ultimate victims are young and innocent. Reissue.
Koontz has a lifelong love of writing that led him to spend much of his free time as an adult furiously cultivating his style and voice. However, it was only after his wife Gerda made him an offer he couldn't refuse while he was teaching English at a high school outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that he had a real opportunity to make a living with his avocation. Gerda agreed to support Dean for five years, during which time he could try to get his writing career off the ground. Little did she know that by the end of that five years she would be leaving her own job to handle the financial end of her husband's massively successful writing career.
Koontz first burst into the literary world with 1970's Beastchild, a science fiction novel that appealed to genre fans with its descriptions of aliens and otherworldly wars but also mined deeper themes of friendship and the breakdown of communication. Although it is not usually ranked among his classics, Beastchild provided the first inkling of Koontz's talent for populating even the most fantastical tale with fully human characters. Even at his goriest or most terrifying, he always allows room for redemption.
This complexity is what makes Koontz's work so popular with readers. He has a true gift for tempering horror with humanity, grotesqueries with lyricism. He also has a knack for genre-hopping, inventing Hitchcockian romantic mysteries, crime dramas, supernatural thrillers, science fiction, and psychological suspense with equal deftness and imagination. Perhaps The Times (London) puts it best: "Dean Koontz is not just a master of our darkest dreams, but also a literary juggler."
When Koontz was a senior in college, he won the Atlantic Monthly fiction competition.
Koontz and Kevin Anderson's novel Frankenstein: The Prodigal Son was slotted to become a television series produced by Martin Scorsese. However, when the pilot failed to sell, the USA Network aired it as a TV movie in 2004. By that time Koontz had removed his name from the project.
Some fun and fascinating outtakes from our interview with Koontz:
"My wife, Gerda, and I took seven years of private ballroom dancing lessons, twice a week, ninety minutes each time. After we had gotten good at everything from swing to the foxtrot, we not only stopped taking lessons, but also stopped going dancing. Learning had been great fun; but for both of us, going out for an evening of dancing proved far less exhilarating than the learning. We both have a low boredom threshold. Now we dance at a wedding or other celebration perhaps once a year, and we're creaky."
"On my desk is a photograph given to me by my mother after Gerda and I were engaged to be married. It shows 23 children at a birthday party. It is neither my party nor Gerda's. I am three years old, going on four. Gerda is three. In that crowd of kids, we are sitting directly across a table from each other. I'm grinning, as if I already know she's my destiny, and Gerda has a serious expression, as if she's worried that I might be her destiny. We never met again until I was a senior in high school and she was a junior. We've been trying to make up for that lost time ever since.
"Gerda and I worked so much for the first two decades of our marriage that we never took a real vacation until our twentieth wedding anniversary. Then we went on a cruise, booking a first-class suite, sparing no expense. For more than half the cruise, the ship was caught in a hurricane. The open decks were closed because waves would have washed passengers overboard. About 90% of the passengers spent day after day in their cabins, projectile vomiting. We discovered that neither of us gets seasick. We had the showrooms, the casino, and the buffets virtually to ourselves. Because the crew had no one to serve, our service was exemplary. The ship dared not try to put into the scheduled ports; it was safer on the open sea. The big windows of the main bar presented a spectacular view of massive waves and lightning strikes that stabbed the sea by the score. Very romantic. We had a grand time.
Justin_Amburgey_25
Posted December 7, 2008
Like all Dean Koontz books, the story is "on the edge of your seat exiting", gets intresting very quickly, and is very well written. The story is about two NewYork City detectives, Jack and Rebecca. Jack is patient, resourceful, and not afraid to follow as supernatural lead. He is the strong protagonist of Darkfall. His partner Rebecca is just as strong of a detective as Jack, but much more cynical and extremely realistic.
They are put on a case of gruesome murders, where the victims are a cut and slashed hundreds of times until they die of blood loss. The killers leave no trace, and seem to have the ability to break into the most secure of buildings. All the victims belong to the mafia family. Leaders of the mafia are being cut down one by one by and acclaimed voodoo doctor.
As the detectives get further into this mysterious case Rebeccas realistic beliefs are rapidly filed away and both Rebecca and Jack come to know and fear the voodoo doctors small, vicious, and silver eyed assasins.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 30, 2008
I havent been a big fan of Dean Koontz books. But when I saw this book I had to read it. N for the first time, I can say. I will read another Dean Koontz book. The book kept u at the edge of your set wondering what is going to come next. It was enjoyable. It also ad alot of facts,on voodoo and stuff. Stuff I dont care much for. I L.O.V.E it. So now I can say I am a Dean Koontz fan!!! 2 thums up for me!!!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 8, 2011
Darkfall is the first book I ever read of Dean Koontz and I was hooked! Suspenseful and thrilling from the very first page. Loved it and would highly recommend.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 9, 2011
One of the best Dean Koontz Books I ever read! Scary and impossible to put down!. Give it a try everyone!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 2, 2010
very scary right from the start. kept me interested all the way through
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 28, 2011
I read this book when i was nine and i LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!! Im thirteen and i remember reading this book late at night trying to finish it without my mom knowing and i got to a part where it was talking about the glowing silver eyes of the small demon creatures and suddenly my cat jumped up on my bed with her GLOWING eyes and i swear i almost passed out. I couldnt sleep for weeks but that what i love about his books! I will always remember this book i love it!! I am oficially a koontz-addict and have been ever since that day. READ READ READ READ GREAT BOOK im sure it will be onr of your favorotes too!
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Posted November 7, 2011
This was a great book. I started it on monday and finished it by tuesday. Just couldnt put it down.
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Posted September 20, 2011
One of the best books I have read. I was on the edge my seat the whole time. I wish he would have wrote a few more pages at the end because I wanted alittle more closure with the characters, but it was still a great book.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.KissesOfRain
Posted June 29, 2011
I loved it, loved the characters, loved the ending. It has some action, and it will keep you on the edge till the end!! :D
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Rhonda18
Posted June 19, 2011
Grabbed me from the first page. I couldn't read it fast enough. Great plot, good suspense, good horror.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Lulu70LB
Posted May 12, 2011
AS USUAL, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN. I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN. GREAT PLOT, INTERESTING CHARACTERS, AND THE ENDING WAS INCREDIBLE.
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Posted August 8, 2010
Once again I have read another book by Dean Koontz that grabbed me and took me hostage from the very first page all the way to the very end. It kept my attention and put me on the edge of my seat until the end just like every book that I have read by him. I am officially a Dean Koontz fan. That is the second book this month. Actually it is fairly easy to tell it was one of his first books, but it is still spine tingling all the way through.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 26, 2008
DARKFALL is a fast moving story with a suspensful chase through the blizzard-addled streets of New York City. Koontz turns this great city into a claustrophobic nightmare. However, I was disappointed by the lack of nuance in his writing, frequent use of cliche, and over-reliance on lucky coincidence. Additionally, the characters were not as well-developed as those he has written in later, more accomplished novels. This is an over-the-top, at times cringe-inducing, horror-fest complete with voodoo, grotesque monsters, and apocolyptic dread. It is best read quickly as an entertaining, if slight, diversion from the real 'horrors' that confront us on a daily basis.
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Posted March 14, 2007
I normally love reading Koontz's novels, but I could not get into this book at all. I kept putting it down to pick it up to put it back down again. By the last time I picked it I forgot what it was that I was reading.
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Posted October 20, 2005
Scared me. I know, its just a book, but woah. Gave me the creeps. Good stuff!
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Posted May 12, 2005
In this great suspense by Dean Koontz we follow two detectives, Jack Dawson and Rebecca Chandler, as they try to uncover the horrifying murders that are going on to the Carramazzaas. The Carramazzaas are a family of drug dealers, whose killer is supposedly rats. But how could rats get away with murder or even commit such an act of violence and not even leave a trace? Soon Jack believes that these killings could just very well be the act of voodoo. Carver Hampton, a man who practices good voodoo, helps Jack uncover their culprit, Baba Levelle. Soon those ¿creatures¿ of Baba¿s are after Detective Dawson¿s children, Penny and Davey. As soon as Jack finds out that Lavelle is after his kids, he tries to hide them, but that didn¿t work. As they encounter these creatures we find out that they can¿t touch Jack, that they¿re afraid to be near him. As Jack gets help from Carver, Rebecca, Penny, and Davey decided that they might be safe if they get in a cathedral, but they were wrong. This book keeps you on your toes the whole way through. If you¿re into suspense mixed with the supernatural you¿ll love this read!
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Posted January 24, 2005
This was one of the best books I have every read! It is very fast and scary. After I had read this book, I had wanted to do some of the white magic as well. But, for that I would have to find one of those shops. When you read this book, you won't be able to put it down. I wish that I could give it more stars, but I can't.
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Posted February 12, 2003
This book was good although I liked PHANTOMS way better. The reason I didn't like it as much was because of the ending but otherwise this book was interesting and gruesome.
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Posted October 25, 2002
This was the first book that I have read from Koontz and I enjoyed it very much. This was a fast paced book that I did not want to put down. The end could have used a little help but still a very good book. I look forward to reading more of his books.
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Posted December 7, 2001
Without a doubt one of his best novels. Fast paced and very hard to put down. Koontz is a master storyteller. The bad guy in this one is REALLY bad -- but the good guy is great! Top Notch book !
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Overview
Strange Days Winter gripped the city. Terror gripped it, too. They found four corpses in four days, each more hideous than the last.Strange Nights At first the cops thought they were dealing with a psychopath. But soon they heard eerie sounds in the ventilation system. And saw unearthly silver eyes in the snow-slashed night.
Final Hours In a city paralyzed by a blizzard, something watches, something stalks . . .
At first the police thought they were dealing with a psychopath or a vicious ...