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** spoiler alert ** The second book on this year's Halloween reading list was Night Chills by Dean Koontz. My disappointment at finding that, despite the cover and misleading synopsis, it's not a horror novel quickly dissipated as the story unfolded. Night Chills is a great read, highly entertaining and well-plotted with a likeable group of protagonists and all-too-realistic villains. One or two missteps frustrate, especially in lieu of the excellent writing surrounding them, but the damage they cause is minimal. Paul Annendale, a widower from Massachusetts, takes his children to the small Maine town of Black River for vacation. But something strange is happening in the town, and soon Paul is fighting to protect his loved ones from a populace under the control of a conspiracy that threatens to shift the balance of world power into the hands of three megalomaniacs, each with his own lust for power. Spoilers... Night Chills resonates primarily because of the character work. We spend the first half of the book learning about Paul's sense of loss for his wife, his dynamic with his children, his friendship with general store owner Sam Edison and his romance of Sam's daughter Jenny. Koontz does a good job of making us feel for each of the main players, including the children. We want them to survive not just because we're supposed to but because we care about them. Koontz put the same care into creating his villains, a truly frightening group of power-mongers: Ogden Salsbury, a violent misogynist born of childhood abuse; General Ernst Klinger, a Pentagon bigwig seeking money with which to further his own hedonism; and H. Leonard Dawson, a wealthy Christian fundamentalist who believes himself to be chosen by God for a holy mission. These three men are dangerous already (something we learn gradually throughout the story), but when they get hold of mind control technology, they have a vehicle through which to enact their sinister impulses. Ogden immediately begins using his power over the denizens of Black River to humiliate, rape and brutalize women. Klinger envisions controlling OPEC and manipulating the oil trade to make a fortune. Dawson sees his opportunity to be the ultimate Christian crusader, converting the entire world to his religion against their will (but for their own good, of course). What makes these bad guys so scary is that their goals are exactly what corrupt people would do with this power in real life. Sex, money and religion (which, though guys like Dawson would deny it, is really about power) would be first on the to-do list. The horrors of mind control are very well-explored. Salsbury making women into his "willing" sex slaves and forcing Bob Thorp to savagely murder a child chilled me. If this were real (and, in his introduction, Koontz makes it clear that he believes it is), what would become of us? We'd have no idea, and that's the creepiest part of all. Moreover, Salsbury is able to completely take over the town, becoming a dictator who can send armed men wherever he chooses with orders to kill. And, although his plans don't come as close to fruition, the idea of Dawson forcing the world to bow to his religion is repulsive (and, in my opinion, what religion is really all about), but it also gives the reader another reason to fear the loss of his or her mental faculties. What if someone made you believe what you never would have otherwise, or an ideology you spent your entire life opposing? While certainly not traditional horror, Night Chills is still very scary. There is one flaw big enough for me to have taken away a star: important things happening off-page. The handling of the scene where various characters come together and present each other with their evidence that something is very wrong in Black River is awful. We don't read any of it, we're just told it's happening by Salsbury. This is a pretty key event to not show the reader. It seems like a lazy attempt to keep the pace moving and it comes at the expense of the story. Also, Salsbury ordering Buddy Pellineri's murder came out of nowhere. When, why and how did Buddy show up at the municipal building? This is never explained. Leaving these things out is a huge mistake and it's a testament to the rest of the writing's strength that they don't hurt the novel more than they do. While not what I was expecting, Night Chills is nevertheless a very fun book. I recommend it, but the "don't judge a book by its cover" maxim is particularly applicable in its case.

2023-07-31 15:18