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Seize the Night

Review

Seize the Night

The Energizer Bunny has nothing on Dean Koontz. With over 70 novels and any number of short stories and adaptations, Koontz not only keeps going and going, but he keeps getting better and better.

Faithful readers of Koontz will welcome the return of hero Christopher Snow in SEIZE THE NIGHT. As in FEAR NOTHING, the story is set in mysterious Moonlight Bay, California. SEIZE THE NIGHT begins with Snow setting out to find the kidnapped son of his former lover. He quickly discovers that other children have been abducted from Moonlight Bay, making his search all the more urgent. The horror of child abduction, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Readers of SEIZE THE NIGHT will never think of monkeys or cocoons --- in quite the same way again.

SEIZE THE NIGHT's greatest virtue, however, is Christopher Snow. Though Koontz has given us many memorable characters in his previous novels, there is no one more interesting than Snow. Afflicted with xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare disorder which renders the bearer intolerant to more than the dimmest light, Snow deals with his affliction in a forthright way, turning it into a strength --- and in some instances, a gift. Snow also has a well developed sense of virtue and morality. He is a hero for the decades.

Koontz takes his reader on a wild ride from beginning to end, with enough plot twists for a dozen books. And, while he does an admirable job of wrapping up divergent plotlines --- he leaves a few questions unanswered so that a return visit to Moonlight Bay looks not only possible, but probable.

SEIZE THE NIGHT is a book that will keep its readers up for several nights --- one night for reading, the other nights for checking the windows, doors and children. I recommend it to Koontz fans who read everything he writes, to readers who have tried his books before, but have not read anything by him recently, and to those unfortunate few who have never read anything by him at all.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on January 23, 2011

Seize the Night
by Dean Koontz

  • Publication Date: December 1, 1999
  • Genres: Fiction, Thriller
  • Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam
  • ISBN-10: 0553580191
  • ISBN-13: 9780553580198