Dean Koontz – What the Night Knows (with bonus story Darkness Under the Sun)

Detective John Calvino’s family were brutally murdered by a serial killer when he was a teenager. John survived and managed to kill the killer. Now, twenty years on he has a family of his own and is leading a very happy life. Then a family is murdered in circumstances very similar to those of the killer twenty years ago. John is convinced that his family are in danger but how can he explain it to people when the killer is long dead.

To me this book seemed a little more like classic Koontz compared to his other recent work. I think this is a good thing. I read this book quite slowly but that was more to do with life getting in the way of reading than any fault of the book.

I liked the characters, they were all a little too perfect but I can live with that. The story was entertaining and well paced although it did require a little suspension of disbelief at times (which is not a problem for me, it is fiction after all).

I remain convinced that I would easily be able to detect Dean Koontz’s writing in a “blind” reading, he has a very distinctive style of writing and often incorporates regular themes into his books many of which were present in this book.

The bonus story, Darkness Under the Sun is a prequel to the events of What the Night Knows. I really enjoyed the story and thought it added a lot to the book. If you are going to buy this book then I would strongly recommend finding one of the editions with the story included.