The Key to Midnight (Paperback)

by Dean Koontz (Author) "In the dark, Joanna Rand went to the window..." (more)
Key Phrases: answering sentence, dancing butterflies, steel fingers, Lisa Chelgrin, Tom Chelgrin, Joanna Rand (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In a novel previously published under the best-selling author's pseudonym, Leigh Nichols, an American owner of a Japanese nightclub meets a fellow expatriate who helps her uncover the terrible truth about her real identity. Reprint.

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425147517
• ISBN-13: 978-0425147511
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,772 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Plunge deep into the suspense..., September 18, 2001

By	Duaa Anwar "Dressage rider/ Author" (Cairo, Egypt) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a first class page-turner with non-stop action...unpredictable, psychological, and traumatic on your nerves. Although this is one of Dean Koontz's first books, it doesn't lack the suspense which he weaves into every page of his writing. From the very first page, his characters, Joanna Rand and Alex Hunter, took an almost tangible form in an exotic setting that was very realistically painted.

The plot was enhanced by being set in Japan. Joanna Rand, a successful business owner, is plagued by crippling phobias that prevent her from leading a normal life. Alex Hunter crosses paths with her during his visit to Japan and finds her situation intruiging. Since he is a detective, he recalls her as a missing person he had been looking for many years earlier. While trying to uncover her story, he discovers that there's a deeper and more frightening dimension to her history.

The story is so gripping that I was reading like a machine. At one point I almost got hypnotized myself while reading a scene where the character is hypnotized. The reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the book took a political twist at the end. I must admit, though, that I was gritting my teeth down to the very last word. Very intense and well worth reading.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different type of Koontz novel..., March 14, 2004

By	Freddy Jones (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Joanna Rand left America ten years ago, and is now the owner of a nightclub in Kyoto, Japan. The one thing that she could not leave behind however, is a terrifying nightmare that she has on a nightly basis involving a man with steel fingers. When Joanna wakes up, she feels physically violated and terrified beyond comprehension. A private detective named Alex Hunter is vacationing in Kyoto and becomes instantly captivated with Joanna. However, he also knew that he had seen Joanna before in news photographs of a senator's daughter who had dissapeared 10 years ago. Alex becomes determined to help awaken Joanna to the fact that she is not who she thinks she is, and that her life, her memories, and her mind had been created for her.

The Key to Midnight is definately a different type of Koontz novel. He usually specializes in horror and suspense. That is why I was very unsure about reading this book. However, as soon as I began, I knew that it would turn out to be one of the best Koontz books that I ever read. The book is an extremely well written and action packed chase novel. The story is paced extremely well because you learn about Joanna's past and why her life was messed with, slowly over the course of the story. You are also kept on the edge of your seat, because there are many different people who do not want Joanna to discover the truth. This book really emphasizes the phrase "trust no one" because anybody could be in on it. Koontz also does a wonderful job of illustrating the different countries that the story takes place in.

Overall, The Key to Midnight is one of Koontz's best books. It is an action packed chase novel filled with paranoia, conspiracies, and many great characters.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great ending but......., October 12, 2005

By	Kevin Gregory "Ca reader" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an interesting book becouse it shows Koontz going off in a different direction. As he states in the books Afterword, this is his only novel in the Acion/suspence/romance genre. Actually I thought it was trying to be in the same genre of most of James Patterson books. The probem I found with the book was that it developed too slowly. We have the same unanswered questions on page 360 as we had in the beginning. It's not until the book has as few as 50 pages left does it really get going. Descriptions of mundane activities is fine. It ads color and depth to the charactors but I thought it was excessive here. They got out of the cab, went to the museaum, checked into a hotel, made a phone call, blah blah blah. Thankfully the whole story gets turned around and it reallly has a stunning conclusion, but it was hard for me to get there. Interesting read, but I found books like Intensity, and Sole Survivor much more interesting.