Dean R. Koontz - The Voice of the Night

I've been a huge fan of Dean Koontz books ever since I was 15 years old. At the present moment I have over 40 of his books in my closet. I've read about half of those so far, and many others I've checked out at the library and read. My favorites are The Mask, Tick Tock and of course the one I'm about to review "The Voice of the Night".

Dean Koontz is known for books that reel you in, and don't let you go until the very end. I can guarantee if you pick up one of his books, you will have a lot of sleepless nights. Every time I read one of his books I tell myself, just a few more pages, then it's lights out. It never happens. Every page keeps you wanting more, and you can't bring yourself to put the book down until you find out what happens next.

The Voice of the Night is about two 14 year old boys, who are nothing alike, but form a great friendship. Only thing is one of them has a secret he is keeping, that once revealed would change both of their lives forever.

Colin is the skinny, shy, quiet type, who loves reading sci-fi books, and is shy around girls. Colin looks up to his friend, Roy and wishes he could be just like him one day. Roy is the muscular; nothing will get in his way type. He likes girls, and girls like him. Everyone wants to be Roy's friend.

On a warm, summer day in California, while Roy and Colin are sitting on top a hill over looking the ocean, Roy asks Colin "Have you ever killed anything?". "Sure, I've killed bugs before, says Colin. "No, I mean bigger things", says Roy. "Like what?" asks Colin. Roy goes on telling him he's killed a cat before. Colin doesn't believe Roy would do something like that. Now their adventure begins, nobody can stop it, not even them.

As days go on the two become great friends. Roy shows Colin some great hangouts around town, and talks about girls, sex and how he likes to kill animals for fun-he always says it's a "popper" when he kills things. He even brings Colin to his house and shows him his fathers, very detailed train set, complete with working lights in the houses, detailed people, cars and buildings. Roy shows Colin how the train set works, and he crashes two trains and looks inside to see if there are any dead people. At that moment Colin starts wondering if what Roy says about killing things is true. What Colin doesn't know is the secret is far worse then crashing a pretend train.

It gets even worse when Roy tells Colin he has killed two people before, because after Roy told him his secret, they wouldn't complete their part and ran. Roy tells Colin he poured gasoline on one boy and lit his house on fire, killing him. He said he pushed the other boy off a cliff, into the ocean below and he landed on jagged rocks, killing him. Colin looks at his friend in awe, still not believing a word of it. But, in the back of his mind, he wonders if it is true.

Roy takes Colin to an abandoned mansion on the top of a hill, which overlooks the town. He tells him of the gruesome murder/suicide that happen their many years back. He tells him the father killed his wife, and 3 kids in the middle of the night. Standing in front of the fireplace he kills himself. Roy tells Colin if you're quiet you can almost hear the screams.

Now comes the moment Colin has been waiting for, the dark secret is finally revealed. Roy takes Colin to an abandoned lot, where hundreds of old beat up cars are parked, on the edge of town. He takes Colin to the edge of a cliff, overlooking a railroad. Roy tells Colin it's time for the both of them to kill someone. Roy wants Colin to help him push one of the abandoned cars of the cliff and roll into the oncoming train, hoping to cause a derailment and many deaths.

Now that Colin is afraid for his life and Roy and him are no longer friends, Colin decides to find out why Roy is so bent on killing people. He soon finds out Roy was adopted, and had a younger sister who died 5 years before, after a freak accident. He also learns Roy's mother never accepted that what happen to her daughter was an accident and blames Roy for her death, saying he planned it. Because of the constant abuse by his mother, Roy grew up thinking he killed his sister and is now fascinated by death and killing others.

I won't spoil the ending for you. The ending could have been better and still leaves a few questions unanswered. Like did Roy actually kill those two boys? Does he get the help he desperately needs to turn his life around, after years of abuse by his mother?

As with all Dean Koontz books, you can almost picture the characters and town as you read the book. He tells such a great story, and with so much detail you feel like you're right their watching the story unfold. Parts of The Voice of the Night are a bit gruesome, like when Roy tells about the murder in great detail.

I recommend The Voice of the Night by Dean Koontz to all fans of Dean or anyone who likes books that keep them on the edge of their seat. This is a great book depicting the tale of a boy, who is blamed for a death that was an accident, and who loved his baby sister, grows up fascinated by death and killing people for the fun of it.

This review is part of the Dean Koontz book write-off I'm hosting. Be sure to check out the following participates who joined in with me.

AmyLEnsor- Watchers
anderclayton- Dragon Tears
basilisk4- Phantoms
Bijou- Seize the Night
Dandj- Hideaway
kcfemme- Watchers
kevlog- Cold Fire
KingJFS- Fear Nothing
Psobel- Mr. Murder
stereotomy- Lightning