Dragon Tears
Dean Koontz

Police detective Harry Lyon is a perfectionist who likes his condo immaculate, his suits well tailored, and his homicide files typed error free. To Harry's dismay, his partner, Connie Gulliver, embraces chaos, urging him to get in touch with the rhythms of destruction. But when Harry and Connie have to kill in the line of duty, the ensuing surreal nightmare makes Connie's cynical world view seem all too accurate.
That same afternoon, a hulking street person prophesies that Harry will be dead by dawn, then self destructs before his eyes. As twilight falls, Harry glimpses strange creatures in the shadows, and finds his rational world transformed into a place of bizarre surprises and unimaginable dangers. As dawn ticks closer, Harry is caught in a whirlwind of terror that threatens to sweep away not only him but Connie and everyone he loves.

As with all of Dean Koontz's novels that I have read and reviewed, this one does not disappoint. The characters, as usual, are well rounded and very human. The heroes are sympathetic and the villain is not only frightening, but also a person the reader will end up detesting.

The villain in this novel has both elements of the supernatural and the realistic to his character. He has supernatural powers that no human being could possibly possess, but the reason for these powers stems from the very real possibility of genetic mutation from the actions of his mother during her pregnancy. He is also realistic in the sense that even though he is the big bad of the novel, he is also very childlike in many ways and seems to behave more like a kid playing with his toys during a temper tantrum than a well calculated villain.

The plot is engaging from the first chapter and this is one of those books that is hard to put down. When other characters, including a very smart and very good dog, become entwined with Harry and Connie it makes things even more interesting and gives the likeable characters a chance at surviving this nightmare.

All in all, I would highly recommend this novel. I'd say the age range would be around thirteen and up.

My rating: Four out of five snails.