Phantoms [Paperback]

Dean Koontz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 5, 2002

A tale of an abandoned town and the unimaginable truth behind its silence...

Now with a new afterword, Dean Koontz explains the impact Phantoms had on his career.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The lights are on in Snowfield, California, a cozy ski village nestled in the Sierra Madres, but nobody seems to be home. When Dr. Jenny Paige returns to the small town, she finds tables set for dinner, meals being prepared, and music playing in living rooms, but there's no trace of the people who put the water on to boil or set an extra place for company at the dinner table. As she explores the town, Paige finds friends and neighbors felled by a mysterious force--the bodies show no visible signs of violence or disease, and no known plague kills victims before the ice in their dinner drinks has time to melt. But the deep quiet that surrounds her offers few clues about the fate of the town's inhabitants. Dean Koontz's Phantoms strikes fear in readers from the very beginning. The mystery deepens, paving the way for a chilling journey toward the truth. If you plan to catch the film version, starring Ben Affleck and Peter O'Toole, remember that you'll be experiencing this terrifying story in a dark theater. So bring an arm to grab! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Dean Koontz was born into a very poor family and learned early on to escape into fiction. 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

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (February 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425181103
• ISBN-13: 978-0425181102
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (245 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > United States
  • #31 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > United States > General
  • #50 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Authors, A-Z

More About the Author

I was born and raised in Pennsylvania where I graduated from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University). When I was a senior in college, I won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and have been writing ever since. My first job after graduation was with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where I was expected to counsel and tutor underprivileged children on a one-to-one basis. During my first day on the job, I discovered that the previous occupier of my position had been beaten up by the very kids he had been trying to help and had landed in the hospital for several weeks. The following year was filled with challenge but also tension, and I was more highly motivated than ever to build a career as a writer. I wrote nights and weekends, which I continued to do after leaving the poverty program and going to work as an English teacher in a suburban school district outside Harrisburg. After a year and a half in that position, my wife, Gerda, made me an offer I couldn't refuse: "I'll support you for five years," she said, "and if you can't make it as a writer in that time, you'll never make it." By the end of those five years, Gerda had quit her job to run the business end of my writing career. Gerda and I, along with our dog, Trixie, live in southern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Type of Horror, May 26, 2003

By 

Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phantoms (Paperback)

I avoided Dean Koontz like the plague since the day some years ago when I attempted to read his novel "Mr. Murder." I found that book so formulaic and tedious that I swore never to read another of his books. I did not even finish "Mr. Murder," a rarity for me because I always strive to finish any book I pick up. When I recently decided to cast my nets a little wider into the vast seas of the horror genre, I looked for something by Koontz that other readers praised. Repeatedly, I found that his book "Phantoms" came highly recommended by nearly everyone who read it. So, with my sense of smell ready to detect the slightest hint of staleness or boredom, I dove right into this 1983 Koontz novel. My analysis: of the many horror novels I have read over the years, "Phantoms" may be the best of the batch, ranking right up there with Stephen King's "It" as one of my all-time favorites.

The author wastes little time getting right into the story. Dr. Jennifer Paige and her little sister Lisa are driving to Jennifer's house in Snowfield, California. Jenny was never close to her sister due to the rigorous demands of medical school and the headache of establishing a practice in the small town. When their mother dies suddenly, Jenny steps in to take care of Lisa. The poignancy of this action quickly shatters when the two arrive in Snowfield. The town appears to be completely uninhabited. Jenny and Lisa realize that no one is walking around town and that no cars are on the streets. An even ruder shock overwhelms the two women when they find Jennifer's housekeeper dead on the kitchen floor. Even eerier is the condition of the dead body, which has uniform bruising over every inch of the skin. At first Jenny surmises that a disease could be the culprit so the sisters decide to pay a visit to the neighbors, a visit that produces more questions than answers. Jenny and Lisa begin a mad dash through town, finding corpses everywhere they go. In some houses, they discover that the residents have simply disappeared without a trace. It quickly becomes apparent that something sinister has occurred in Snowfield, and it is up to Jennifer and Lisa to find out exactly what happened before they become victims themselves.

Enter the Sheriff's Department of Santa Mira, a town just down the road from Snowfield. Unaware of the unfolding terror in Snowfield, Sheriff Bryce Hammond and his deputy Talbert Whitman are questioning a murder suspect named Kale about a gruesome double homicide. Koontz uses the Kale interrogation to give us some background on Sheriff Hammond, revealing that this cop is a brilliant investigator and a great man in a crisis but that he lost his wife in an automobile accident and his son to a coma. Very quickly, Hammond gets a call from Jenny in Snowfield about the strange events in that doomed town. The sheriff sets off with a handful of deputies, most of whom Koontz describes in sufficient detail for the reader to care about what happens to them, and the book starts moving at breakneck speed. Eventually, an English academic named Timothy Flyte, the media, and a chemical weapons team from the federal government become involved in the unfolding events in Snowfield. Because whatever stalked the town is still very much present, as those unlucky enough to remain in Snowfield realize. The author masterfully blends these disparate elements together into a tale that is both suspenseful and horrific.

The first part of the novel works best, as Jennifer, Lisa, and the Santa Mira deputies slowly experience the horrors raging through Snowfield. Each scene of the book ratchets up the horror by revealing a little more information than the previous scene, which creates a growing sense of unease in the reader. The back-story involving Flyte and the "Ancient Enemy" explains the horrific incidents in Snowfield and is a welcome addition to the tale. The end of the story loses some of the excitement of the beginning, as once we understand what these people are up against the suspense dies down appreciably. This in no way should prevent you from seeking this story out, since the tale is still great fun.

Koontz wrote an afterword in 2001 about his opinions on "Phantoms." He avers that while he enjoyed writing the novel, he wished he never wrote it because it classified him as a horror writer when he prefers to see himself as a suspense author. The author mentions that "Phantoms" has never gone out of print since its 1983 release and has sold roughly six million copies. I think most authors could care less what label stuck to them if they could have that many sales! Regardless of Koontz's attitude towards his story, this is an excellent tale and a tremendous contribution to the horror genre.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating tale of mass disappearances, May 9, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Phantoms (Mass Market Paperback)

"Phantoms" is just one of Koontz's many fine horror stories. It offers an imaginative explanation for a tantalizing historical mystery: the mass disappearance (such as the famous Roanoke colony in the early seventeenth century). Koontz tells the story of the almost instantaneous depopulation of an isolated California mountain village, discovered by the town's doctor and her teenaged sister upon their return from attending their mother's funeral some miles away. These two find a terrifyingly quiet Snowfield, devoid of residents, dining room tables set with still-warm suppers. The mystery deepens when the county sheriff and deputies arrive and discover a few dreadfully bruised bodies sprawled lifeless in tightly locked rooms. As dark falls, it becomes clear that something is stalking the entire town of Snowfield--and its would-be rescuers--and that this hunter delights in savoring every morsel of fear it can extract from its prey. I do not want to give away any more of the plot, because Koontz paces the story of the discovery of the identity of the murderous "Ancient Enemy" so well that reading the book is a rollercoaster of an experience.

A word about my rating: Koontz is one of my favorite authors, and I have read quite a few of his books. Phantoms is one of his early novels and is imaginative and entertaining. Compared to some of his later stories, however ("Dark Rivers of the Heart" and "Twilight Eyes" immediately spring to mind), it is not as richly characterized and the level of suspense is not quite as nightmarish. It is like comparing two tornadoes from the movie "Twister": one may suck up cows, but the other swallows cows and barn whole. Each is a frightening experience, but the one is a more intense--and deadly--event. Thus, the seven.

Judith Abendschei

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 500 bodie bags?, November 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Phantoms (Mass Market Paperback)

I just read Dean Koontz's book, Phantoms. From the first page it catches you attention then holds it TO THE LAST PAGE! On the first page, you are taken to a small out-of-the-way town in northern California, called Snowfield. Here, Jenny Paige, the doctor, goes home to find her house keeper...Dead. a sheriff from a close town, there to help, calls for backup, and asks for 500 bodie bags. Dean Koontz is the author of many best selling books, I like his writing because he describes the setting, people, weather, mood, and whatever else, SO WELL. i recommend Dean Koontz's Phantoms to any one who wants to read a real page turner.