Review on What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz

What the Night Knows
By Dean Koontz

What the Night Knows is Dean Koontz's latest paranormal thriller I've read.

A serial killer, a fourteen-year-old boy, turns himself into the police for the brutal murder of his family. But is he truly guilty? Detective John Calvino wonders because twenty years ago he was the lone survivor of a similar serial killer. At the state hospital, he interviews him. The words and actions are hardly those of a boy. Yes, his hand was used, and although the detective’s theory is impossible, the boy is just as much a victim.

His suspect? It’s impossible because Anton Turner Blackwood is dead. Detective Calvino should know. He shot him point blank. Watched the blood like his life drain from his carcass twenty years ago. But now he has reasons to suspect that the things that go bump in his house are not sounds of his house settling, but are supernatural. The killer's spirit is loose and is no longer confined to hell. Working on the detective’s three children, he invades their dreams and sets in motion the means to fulfilling his threat. How can he triumph when the killer can be everywhere and can’t stop and kill when that someone is already dead?

In What the Night Knows, suspense and suspicions immediately arise. Mr. Koontz has a talent for twisting words into emotions so that even when I became bored by the novel’s slow pace and lack of action, I kept me turning the pages to read what happened next. However I can think of many other great novels Mr. Koontz has written that I would rather read again.

Book Review: The Evil Inside by Heather Graham

Evil Inside, The
By Heather Graham

This is a murder mystery suspense novel with paranormal elements and romance.

Samuel Hall returns during his successful stint as a defense attorney to Salem Massachusetts. Driving into the outskirts of town he nearly runs into a young seventeen-year-old boy. Uninjured, but in shock, Malachi Smith is covered in blood. It isn’t his. It is the victims of his family brutally murdered just hours earlier.

FBI Agent Jenna Duffy would welcome any opportunity to return to Salem, the home of many of her favorite childhood memories. So when her Uncle Jamie, a child psychiatrist, turns on the Irish charm, she suspects he has an alternative motive. He quickly introduces Sam and Jenna, and calls in the second half of his plan. The boy needs a good attorney, and Sam is the best. They make a great team. Uncle Jamie believes unequivocally in the Malachi’s innocence, Sam is a local man who rose to fame, and Jenna has the connections by her post to the FBI and her ability to see ghosts.

Only good detective word will get boy acquitted in a court of law, but the ghosts know the answers if they were forthcoming. They’re not always easy to understand and their means at times make her sicker than a dog, but might be the only ones keeping her alive when the real murder stalks her.

Miss Graham has done it again with Evil Inside. She wrote a detailed, suspense driven novel that kept me turning the pages until the killer and motive was revealed. In this case, the evil inside is not just the house that has been the scene of multiple murders over the centuries, but also the cruelty and hatred people can harbor. I can never get my fill of stories about Salem. It is rich in historical material with witchcraft, murder and ghosts.

Sweep
Book one: Book of Shadows
By Cate Tiernan

It is the first day of junior year at high school for Morgan Rowlands when they see the new guy, Cal Blair. Like a chameleon, he infiltrates every click as if he were universal and not pegged. Until it is Friday night and he invites them to a party to celebrate Mabon, a Wiccan holiday. Cal is a witch and introduces them to Wicca. During her first circle, Morgan unwittenly unleashes her sensitivity to magick and suffers a few days of ill effects.

Cal is searching to build a new coven. So, when Bree Warren, her best friend, invites her to Practical Magick, an occult bookstore, she buys some books on the subject. The clerk accuses Morgan of being a ‘blooded’ witch or a direct descendant of the clans. Impossible. Her family goes to church every Sunday. Before two days ago, she’d never even heard of Wicca. Then when her mother, a Catholic, finds her books, they are banned from the house.

Before Morgan can admit to her best friend that she’s attracted to Cal, Bree admits she’s hot for him, too. That settles it. No way can she compete with her in looks or personality. Besides he’s only interested in her because of the energy she exudes.

Book one of Sweep, Book of Shadows is a young adult novel. It is about first love and the background includes Wicca. The text is romantic and full of emotions. Morgan is a young lady between being a child and breaking into her independence. Wicca is a favorite subject of mine. I even remember reading the first book Morgan buys at Practical Magick. I’m just not an expert in it because as I was reading some of the areas, I thought, “I don’t remember this? Is it authentic or introduced for the novel?” Did I like the book? Yes. I could remember feeling these strong emotions when I was a teenager. I hope she will dive deeper into these feelings as the books continue. The only drawback is that I felt not enough happened.

Book review of Maximum Ride by James Patterson

Maximum Ride
Book one: The Angel Experiment
By James Patterson

Maximum Ride is also the main character in this fast paced, suspenseful adventure novel about six children to young adult characters that have had their DNA manipulated to include Avian. Yep, they have wings. Functional, too. They can sore with the birds. They’ve managed to escape from the “School” and the Erasers, boys that have had their DNA mixed with a dog or wolf. Most times their features are hidden, but when they choose, they morph into dog features: canines, claws, and always strong.

After four years, their little troop believes they are off the “School’s” radar until Angel, a six year old little girl and the youngest of their group, is captured. Max, Fang, and Nudge race after them, leaving Iggy and Gasman at home. Before they can reach the “School”, Max sees another little girl being threatened by older boys. She wouldn’t be Max if she didn’t try to protect her. Promising to meet up, she confronts the bullies. Once their target changes to her, she runs (not fly) and leads them away from their first prey, except these boys have guns, and she is shot. Can she trust anybody, because she isn’t flying away?

In the mean time, Iggy and Gasman are depressed that they’ve been left behind. Their boredom leads them to make ingenious traps to throttle the Erasers from attacking again. Their preventive measures are good, because a second attack comes and the Erasers aren’t taking any prisoners. After their next run-in, Iggy and Gasman follow their leader.

Maximum Ride isn’t just about staying together, but keeping ahead of the “School” and their Erasers, finding their parents and why this was done to them, and how else their DNA has been manipulated. James Patterson has a knack of grabbing the reader’s attention and pulling you into his novel headfirst. Do not look for a lot of character depth or details, but fast action from the get go.

Book review of Pendragon: The Merchant of Death by D.J. Machale

Pendragon
Book one: The Merchant of Death
By D.J. Machale

The Merchant of Death is book one of the well-written young adult novel by D.J. Machale. It is adventure and fantasy.

Bobby Pendragon is your typical, but popular thirteen-year-old boy. His Uncle Press asks for his help, and even though he has a big game that he’s already late for, he agrees because it is family. Except his uncle never said there was a shape changing Saint Dane with grandiose dreams of bringing destruction, nor that the next town over was just a waylay station to a whole other realm.

Arriving at Denduron, his uncle is captured by the knights working for Kagan, an evil dictator, and Bobby is left to recuperate from their mad chase down a snow slope and hopefully get some answers with Osa and Loor. Like his Uncle Press and like Bobby, they are travelers. Bobby’s no hero or warrior. He wants to go home, but there’s the matter of his uncle’s pending execution, the unjust treatment of the Milago, and the mysterious task that started this fiasco.

Meanwhile back at home, Mark, his best friend, has had his own encounter. After Bobby never shows up for the game, Osa visits him during the dead of night and gives him a ring. No dream and it’s not just a ring. Rather it is a one-way transport device and Bobby’s first journal comes through. If Mark is to believe this craziness, Courtney, the bringer of great first kisses can substantiate it. They go to Bobby’s house. It’s gone, his family is gone, and except for memories, all physical and documented evidence of their existence is gone.

As a grandmother, I could see how teenagers would enjoy reading these books. There’s not a lot of explanation to what’s happening, but I’d read it just to be entertained. Have fun with the quigs that guard the portals.