Fear Nothing
By Dean Koontz
Bantam, 391 pages, $26.95
Dean Koontz believes his latest mystery-terror thriller is his best work. And he is right. Fear stalks “Fear Nothing” from Page 1 until Christopher Snow and friends learn the truth about the terror stalking their town of Moonlight Bay.
Snow has a rare genetic condition–XP, whose victims are especially vulnerable to cancers of the skin and eyes. He cannot go into sunlight or be exposed to bright light. He lives in a world of shadows.
Just before dusk he gets the call he has dreaded. His father is dying of cancer, and the father’s nurse urges Chris to get to the hospital quickly. He calls his deejay girlfriend, Sasha, for a lift and gets to the hospital in time to say goodbye to his dad.
After the body is taken to the hospital morgue, Chris remembers that he had promised to have his dad cremated with a photograph of Chris’ mother. So Chris heads for the morgue and gets a shock–the funeral home director is putting Chris’ dad’s body in an unmarked van and putting the body of a hitchhiker who was beaten to death in the funeral home van.
Chris heads for the funeral home and tells the director he wants to see his father one last time. The director apologizes, but says the cremation has already been done. Unbelieving, Chris sneaks around the home, looks into the crematorium and finds the hitchhiker’s body is still there, minus the eyes. Chris flees the scene, but is chased by at least six men with very powerful flashlights. He escapes when a cat leads him to safety.
On returning home, he finds a gun and ammunition on his bed. There is a message on his answering machine from his father’s nurse, Angela, asking him to stop by. She says she has something important to tell him. When he gets to Angela’s house, she says, “You’ve got so many friends. . . . But there’re enemies you don’t know about. . . . And some of them are strange. . . . They’re becoming. . . .”
She never tells what they are becoming. But she tells a story about Christmas Eve four years ago, when she was in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies and suddenly a very large and angry rhesus monkey was on her countertop, threatening her.
Soon a night filled with horrors begins for Chris. Inevitably, both Sasha and Chris’ best friend, Bobby, are drawn into the web of terror. And the three know that the next night can only get worse. Before that night is over, the world will be forever changed.
Koontz slowly and adeptly heightens the suspense until the hair on the back of your neck is standing up. Chris is a unique character, with great heart. Sasha and Bobby help show the depth of true friendship in times of great peril. “Fear Nothing” will make you fear almost everything.
