Fiction Addict

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: Bantam

Publication Date: June 9, 2009

Reviewed by Frank Redman

Okay, I’m making the call (are you ready?): Dean Koontz is the greatest writer alive today (no offense to any of my writer friends). Now, I must follow my claim with the confession I have not read everyone, and I also tend to only read things in my favored genres—thriller, suspense, mystery, sci-fi, horror, and some fantasy. I do not read literary fiction, romance, chick-lit, or westerns. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with those genres, and certainly not saying they are inferior, I’m only stating they don’t appeal to me. I’m sure my claim will generate some disagreement, to which I hope you’ll leave a comment and let me know which writers I should check out in order to potentially persuade me into changing my opinion.

By my count, Relentless is Koontz’s 62^nd novel, not counting thirty-four out of print fiction works. I have not read them all. Relentless is very good, yet it’s not my favorite Koontz novel. But this is akin to someone coming up to you and asking if it was okay if he gave you one million dollars instead of two million. At least for me, I wouldn’t complain about only getting one million, figuratively speaking, of course.

Cullen “Cubby” Greenwich is a bestselling novelist with a wonderful family and a great life. His happy life takes an unexpected and horrifying turn when a national critic, Shearman Waxx, writes a vicious and destructive review of his latest novel. Despite numerous warnings from family and friends to let it go, Cubby decides to see if he can catch an innocent glance at the reclusive critic after discovering Waxx likes to dine at a restaurant local to Cubby. But Waxx isn’t simply a nefarious critic bent on damaging Cubby’s career, he’s a relentless sociopath who wants to destroy Cubby’s life, by mutilating one family member at a time.

If I had to describe Koontz’s stories in only one word, I would use “foreboding.” There is a nearly tangible sense of impending doom whenever you read a Koontz novel. You know bad things are coming, really bad things, and Koontz makes sure you’re aware of this tension page after page. This is a wonderful thing for a thriller fan, but I imagine the characters aren’t quite so happy about it. In Relentless, Koontz even has the antagonist point out the foreboding mood by gifting the lead character with single-word threats, saying only “Doom.”

Koontz is the master of mood setting, describing the background for a scene so that we can visualize that setting, but also injecting the scene with a specific mood he wishes for us to feel–which, many times, is indeed foreboding. An example: “High in the steadily blackening sky, a silent convulsion broke the string in an infinite necklace, and fat pearls fell through the day, bouncing on the slate patio, dimpling the water in the harbor, rattling gulls off the seawall to sheltered roosts.” There are other writers who would simply state “It was raining.” But Koontz engages our imaginations with these mood settings, preparing us to be more involved with an intense action scene that is usually soon to follow.

If there is a negative for me with this novel, it’s the extreme evil of the antagonist, the single-minded depravity in his violent acts of torture and murder. Even in this, though, there is a message: Good can overcome evil, including extreme evil.

Despite the tension and the impending doom, there are parts of this story that are laugh-out-loud funny. Koontz’s humor resonates and I enjoy the way he implements the comedy into the story without trying to force it. Laughter is a strong antidote to the effects of the malevolent.

From his satire on the publishing business to his philosophical commentary, Koontz uses these elements to enhance his desired effect without detracting from the storyline. “Beyond the service-island overhang, in the windless night, the rain came down in such straight skeins that the rigorous lines should have proved the law of gravity to any disbeliever, of which I’m sure there are multitudes, considering we live in an age of enthusiastic ignorance, when anything well-known for centuries is not only suspect but also considered worthy of being rejected in favor of a new theory more appealing to movie stars and deep-thinking rock musicians.”

Though at times Relentless is a very dark thriller, it is a tale of perseverance. Koontz tells us to always hang onto love and a sense of humor, even in a world given to madness. Light will overcome darkness.