Sole Survivor by Dean Koontz

I just finished this book and I have to say that it was a good read. It is more a thriller than a horror, which Koontz is well-known for. He is a very good writer and I have enjoyed many of his books. I like that he doesn't fit into one category. He can write science fiction, horror and thrillers and they are all very well-written. I have been a fan on Koontz for a long time but I just got around to reading this book which was written in 1997. It reminded me a little of the t.v. show Lost because it is about a plane crash and all is not what it seems.

It begins with a man called Joe Carpenter. He was a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Post and he has lost both his daughters and his wife in a plane crash. Joe is a mess. He has never been able to cope with the loss of his family and he is a broken man. He doesn't work any more and he just seems to be existing but not living. He is at the beach one afternoon when he sees that he is being watched and followed. He wonders what is going on. He finds that there are people after him and he has no idea why. He meets a strange woman called Rose and she tells him that she knows the truth about what happened and that she will tell him soon. He goes to find some answers to what happens and he meets the woman who surveyed the crash. She tells him that it was not what it seemed and that she was threatened to keep her mouth shut. He is worried now and he is also aware that they are on to him and they could kill him too if they find him.























He finally gets to meet some of the other families of the dead and they kill themselves. Joe thinks that Rose is involved somehow and he wonders what she wants from him. He finally gets a message to meet her and he is taken to a restaurant where she is supposed to meet him. He finally meets Rose who tells him that the people who are after him work for a corporation called Teknologik and they manufacture clones of children who have special powers. Rose is protecting a clone who has healing powers. She tells Joe that she was on that very same plane that crashed with the clone and that she walked away unharmed. The clone saved her. There is another clone at Teknologik who is very dangerous and he can put thoughts into people's heads and force them to do what he wants them too. This is what happened with the airplane. The evil clone put suggestions into the pilots brain and they were forced to crash the plane into the ground. Teknologik hoped that Rose and the clone would die in the crash and then their experiments would be safe but they didn't die and now, they are targets for the evil clone, along with Joe.


I enjoyed this book and there was plenty of action and suspense in it. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good read. I found it easy to read and although I didn't think that it was as good as some of Dean Koontz's other works, I have to say that it was an entertaining read. I will give it a 7/10.