Dean Koontz – Breathless

Grady Adams is out walking his dog when he witnesses two strange creatures running in the meadow. He contacts his vet friend Cammy Rivers to see if she can shed any light on what they might be. She too is amazed by the creatures and emails photos to some contacts for their opinion. Before they know what is happening Homeland Security have sealed off the area and taken the creatures for testing. Grady and Cammy are horrified by this and set about trying to do something about it.

This book is a little slower paced than Dean Koontz’s usual offerings but it is still unmistakeably Koontz. I’m sure that I could identify writing by Dean Koontz in a “blind” reading as he has a very distinctive style. Plus in his more recent novels the main character is pretty much the same person, just repackaged a little. That’s more of an observation than a criticism, I’ve read most of Dean Koontz’s books and enjoy them very much.

Breathless seemed to me to take a while to get going and to be honest, whilst it did pick up the pace a little towards the end it never really took off. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, because I did. I just feel that perhaps something was missing. I really liked the ending, I think it was apt and worked well, but the journey to get there could have been better.

There were lots of separate sub-plots that at first seem to have no connection to one another but all linked together cleverly at the end. I particularly enjoyed the stories of the man in the Vegas casinos and Tom Bigger, a homeless man. There was one sub-plot that had almost no bearing on the story whatsoever and could easily have been left out with no detriment to the book at all, although it would have left the book considerably shorter as it was one of the more in depth sub-plots, but to me it didn’t add anything to the story and was the one I enjoyed the least.

I did quite enjoy this book but it’s certainly not one of my favourite Den Koontz offerings. If you like Dean Koontz then you should like this book. However, if you have never read anything by Dean Koontz I would suggest starting elsewhere in order to see what he is truly capable of.