Bestselling novelist Cullen “Cubby” Greenwich is a lucky man and he knows it. He makes a handsome living doing what he enjoys. His wife, Penny, a children’s book author and illustrator, is the love of his life. Together they have a brilliant six-year-old, Milo, affectionately dubbed “Spooky,” and a non-collie named Lassie, who’s all but part of the family. So Cubby knows he shouldn’t let one bad review of his otherwise triumphant new book get to him — even if it does appear in the nation’s premier newspaper and is penned by the much-feared, seldom-seen critic Shearman Waxx. Cubby knows that the best thing to do is ignore the gratuitously vicious, insulting, and inaccurate comments. Penny knows it; even little Milo knows it. If Lassie could talk, she’d tell Cubby to ignore them, too. Ignore Shearman Waxx and his poison pen is just what Cubby intends to do. Until he happens to learn where the great man is taking his lunch. Cubby just wants to get a look at the mysterious recluse whose mere opinion can make or break a career — or a life. But Shearman Waxx isn’t what Cubby expects, and neither is the escalating terror that follows what seemed to be an innocent encounter. For Waxx gives criticism; he doesn’t take it. He has ways of dealing with those who cross him that Cubby is only beginning to fathom. Soon Cubby finds himself in a desperate struggle with a relentless sociopath, facing an inexorable assault on far more than his life. Fearless, funny, utterly compelling, Relentless is Dean Koontz at his riveting best, an unforgettable tale of the fragile bonds that hold together all that we most cherish — and of those who would tear those bonds asunder.
Relentless: A Novel
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
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)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
Praise for Dean Koontz: 'Odd Thomas is certainly a page-turner -- this is a read-at-a-sitting novel -- with a terrific final twist' Observer 'A terrific pursuit story ! clever, up-to-the-minute, and riveting' Guardian 'There's surprise after surprise, including a killer finale ! a read-in-one-go novel' Independent on Sunday 'Velocity hits its pace from the first page and races through to a suitably climactic ending' Sydney Sunday Telegraph 'Dean Koontz is not just a master of our darkest dreams, but also a literary juggler' The Times 'Psychologically complex, masterly and satisfying' The New York Times 'One of the great masters of suspense, Koontz has an undeniable gift for playing on the reader's innermost fears ... What we have come to expect from Koontz are exciting, fast-paced thrillers that make your flesh creep. Once again, he doesn't disappoint' Northern Echo 'A modern Swift ! a master satirist.' Entertainment Weekly 'If Stephen King is the Rolling Stones of novels, Koontz is the Beatles.' Playboy 'Dean Koontz writes page-turners, middle-of-the-night sneak-up-behind-you suspense thrillers. He touches our hearts and tingles our spines.' Washington Post Book World 'Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose. Serious writers might do well to study his technique.' New York Times Book Review 'Fast-paced and dark ! Koontz knows we live in a world where evil delights in justifying itself ! Classic literature that deserves a place on the bookshelf beside Orwell's 1984 and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.' California Literary Review 'Koontz is writing right where popular culture swells into something larger, just as it did for Homer, Shakespeare, and Dickens. He's got the gift.' Australian 'Koontz is a superb plotter and wordsmith. He chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition' USA Today 'Inspires both chills and serious thought ! has the power to scare the daylights out of us' People 'The poet laureate of paranoid pop fiction' Denver Post 'Koontz achieves a literary miracle ! stunning physical description, unique turns of phrase' Boston Globe 'Near Dickensian powers of description' Los Angeles Times
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
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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
167 of 191 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Koontz's newest book reminds me of his early stuff. After the last few books, I was feeling really tepid toward Koontz. His writing used to be predictable- always a thriller with a twist and great characterization. His more recent work has tasted a bit flat to me- almost as if he was trying to be contemplative and instead coming off sophomoric. Earlier books were very entertaining and always interesting, not necessarily fantastic literature but very adroit at entertaining the reader and hard to put down.
When I first started reading "Relentless", I thought, "Here we go again." We are introduced to the sweet but goofy Cubby who, coincidentally, is a writer. His wife, Penny, is the tough and capable daughter of survivalists and author of children's books featuring a rabbit with big ears. They, of course, have a child who is, at the tender age of six, a genius of the highest degree and currently working on a project he is unable to even begin to explain to his dad. They have a very lovable dog who also seems to be very special.
Cubby and family are plunged into a nightmare when the infamous Shearman Waxx, reclusive book critic, reviews Cubby's recently released book and skewers it. Despite Penny's warnings to "let it go", Cubby just can't. When he finds out that the reviewer frequents a restaurant where he and his family dine, he goes to lunch hoping to check the guy out. A brief encounter in the restaurant bathroom soon has Cubby wishing he'd followed his wife's advice.
Catastrophe ensues and Cubby and his litttle family are soon on the run from absolute evil of mythical proportions that seems to have practically supernatural resources.
Waxx makes for quite the sinister boogeyman and despite my initial misgivings, Cubby, his wife and kid and the group of eccentric family and friends that aid their flight and search for answers in a race to save their lives, turn out to be quite endearing. They have no idea what's coming for them and they must keep on the move and their wits about them to avoid, not just death- but a terrible one.
Koontz injects a hefty dose of what appears to be his light-up-the-darkness philosophy into the book. Cubby, despite his goofiness and mechanical ineptitude, has a dark secret in his past that makes his comedic and wonder-filled contribution to the literary world all the more amazing given what he has overcome.
An easy read- the time will fly by(read this straight through). Once past the initial chapters, the thriller aspect grabbed me and held me. Koontz likes to leave his reader hanging at the end of the chapter- something major just happened but nope, you're not going to find out until you readd the next chapter. So, if you aren't going to read it straight through, I imagine it would be fun to jump back into it with a new chapter.
Koontz does a good job developing his characters which is ultimately very necessary to suspend disbelief because some very unbelievable things take place in this book and even some of the characters are a tad far-fetched. I so enjoyed his characters, though, that I willed them into the realm of possibly existing in my mind.
If you are a fan of the Koontz thrillers(Lightning, Watchers, Phantoms) you will enjoy this. If you are new to Koontz, I highly recommend those titles I've mentioned. This book has some good suspense(a la Robert Ludlum) and a twist of the unexpected(Stephen King lite). The book does contain several scenes that describe graphic murder scenes which are a bit disturbing. The message of the book, overall, however, is a very positive one(Koontz does get a little heavy-handed with preaching his world view but it does not detract from the overall storyline).
Koontz makes no small show of telling us that we should hang on to our senses of humor, love and moments of grace despite the murder, mayhem and madness of the world and thus we keep the darkness at bay and good wins out over evil.
When I first started reading "Relentless", I thought, "Here we go again." We are introduced to the sweet but goofy Cubby who, coincidentally, is a writer. His wife, Penny, is the tough and capable daughter of survivalists and author of children's books featuring a rabbit with big ears. They, of course, have a child who is, at the tender age of six, a genius of the highest degree and currently working on a project he is unable to even begin to explain to his dad. They have a very lovable dog who also seems to be very special.
Cubby and family are plunged into a nightmare when the infamous Shearman Waxx, reclusive book critic, reviews Cubby's recently released book and skewers it. Despite Penny's warnings to "let it go", Cubby just can't. When he finds out that the reviewer frequents a restaurant where he and his family dine, he goes to lunch hoping to check the guy out. A brief encounter in the restaurant bathroom soon has Cubby wishing he'd followed his wife's advice.
Catastrophe ensues and Cubby and his litttle family are soon on the run from absolute evil of mythical proportions that seems to have practically supernatural resources.
Waxx makes for quite the sinister boogeyman and despite my initial misgivings, Cubby, his wife and kid and the group of eccentric family and friends that aid their flight and search for answers in a race to save their lives, turn out to be quite endearing. They have no idea what's coming for them and they must keep on the move and their wits about them to avoid, not just death- but a terrible one.
Koontz injects a hefty dose of what appears to be his light-up-the-darkness philosophy into the book. Cubby, despite his goofiness and mechanical ineptitude, has a dark secret in his past that makes his comedic and wonder-filled contribution to the literary world all the more amazing given what he has overcome.
An easy read- the time will fly by(read this straight through). Once past the initial chapters, the thriller aspect grabbed me and held me. Koontz likes to leave his reader hanging at the end of the chapter- something major just happened but nope, you're not going to find out until you readd the next chapter. So, if you aren't going to read it straight through, I imagine it would be fun to jump back into it with a new chapter.
Koontz does a good job developing his characters which is ultimately very necessary to suspend disbelief because some very unbelievable things take place in this book and even some of the characters are a tad far-fetched. I so enjoyed his characters, though, that I willed them into the realm of possibly existing in my mind.
If you are a fan of the Koontz thrillers(Lightning, Watchers, Phantoms) you will enjoy this. If you are new to Koontz, I highly recommend those titles I've mentioned. This book has some good suspense(a la Robert Ludlum) and a twist of the unexpected(Stephen King lite). The book does contain several scenes that describe graphic murder scenes which are a bit disturbing. The message of the book, overall, however, is a very positive one(Koontz does get a little heavy-handed with preaching his world view but it does not detract from the overall storyline).
Koontz makes no small show of telling us that we should hang on to our senses of humor, love and moments of grace despite the murder, mayhem and madness of the world and thus we keep the darkness at bay and good wins out over evil.
108 of 125 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Dean Koontz has changed, and not for the better.
OK, I'm a Koontz fan from way back. I've read all of the Koontz novels, including most of the Brian Coffey, Leigh Nichols, and Owen West stuff. I've re-read my favorites (Watchers, Whispers, Lightning, Strangers, The Bad Place) over and over. Lately, though....
Let's start at the beginning. Koontz's characters used to be normal people, for the most part. Often they were wealthy, which allowed the story to progress outside of a 9-to-5 job. But they were still ordinary. In Watchers, the protagonists are a retired real estate agent and a terminally shy hermit. In Whispers, they are both cops. In Phantoms, she's a doctor and he's the county sheriff who responds to her distress call. In Strangers there is a couple who own a motel, the couple who run the attached restaurant, a two-bit author and college professor, a doctor, a cocktail waitress, and a priest. In The Bad Place, they run a detective agency. These are ordinary people.
Recently, Koontz's characters have been larger than life. Whether it was Odd Thomas and his necromancy or the only one of many to walk away from a military rescue mission in The Husband, his characters are superlative. In making them so, Koontz renders them boring and two-dimensional.
In the beginning, Relentless looks like a return to the earlier characters of depth, but sorry, they aren't. The story focuses on a family. The family consists of a fabulously successful author, his fabulously successful children's book author wife, a child of startling genius, and a dog with apparently odd powers. Here's a clue, Dean. While we aren't ancient Greeks, and it's rare that a story directly involves the will of the gods, having a character who invents amazing devices that produce unexplainable phenomena is the modern version of Deus ex machina. And it's just as lame in its modern form.
Everyone in this book is more suited to a comic book than a novel. The villains are extra villain-y. The good guys are extra good. And everyone has a little quirk blown up to all proportions. The wife's parents can't be ordinary people. They are survivalist demolition experts who spend most of their life in an underground bunker living without power tools because after the fall of humanity, there won't be electrical power. (So you should suffer now? Use power tools as long as you can and stock hand tools if necessary.)
Second, if you read Your Heart Belongs to Me, or if you read some of the criticism of it, you will know that Koontz's last book wasn't well received. So when the antagonist in this book is a book critic who gives our "hero" a terrible review, it comes across as a passive-aggressive knock to the author's critics. "The people who say my last book was terrible aren't honestly expressing displeasure. They're part of a vast, worldwide conspiracy to corrupt humanity by removing beauty and sources of awe." Puh-lease!
Third, this isn't the first vast-enormous-evil-conspiracy book Koontz has written, and it's getting old. Most evil in the real world is perpetrated by individuals. And it's really disturbing that someone who has had so many authority-as-heroes in his earlier books (the protagonists in Whispers, the sheriff and most of the deputies in Phantoms, the cop and NSA agent in Watchers) that it's sort of disturbing that he can say a whole town council and the police agency for the area are entirely corrupted without expressing some horror over it.
Finally, Koontz seems to have lost the ability to change tone between books. There are spots, especially in the description of the restaurant, when Koontz seems to be narrating in Odd Thomas's voice. I don't particularly like the Odd Thomas series, so it's very apparent. It's another sign that Koontz is writing too fast and relying on his expertise as a writer rather than paying attention to his craft.
All in all, I was very disappointed. I notice that Koontz has two other books due out this year. I wonder if he simply trying to do too much and not taking the time to review his work, create believable characters, and flesh out his plots.
OK, I'm a Koontz fan from way back. I've read all of the Koontz novels, including most of the Brian Coffey, Leigh Nichols, and Owen West stuff. I've re-read my favorites (Watchers, Whispers, Lightning, Strangers, The Bad Place) over and over. Lately, though....
Let's start at the beginning. Koontz's characters used to be normal people, for the most part. Often they were wealthy, which allowed the story to progress outside of a 9-to-5 job. But they were still ordinary. In Watchers, the protagonists are a retired real estate agent and a terminally shy hermit. In Whispers, they are both cops. In Phantoms, she's a doctor and he's the county sheriff who responds to her distress call. In Strangers there is a couple who own a motel, the couple who run the attached restaurant, a two-bit author and college professor, a doctor, a cocktail waitress, and a priest. In The Bad Place, they run a detective agency. These are ordinary people.
Recently, Koontz's characters have been larger than life. Whether it was Odd Thomas and his necromancy or the only one of many to walk away from a military rescue mission in The Husband, his characters are superlative. In making them so, Koontz renders them boring and two-dimensional.
In the beginning, Relentless looks like a return to the earlier characters of depth, but sorry, they aren't. The story focuses on a family. The family consists of a fabulously successful author, his fabulously successful children's book author wife, a child of startling genius, and a dog with apparently odd powers. Here's a clue, Dean. While we aren't ancient Greeks, and it's rare that a story directly involves the will of the gods, having a character who invents amazing devices that produce unexplainable phenomena is the modern version of Deus ex machina. And it's just as lame in its modern form.
Everyone in this book is more suited to a comic book than a novel. The villains are extra villain-y. The good guys are extra good. And everyone has a little quirk blown up to all proportions. The wife's parents can't be ordinary people. They are survivalist demolition experts who spend most of their life in an underground bunker living without power tools because after the fall of humanity, there won't be electrical power. (So you should suffer now? Use power tools as long as you can and stock hand tools if necessary.)
Second, if you read Your Heart Belongs to Me, or if you read some of the criticism of it, you will know that Koontz's last book wasn't well received. So when the antagonist in this book is a book critic who gives our "hero" a terrible review, it comes across as a passive-aggressive knock to the author's critics. "The people who say my last book was terrible aren't honestly expressing displeasure. They're part of a vast, worldwide conspiracy to corrupt humanity by removing beauty and sources of awe." Puh-lease!
Third, this isn't the first vast-enormous-evil-conspiracy book Koontz has written, and it's getting old. Most evil in the real world is perpetrated by individuals. And it's really disturbing that someone who has had so many authority-as-heroes in his earlier books (the protagonists in Whispers, the sheriff and most of the deputies in Phantoms, the cop and NSA agent in Watchers) that it's sort of disturbing that he can say a whole town council and the police agency for the area are entirely corrupted without expressing some horror over it.
Finally, Koontz seems to have lost the ability to change tone between books. There are spots, especially in the description of the restaurant, when Koontz seems to be narrating in Odd Thomas's voice. I don't particularly like the Odd Thomas series, so it's very apparent. It's another sign that Koontz is writing too fast and relying on his expertise as a writer rather than paying attention to his craft.
All in all, I was very disappointed. I notice that Koontz has two other books due out this year. I wonder if he simply trying to do too much and not taking the time to review his work, create believable characters, and flesh out his plots.
36 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like many of the other readers who have reviewed the book, I also had high hopes for the latest Dean Koontz book. I picked up the audio version at the library in preparation for a long vacation drive, only to have my high hopes wither CD by CD. My advice is to avoid this book and if you do feel compelled to patronize Mr. Koontz, I would suggest the written version from the library.
Top 5 Reasons to avoid this book:
5) For a thriller, there was no suspense
4) The characters are ridiculously unbelievable (especially the dialog)
3) The prose is so verbose you want to pull your hair out
2) Cubby's character is so annoyingly incompetent you'd prefer he's knocked off at the beginning
1) Koontz must have got tired of the book because he phones in the ending
After this, it will be a while before I get excited by another new Dean Koontz and thanks be to the public library.
Top 5 Reasons to avoid this book:
5) For a thriller, there was no suspense
4) The characters are ridiculously unbelievable (especially the dialog)
3) The prose is so verbose you want to pull your hair out
2) Cubby's character is so annoyingly incompetent you'd prefer he's knocked off at the beginning
1) Koontz must have got tired of the book because he phones in the ending
After this, it will be a while before I get excited by another new Dean Koontz and thanks be to the public library.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Which reviewer is the subject of this drivel?
I spent 428 pages thinking about Carly Simon's famous song "You're So Vain", supposedly written about someone Ms. Simon knew. It's the same with this book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by pasdeclef
Great book with a not so great ending
For most of this book Koontz kept me very enthralled. I enjoyed the characters, loved the nonstop action and thought the evil guy as very creepy. So why the three stars? Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Bennett
If this is satire, it is delicious... If not... Koontz needs therapy.
I started out enjoying this book, though it appeared to be fluff. By the middle I was ready to hurl. Read more
Published 2 months ago by SatireHunter
Too much over the top, poor plot and just crazy characters!
Best-selling author, Cullen Cubby Greenwich, just finished a new book and he is horrified to find out that a leading critic has written a review that ripped his new book apart. Read more
Published 2 months ago by jjceo
Poor quality Koontz
I've read several of Dean Koontz's books and enjoyed almost all of them. "Relentless" has been my least favorite. Read more
Published 4 months ago by A photographer
Par for the course
My library has a lot of Dean Koontz books so you can say I'm a fan, but he hasn't been high on my list for a long time and the reviewers average scores here seem to bear me... Read more
Published 4 months ago by John B. Goode
Well......
Being a big Koontz fan, i was pretty surprised to find that i almost hated his book. The dialogue, especially the son's, was pretty awful. Read more
Published 4 months ago by AN AVID READER
Koontz's Relentless Audio
Having just gotten into reading Koontz earlier this year, this is about my tenth book of his and I consider it one of the better. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Shannon L. Yarbrough
Thrilling
This book drew me in right from the start as most of Dean Kootz's books have. The story flows well and is an easy read, yet creepy and extremely disturbing in a morbidly... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jocelyn Murray
A Page Turner
I was going to give this one a 3 star because I didn't care for the ending. But it did keep me up all night turning the pages to see what happened next. Read more
Published 5 months ago by BullDog
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