The House of Thunder [Hardcover]

Dean R. Koontz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1988

Waking up in a hospital, Susan Thornton is unable to remember anything and begins a desperate battle to unlock the mysteries of her past while four shadowy strangers prepare to stop her if necessary. Reissue.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Koontz ( Watchers , The Servants of Twilight ) has come up with an intriguing premise: Susan Thornton wakes up in a hospital after a serious car accident with an odd, selective amnesia. She can remember nothing of her job, yet she is stricken with fear when the company she works for is named. And that's not all. Thirteen years earlier, Susan had witnessed the murder of her boyfriend during a brutal fraternity hazing; her testimony sent one of the four men responsible to prison. Now she sees the same men, looking not a day older, walking the corridors of the hospital. Even worse, she has recurrent macabre hallucinations involving them and the decomposing corpse of her boyfriend. Susan doubts her sanity until she stumbles upon a bit of hard evidence right out of one of the "hallucinations." Koontz's resolution, involving a complex Soviet plot, transforms the story from a cozy chiller to political thriller and may not please readers tired of cold war paranoia and propaganda. Others, however, should find this tale satisfying from start to finish.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Dean Koontz was born into a very poor family and learned early on to escape into fiction. His novels have sold over 200 million copies worldwide and more than thirty have appeared on national and international bestseller lists. He lives in southern California with his wife, Gerda and a vivid imagination. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 255 pages
• Publisher: Dark Harvest Books (September 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0913165344
• ISBN-13: 978-0913165348
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,659,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Koontz Does It Again!!, October 4, 2000

By 

Robert Cote (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House of Thunder (Mass Market Paperback)

This book to me is a classic. Koontz brilliantly constructs this plot and makes it a joy to see unfold. I read this book a few years back and I still remember the pleasure I got from it. A couple months ago I gave this book to my girlfriend to read I got her hooked on Koontz now I am like her Koontz supplier hehehe. Anyways I dared her to figure out the plot before books end and to tell me. She had quite the imagination but could never come up with the plot. After she finsihed she was astounded by the sheer brilliance of this book. So why did I give this book 5 stars quite simply because it was a hard book to put down. I seen from other reviews some were disappointed with the ending but I bet for that moment of time when they were reading it all were captivated just as I was!!!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars House of Thunder, August 23, 2006

By 

NoWireHangers (Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House of Thunder (Mass Market Paperback)

This book was first released in the early 80s under one of Koontz' pseudonyms. Susan wakes up in the hospital after a car accident. At first she can't remember anything about herself but her memory gradually returns. In the hospital, she starts to see what appears to be the ghosts of four fraternity boys who killed her boyfriend thirteen years ago. Are they really ghosts, or is she losing her sanity?

The premise is a good one and it keeps you interested. But the buildup is a bit too long compared to the ending. She encounters her tormentors several times, but it never feels like there's any imminent threat to her until the last half of the book. About 100 pages before the ending, the story really takes off and it's a great read until the somewhat too abrupt ending.

Not one of Koontz' best, but still definately an entertaining read. A weak 4 stars.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read from Koontz earlier days, October 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The House of Thunder (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this Koontz book after some procrastination. The title and back cover synopsis just did not appeal much to me. Despite the irrelevance of the cover picture, the book was uniformly outstanding. The story progressed at a good pace with none of the drab repetitiveness of the more recent Koontz novels I have read. The characters are believable and the plot line for the first 3/4ths of the book keeps you riveted. The absolutely unexpected ending in the last 1/4th of the book makes this one of the best I have read. Not necessarily due to the written subject of the plot twist, but the hairpin turn into another completely different realm of story line. Overall, this book rates as one of the best I have read and I have already recommended it to another Koontz reader.