Whispers

WHISPERS was a major breakthrough in Dean's career, and when you read the book, it's easy to see why. It's an excruciatingly suspenseful tale of a talented, yet troubled young screenwriter being stalked by a relentless psycho who has a rather unique background of his own (to put it lightly). But that's merely the surface story here. Koontz explores the serious theme of how childhood experiences can exert a powerful--if almost invisible--influence on an adult's life. It's a distinctly Freudian theory, and it's interesting to note that in interviews several years after he published this book, Dean criticizes his views as naive and uninformed. Nevertheless, whether you agree with the psychological theories or not, you can read and enjoy this book for what it is: a masterful example of the suspense tale executed by a truly brilliant author. I refer to this novel again and again as I publish my own suspense novels, for sheer inspiration! Highly recommended!

The first book by Koontz that I read was Phantoms and since that I have read a number of his books and loved all of them (except "Midnight", which was decent but not great). My favorite was "Lightning", but "Whispers" is equally good, perhaps even better. Hollywood screenwriter marked by a traumatic childhood, Hilary Thomas (a typical Koontz character) gets attacked by a respected man, Bruno Frye. Hilary manages to kill him in self-defense, but realizes her problems aren't over when he attacks her again. Has he come back from the dead? Together with policeman Tony Clemenza (who would prefer being an artist instead of a police), she tries to find out what has happened. Soon, the fascinating story of the Frye family slowly unfolds.Like in Koontz other books, we get a psychological explanation to the behavior of our "heroes", but what is even more important in this book is that we get to explore the mind of the "villain", Bruno Frye. In for example Koontz' "Intensity", we get no explanation why the villain is behaving as he is, he is just sick (but it's a very good book too, and well described). It seems as if Koontz can make up the most fantastic story and make it sound totally logical. This book is not only very good entertainment reading but it also makes you think. I recommend it to everybody!

My first Dean Koontz book was Phantoms, which was absolutely the most terrifying book ever. I got hooked, and in time I read The Funhouse, The House of Thunder, Darkfall, The Vision, Watchers, and then Night Chills, but for a long time, Whispers sat on my shelf, and I finally decided to read it. I read it about four or five weeks ago, and right afterwards, I was shaken. However, in the weeks following until now, I have constantly been thinking back to it and shivering. I cannot understand why Dean Koontz is always immediately classified as a horror writer (the same goes for Stephen King). He has only written about three novels that could be classified under "horror", and this is not one of them. In fact, this novel is one of the furthest things from horror; it is pure suspense and mystery. It is a novel about people. It is about people who are scared, who are in stressful situations, who are trying to know what is going on, and who are trying to keep themselves from being engulfed by all this stress. Not to spoil the book, but I thought that I should mention that the killer in the book is scared of the dark. Not just scared of it, either, but absolutely terrified. This is one of the things that gets to me the most about this book; since I am scared of the dark, I can relate to him, and even feel pity for him. The story that goes with this novel is astounding, and is truely a mystery. For a long time, Phantoms and Watchers were my favorite books by Mr. Koontz; now that I have thought about the situation more, I realize that Whispers is truely my favorite. I almost cried in some scenes, and almost screamed at others. Alltogether, however, I truely gasped at most of the scenes. Because of this book, I have a better reason to keep all the lights on in my room at night; otherwise, the room fills with all these strange whispers... That's all.

This is the first book by Dean Koontz that I read, and even after finishing INTENSITY, MR. MURDER, HIDEAWAY, and THE EYES OF DARKNESS, it still ranks as my favorite. I am a bit of a skeptic when I read book reviews raving that the book is "chilling" or "spine-tingling," but I can honestly claim that WHISPERS was both those things and more.The reason I appreciated WHISPERS so much is because of the incredibly well-crafted plot. As a mystery fan, I really enjoy reading a book that gives you an impossibly baffling plot twist and finally wraps up the entire story at the very end, tying up all the loose ends. Koontz shows himself to be not only a master storyteller but a super plotter. At first glance, this book may seem like another cheap, come-back-from-the-dead serial killer novel, but at the end, everything is explained logically and realistically, which makes it all the more shocking. But it isn't just the plot; there are genuinely horrifying moments and the climax is both suspenseful and disturbing. One of those books that makes you sit back after reading the last sentence and say, "Wow."