Dean Koontz books of late have read more like a "Left Behind" series than the edgy horror stories that I grew up reading. He doesn't seem to be writing anything worthwhile anymore, just typing in a paycheck. Everything has a religious undertone that is unoriginal and uninspired. I've said it before, but this time it feels real: "This will be the last Dean Koontz book I'll ever read." 
 (view spoiler)[ One of the things that annoyed me the most about this book is DK's tendency to make every person in the book a cheesy caricature of good or evil. The "Evils" include a child killer, a deadbeat druggie, a pedophile priest, an abusive husband, a cop on the take, a thief who molested his childhood sibling until she killed herself, and of course, the terrifying holistic medicine shop owner that lets evil thrive by selling candles and herbal extracts. The "Goods" are just as bad. They include a retired priest, an innocent man once accused of a hideous crime, a dead dog, an intelligent eight year old, and a teenage girl that wants to enter a convent (her name was Davinia, in case you weren't bull rushed enough into believing in her virtue.) (hide spoiler)] 
 The story started with just enough of the old DK to keep me reading. It wasn't quite there, but it felt like it was going to be just around the corner. I chased that dragon until I was three-quarters finished with the book before I realized that it was never going to appear; by that time, it was too late. I still hold "Dark Rivers of the Heart", "Hideaway", "Intensity", "By the Light of the Moon", and a few others in fairly high regards. This book (and his last three or four for that matter) should have been written under a pseudonym just to disassociate itself from the talented writer that I used to enjoy. Now I find myself questioning my taste and judgement from the past.