The Darkest Evening of the Year (Hardcover)

by Dean Koontz (Author)
Key Phrases: white trash bag, breeder dogs, dinette chair, The Darkest Evening of the Year, Vernon Lesley, Land Rover (more...)

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The Darkest Ice Cream of the Year by Dean Koontz

I once said writing a novel is sometimes like making love and sometimes like having a tooth pulled--and sometimes like making love while having a tooth pulled. I arrived at one of those joyful yet excruciating moments while working on The Darkest Evening of the Year.

Because I am obsessive about the revision of each page--the word fussbudget is embarrassingly apt when I am brooding over whether to use a comma or a semicolon--I have more than once held on to a manuscript until the drop-dead date for delivery. When that date rolled around for this book, I had written everything, but I was unwilling to send all of it to my editor. I withheld the last fifty pages for another four days, causing a quiet panic in those at my publishing house who are responsible for meeting production deadlines.

Although the book was done, I felt that something was wrong with Chapter 63. The action worked, the characters were in character, the mood was sustained...but something felt wrong with it, some fine point of the villain's motivation. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I worked 12-hour days, trying to identify the source of my doubt, but couldn't specify it to my satisfaction.

Nothing like this had ever happened to me. Previously, my worst struggles with a story had come in the first two-thirds, and the final third had been, if not a sweet swift toboggan run, at least a sleigh ride.

Sunday, I got up at 6:00 and set to work, revising, looking for the thorn I could feel but couldn't see--and ended up working 22 hours, eating at my desk, before tumbling to the problem at 4:00 a.m. Monday morning. "Eureka!" I cried, but I was so weary and my voice was so weak that my shout of jubilation came out as a squeak.

The revisions required to Chapter 63 were minor, but after working 58 hours in four days, after having passed a night without sleep, I was unable to focus sharply enough to get them done in the little time that remained before the production schedule would be derailed. In desperation, I turned to that source of creative energy and literary enlightenment that is without equal: ice cream.

I shuffled to the kitchen and snared a Dreyer's Slow-Churned Vanilla Almond Crunch bar from the freezer. I devoured this sweet-and-creamy muse, and felt the scales lift from my eyes; inspiration sparkled between my ears. I finished the revisions and e-mailed the final version of Chapter 63 to my editor with not a minute to spare. Although the American Heart Association will take issue with me, my advice to young writers stuck on a scene is to stop worrying about your arteries and give your wheel-spinning imagination what it needs to find traction: a tasty shot of fat and sugar.

--Dean Koontz, October 2007

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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Set mostly in Southern California, this topnotch thriller from bestseller Koontz (The Good Guy) depicts with unabashed emotion and wit the magical powers of golden retrievers—in particular, a female named Nickie, who will stop at nothing to save innocent children and protect their guardians. Amy Redwing, the survivor of a horrifying marriage, establishes Golden Heart to rescue golden retrievers, rehabilitate the abused ones and find forever homes. A supernatural chain of events ensues after Amy and her architect boyfriend, Brian McCarthy, rescue Nickie during a violent intervention in a family dispute. Soon the pair are on a mission that leads to a transformative confrontation with a number of ugly characters—Gunther Schloss, a frustrated aspiring novelist turned killer-for-hire; Moonglow, a psychobitch in the Mommie Dearest league; and Moonglow's lover, Harrow, a self-obsessed sicko. This is the perfect book for thriller addicts who know the darkest hour is just before dawn and for canine lovers who remember dog spelled backwards is god. (Nov. 27)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (November 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553804820
• ISBN-13: 978-0553804829
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (269 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #126,866 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

291 of 320 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thriller with Heart, November 28, 2007

By	Stacey Cochran. Visit staceycochran.com (Raleigh, NC, USA) - See all my reviews

Length:: 3:19 Mins

Amy Redwing operates Golden Heart, a Golden Retriever rescue service, that brings her to the home of abused housewife and mother Janet Brockman. Amy and her close friend Brian McCarthy rescue Janet, her two kids, and their retriever Nicki from Janet's abusive husband. Immediately, Amy recognizes a seemingly supernatural connection with Nicki, the golden retriever.

And soon thereafter, Amy discovers that she is being followed.

The power of this novel lies in the genuine compassion that Dean Koontz exhibits through Amy and her love for and near obsession to rescue both people and dogs from abuse and neglect.

If there's a weakness to this novel it's that Amy can come across as unintentionally self-righteous and holier than thou.

Regardless, it's clear that Dean Koontz is a mature writer, and his desire to bring together the suspense-writing strengths of his early career with matters close to his heart are on full display in The Darkest Evening of the Year.

This novel contains a couple of plot twists that are really, really cool, and the textured layers of the characters, their multiple names and the depths of their backgrounds indicate that Koontz is onto something profound in this novel.... namely the existence of a soul and how that soul transmits through multiple lives.

This is a profound novel from a writer who has mastered the elements of suspense, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Stacey Cochran
Author of CLAWS available for 80 Cents

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Two Separate Stories in This Koontz Effort, December 2, 2007

By	TMStyles (California) - See all my reviews

This novel is certainly dividing Koontz fans as evidenced by these reviews. I sense some of that might be attributed to the fact that "The Darkest Evening of the Year" seems bifurcated to me into a suspense thriller on the surface where a true morality play between good and evil occurs and a secondary storyline that focuses on educating the reader about the plight of abandoned and endangered dogs and the agencies and people who are dedicated to rescuing them. I suspect Koontz used this story to pay homage to his family's beloved Trixie (his own golden who recently died from cancer)and to assuage the pain of herloss...certainly his touching dedication written to his wife Gerda would lead to that conclusion if nothing else.

Amy Redwing rescues dogs and attempts to develop a relationship with Brian McCarthy while hiding a troubled past. Brian has unresolved baggage of his own and sometimes helps Amy in her rescues and is present when she bravely stands up to an abusive bully and, in the process, extricates the man's wife, children, and golden retriever, Nickie from the home.

Nickie and Amy become inseparable after a seemingly supernatural connection and Nickie becomes a major protagonist for the rest of the story with links to both Amy's and Brian's pasts. Just what or who is Nickie and does she have special powers (as have some dogs in previous Koontz novels)? How is she linked to Amy's past and Brian's future?

The suspense in the novel is keenly felt due mainly to Koontz's extreme characterizations. The good guys are almost one dimenionally good and, of course, are kind to and love dogs. The bad guys are unredeemedly evil and, inexplicably want dogs (especially Nickie) "killed good and hard". There is no middle ground here...and the love of dogs seems to be a clear demarcation between good and evil.

As usual, Koontz mixes some wonderful descriptions and phrases..."Maybe loving dogs is a way we do penance for all the other illusions we allow ourselves and for the mistakes we make because of those illusions"...with some over-the-top descriptions that make the reader smile in sophomoric glee.

There are unanswered plot lines in this novel that probably won't matter to the casual reader. Why did Brian get so obsessive about the eye sketches? Why did Vanessa inexplicably want Nickie killed good and hard? Why was Billy Pilgrim suddenly focused on golden retriever symbolism? And again, as usual, there is a need to suspend the reader's disbelief sufficiently to accept the "magic" of the novel.

But I do recommend the book...it is not as off track as some of Koontz's recent novels...and any dog lover will get choked up with some of his passages of homage to dogs. Koontz has immense talent and a love for dogs that comes together in this story.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very lame, very disappointing, January 6, 2008

By	Savannah Jade (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews

I am in shock that this book has Dean Koontz's name on because I think someone else must have written it and then blackmailed him somehow into lending his name to it. So much is wrong about the book. There are no likable characters and in fact the 2 main characters, Amy & Brian seem identical to recent novels of his, only their names are changed. Amy the lead character is especially nauseating as a wise-cracking and extremely caring woman with a unknown past.
The whole thing about the "goldens" got to be very repetitive and boring and even a dog lover like myself got sick of them. Throw in some evil characters and then Koontz's creation of a charmer of a Down Syndrome child that has beeen mistreated just goes way over the top....and sinks fast!
The only reason I read this book all the way through was because I had to see if the entire book had anything worthy about it, so I was compelled to stay until the end. I still cannot believe that Koontz wrote this and as one who has read the majority of his books since the very first one, I am very very disappointed.