The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz ~ Book Review

TITLE - Eyes of Darkness

AUTHOR - Dean Koontz

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SYNOPSIS

The Eyes of Darkness is a gripping thriller following a mother's search for her son - a journey that unlocks the deadliest of secrets.
It's a year since Tina Evans lost her little boy Danny in a tragic accident.
Then a shattering message appears on the blackboard in Danny's old room: NOT DEAD.
Is it someone's idea of a grim joke? Or something far more sinister?

The search for an answer drives Tina through the neon clamour of Las Vegas nightlife.
The sun-scorched desert. The frozen mountains of the High Sierra.

People face a dreadful danger as a buried truth struggles to surface.
A truth so frightening that its secret must be kept at the price of any life - any man, any woman...any child.

With the constant social media posts stating this book predicted the Covid-19 pandemic, I wanted to read it for myself, as I'm sure several others did for the same reason. 

The tag line says "A gripping suspense thriller that predicted a global danger" is a bit of a stretch in my opinion. 

The story is of a mother who lost her son along with others, in a tragic accident. She immersed herself in her role of putting on a show in Las Vegas. Then she started seeing messages saying "Not Dead". The first one on the blackboard in her son Danny's room. 

Along with her lover, partner, colleague, she tried to find out where these messages were coming from. Someone obviously didn't want them to find out as they tried to stop them at all costs. 

This is a book that was originally published under the lesser known pseudonym of Leigh Nichols. This is not the normal quality of writing one would expect from Dean Koontz. It was quite slow to get started, picked up in the middle and then a bit far fetched at the end.  The story line started off okay but just got a bit bizarre. The mention of Wuhan is right at the end, and very loosely you could fit it in with today's pandemic. However I have heard from some other reviewers that the original book in the 80's did not have mention of Wuhan but was linked to the Russians. I haven't been able to get hold of a copy of the original to corroborate that. If that is true, then I think this is poor on the part of the Author/Publisher to amend the story line on this book, purely for it to be turned into a best seller. 

Do I think the author predicted the current pandemic? Most definitely not. Would I recommend this book. It's an okay read but I have read much better and certainly not the quality of a normal Dean Koontz book.