Relentless Book Review

Relentless is a thriller by Dean Koontz and I am a big fan of his books. Relentless tells the tale of a Cubby Greenwich who is a writer of novels and his latest one called One O' Clock Jump has just been published. It is well received by everyone except a newspaper critic called Shearman Waxx who writes a scathing review of it. One critic does not sound too bad but Waxx is the most influential book critic in the country and writes for one of the premier news papers. Even though Cubby gets good reviews from other critics, he begins to obsess about the bad one. His wife Penny is a writer also and she writes children's books. Their son Milo is 6 years old but is like a little Einstein with an interest in physics and electronics. They both urge Cubby to forget about the bad review and let it go but he does not!!


When Cubby learns the critic dines at a restaurant that he knows and he decides to go there with Milo just to get a look at him as there is little known about Waxx. While Cubby and Milo are in the bathroom, they come face to face with Waxx but he only says one word and leaves. He says "doom" and so begins Cubby's nightmare as he learns that all the writers Waxx gave a bad review to have died in horrible deaths. Soon the whole family are running for their lives but no matter what they do, the mysterious Waxx seems to have extensive resources and tracks them every time. They decide to go to people that had bad reviews also to try and learn more about Waxx but soon there is a trail of bodies.


Relentless is a very exciting thriller that had me interested from the start as to why there would be a psychotic book critic after a writer! Koontz builds the tension right up until the climax and Relentless is well worth the read. It's around 350 pages and seemed just the right length as there was no boring chapters. The Dean Koontz trademark of having a dog in the story is evident here as usual and in Relentless the dog's name is Lassie! She seems to have magical powers such as appearing inside a closed drawer! The book is a bit mystical as well as being a thriller as Lassie is described as grinning and being in strange places. Milo talks in riddles but is also a genius and the bad guy Waxx appears and disappears in Cubby's house!! If you like a bit of strangeness in your thrillers, then Relentless will be perfect for you!!I would definitely recommend this book and I give it 7/10.

The Mask By Dean Koontz

This novel is written by a favourite of mine, Dean Koontz. He has written loads of books including Sole Survivor which I have reviewed here. This book was first published in 1981 under the psuedonym Owen West.

The book begins with a young girl in a cellar. She is spring cleaning and she hates it because she is afraid of spiders. Her mother makes her stay down there until it is clean. Suddenly, a fire starts and she is trapped in the cellar. Her mother and her aunt try to get her out, but it is no good. We cut to a couple, Carol and Paul who are going to an adoption agency. They want to have children, but Carol is unable to due to a problem she had when she was pregnant years ago. She gave her baby up for adoption. Carol is a child psychologist and Paul is writing a novel. They are assured that they have a great chance of getting a child when a tree crashes through the window of the offices where they are and stops them.

A day later, they find that their papers have gone missing so Paul has to go and get more..We cut to Grace who is a retired child psychologist. She brought Carol up as her own. She rescued the young Carol from a bad life when she was younger and the two women are close. She is worried about Carol when she has dreams of something bad happening to her. Plus her cat is acting strangely. It is very aggressive and strange. Carol, meanwhile, is driving her car when a girl steps out in front of it. She hits her, but everyone witnesses that it was not her fault and that the girl stepped out in front of her car. She takes the young girl to the hospital, but she isn't badly hurt. Carol goes back to visit her when she is awake and she discovers that the girl can't remember who she is.

So, Carol and Paul decide that the girl who they call Jane, can live with them until they find her parents. They like having her around. She is a nice young girl and she fits in well with them. Carol tries to hypnotise Jane to see if she can bring her memory back and that is when she discovers that there is something not right with this young girl... She is not all she seems..Grace and Paul have to race against time to save Carol from a deadly fate...

I liked this book, but the ending was a bit weak,I thought. I was interested in the story, but it would not be one of Dean Koontz's best books. I thought that it was okay, but not brilliant.

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.