The Midnight Key (Book Review)
Any writer who is willing to revise an earlier book, especially a successful one, deserves a lot of respect, and I read this book because I saw the writer’s own explanation that he revised The Key to Midnight, one of his early novels, by cutting 30,000 words and adding 5,000. thousand.
The Key to Midnight may be a different kind of Koontz novel, but it’s just as exciting and suspenseful as his later work. It’s very well written with skillful character drawing, internal and external conflicts, and plenty of car chases. The pacing is impeccable as it makes the reader devour every word and the excitement builds as the plot progresses.
The story begins with the introduction of the owner of the Moonglow Lounge nightclub in Kyoto, Joanna Rand, and her recurring nightmare that terrifies her. The nightmare is about a man with metal fingers, who appears somewhere in Joanna’s background or haunts her mind as her fake name and identity, causing Joanna to act irrationally at times.
When private detective Alex Hunter, while vacationing in Kyoto, finds himself attracted to Joanna, the knots begin to unravel. Alex Hunter determines that Joanna’s memory is false and that her mind is controlled by a formidable enemy using hypnosis. Alex begins to help Joanna, only to find out in the end that he too is being manipulated by her rival side. The ending, however, is happy, and Alex and Joanna find solutions to their problems by outwitting the international intelligentsia who are still fighting as if the cold war never ended.
The author, Dean Ray Koontz, was born on July 9, 1945 in Everett, PA. The son of an alcoholic father, Koontz found solace in books and writing. He sold his first book at the age of 23, at first using a variety of pen names. After his first hit with “The Key to Midnight”, Koontz created many suspenseful stories and attracted a large following. Although his writing is sometimes pushed into the horror genre due to thrillers with supernatural overtones, Koontz should not be considered a horror writer. Koontz is a prolific and innovative thriller writer whose talent is highly respected.
Koontz influenced many writers with the quality of her work and fascinated her readers with her productivity, which never imitates itself. In other words, each book has unique characters and an exciting plot that engages the reader in a different way.
Some of his many books are: Odd Thomas, The Mask, Intensity, The Eyes of Darkness, Mr. Murder, Hideaway, One Door Away from Heaven, The House of Thunder, Dark Rivers of the Heart, Winter Moon, Fear Nothing, Por the corner of the eye, The face, The book of numbered pains, In the light of the moon, Speed, Always odd.
The Key to Midnight, 1995 edition, is 419 paperback pages with ISBN: 0425147517.
Once you start reading it, The Key to Midnight is a book you can’t easily put down.