Koontz, Dean R.

(US, 1945– )

Koontz paid his dues as a writer, graduating from pulp science fiction paperbacks to the hardback best-seller lists with a string of ingeniously plotted thrillers veering towards the supernatural. The hero of Cold Fire (1991) is driven by his intuitive gift to rescue complete strangers from danger, but then has to confront the dark side of his own powers. Mr Murder (1993) is a Jekyll-and-Hyde tale of a happily married author haunted by an inner demon. This is a favourite plot device of Koontz's: a lurking malignant Presence which threatens the lives of ordinary people. In Hideaway (1992) a man is brought back from the dead by a brilliant physician—and brings something nasty back with him. Intensity (1995) eschews the supernatural for grisly realism, in which the young heroine has to pit her wits against a psychopath with a taste for fat black spiders. Creepy stuff, not for the squeamish.

Stephen King, Clive Barker, H. P. Lovecraft  TH