Dragon Tears

I first read this book way back when I was thirteen. A little young for that sort of thing, one might say, but my mom borrowed it from a friend and thought it might be good for me to read. She turned out to be quite right, as I haven't yet encountered a Koontz novel that I actually disliked. Some were better than others, of course, but I haven't read a novel of his yet that I wouldn't reread. In fact I read Dragon Tears at least once a year. The story begins on a Tuesday morning like any other. Police Detective Harry Lyon starts his day by having breakfast at his kitchen table, then cleaning up the kitchen. He then heads to work just in time to hit the streets with his partner, Connie Gulliver. While stopping for lunch at a burger joint before resuming the search for their current suspect, they are thrust into a life or death situationwhen a man enters the restaurant and peppers the place with bullets. after an intense chase that leads them into the building's attic and a few close shaves involving a dialogue composed entirely of Elvis Presley song titles, some manicans and a pair of hand grenades, the two cops manage to bring down the killer. Things only take a more disturbing turn when Harry, standing outside the restaurant for a breath of fresh air, forces a young man back behind the crime scene tape and is subsequently visited by a derilect in a black raincoat who warns him that he'll be dead by dawn before dissolving into a cloud of refuse. Harry's day only gets worse as he becomes the target of a series of bizarre, supernatural events in which he suddenly finds himself holding objects he can't remember picking up. Things only get worse when, returning home from the office he is surprised by the vagrant who appeared to him on the street. Upon discovering that bullets are ineffective against this particular foe, Harry is forced to flee for his life as his condominium is set ablaze by his adversary, who seems to possess other powers besides the ability to form out of and dissolve into a cloud of litter. Later, with Connie at his side, Harry goes to see his friend Ricky Estephan, whom he visited after leaving the restaurant, only to find him brutally murdered, his eyes torn from their sockets and his house infested with an army of snakes and spiders. Elsewhere in the day, others find themselves living under the same bizarre threat, from a former advertising executive fallen from grace thanks to a drug addiction, to a beaten down mother and son and their dog Woofer. As the night progresses, Harry and Connie find themselves fleeing for their lives from a seemingly invulnerable foe. Their search for the identity of their attacker ultimately leads them to an expensive private nursing home and a burned-out, forty-something-ish blind woman with a dark past and a connection to their persecutor that they never expected. In his usual fashion, Dean Koontz delivers a tale of action and adventure and excitement, mixed in with just the right amo

Detective Harry Lyon is having a bad day. He and his partner stop for a quiet lunch and find themselves in a life or death gun battle with a crazed gunman. But it's only the beginning and things are about to get much worse. By sheer coincidence, Harry runs afoul of someone far more dangerous and far more powerful than a lunatic with a gun. It is a phantom he will come to call Ticktock and his abilities are superhuman. He is like a vengeful god and he makes a sport of punishing people and terrorizing them before he kills them. He gives Harry 24 hours to live and during that time, everything he loves is in danger unless he can put a stop to it... This is classic Koontz and a highly entertaining read. I've read nearly all of his work, but somehow never got around to this jewel until recently. He was in the top of his form during this time and I highly recommend picking this up for fast moving, suspenseful fun.

When I was 28 I told myself I had outgrown Dean Koontz after having just read a disappointing Koontz novel. I'm now 36 and recently picked up DRAGON TEARS. WOW was it good, and it really reminded me of why I liked Dean Koontz so much. This story was so original, so subtle, yet so terrifying. The suspense builds so gradually that you hardly feel it and then you're tied up in knots to see what happens next. Koontz's character development was awesome, and the ending had me laughing so hard my spouse came into the room to see what was so funny. Thank you Dean Koontz, and I'm sorry I pushed your books aside 8 yrs. ago-- my loss and my mistake!

Do you love dogs? Then you'll love this book. Put aside the terror and suspense (and imagination) for a moment. Koontz is the first author I know of that has portrayed the mind of a dog with such accuracy that, after reading it, you'll want to go out and sniff behinds. Maybe that's a hyperbole. And it probably is in poor taste. But you know what I mean, if you love dogs. But the fact is, I loved the chapters seen through the eyes of a dog. Although short, they'll leave with with an appreciation of the canine psychology that will make you laugh. Bark, whine, bark.

I can see how a person can easily hate this book. However, I found it to be very entertaining despite many of the "Koontz Cliches" that can be found throughout. READER BEWARE: The book starts out painfully slow, but about halfway through it really starts to grab your attention as the action picks up. Koontz successfully weaves a devious villian, cliched cops, and some of the most nerve-racking white knuckle suspense filled chase scenes ever to come out with one of the best books I've ever read.