From Publishers Weekly
A bad book review propels this farcical thriller from bestseller Koontz (_Your Heart Belongs to Me_). Bestselling author Cullen Cubby Greenwich is mortified when Shearman Waxx, the nation's premier literary critic, savages his work. Cubby manages to find the syphilitic swine at Roxie's Bistro in Newport Beach, Calif., where the author's six-year-old prodigy son nearly pees by accident on Waxx in the restaurant's men's room. In retaliation, Waxx threatens Cubby with doom and gets things started nicely by blowing up his house. With almost superhuman ease, the book critic keeps track of Cubby and his family as they flee for their lives. While some may take this as satire, the over-the-top villain's underdeveloped motivation and a jokey narrative tone that jars when juxtaposed with terrifying scenes of violence will leave others scratching their heads. By the time Koontz introduces a science fiction element, a lot of readers may have already checked out. (June)
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Review
"Koontz is a master of the edge-of-your-seat, paranoid thriller and perhaps the leading American practitioner of the form."β_Newark Star-Ledger_
"Koontz is working at his pinnacle, providing terrific entertainment that deals seriously with some of the deepest themes of human existence: the nature of evil, the grip of fate and the power of love."β_Publishers Weekly_, Starred Review
"Koontz has always had near-Dickensian powers of description, and an ability to yank us from one page to the next that few novelists can match." β_Los Angeles Times_
βAn exquisite crafting of the thrilling, the unexplainable, and the personal, with the mirth and whimsy that Koontz throws in seemingly effortlessly just when it's most needed and least expected.ββ_Library Journal_, starred review
β[A] smoothly spun nail-biter.... Koontz still grabs readers as few other thriller scribes can.ββ_Booklist_