Intensity
Dean Koontz

Chyna Shepherd is a twenty six year old woman whose deeply troubled childhood taught her the hard rules of survival, and whose adult life has been an unrelenting struggle for self respect and safety. Now rare trust has blossomed for Chyna into friendship with the woman whose family home she is visiting for the weekend: a farm in the Napa Valley surrounded by vineyards and hills, which Chyna can see from the guest room window where she sits at one o'clock in the morning, fully dressed, unable to sleep. Suspicions she learned in childhood still make her uneasy in unfamiliar houses - even this one, where her closest friend is sound asleep down the hall. And in this case her most disturbing instincts prove reliable. A man has entered the house, a man who lives for one purpose: to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse, or limits - to live with intensity.
His name is Edgler Foreman Vess. He likes to make words from the letters of his name - GOD, DEMON, SAVE, RAGE, ANGER, FEAR, FOREVER, are just a few of them - and then make sentences of the words. One of his favorites, GOD FEARS ME, is sometimes the last thing he whispers to his victims. Edgler Vess is a self proclaimed "homicidal adventurer". On this night, his adventure - murdering everyone in the house - becomes Chyna's long nightmare.
Trapped in Vess's deadly orbit, Chyna thinks only of getting out alive. But when she inadvertently learns the identity of Vess's intended next victim, waiting for him far from the Napa Valley, Chyna is gripped by concern for this other person, who is as innocent as Chyna, and as endangered. Driven now by a sense of responsibility for another, by a purpose and meaning beyond mere self preservation, Chyna rises to unexpected heights of courage and daring - her only hope as the thread of Edglar Foreman Vess closes in and grows more horrifying moment by moment.
Intensity unfolds over the course of just twenty four hours, but within that brief time frame, Dean Koontz gives us what is perhaps his most inventive, emotionally intricate, and terrifyingly suspenseful novel yet.

This is definitely one of Koontz's best novels. It is truly amazing and extremely difficult to put down. The characters are rich, the action is intense, and and strength of the hero, Chyna, is beyond belief.

After hearing an odd noise in the house of her friend, Chyna's instincts kick in and she hides under the still made bed in the guest room. Lucky to have not left any of her belongings strewn about, the killer looks at this room and assumes no one is using it. When Chyna gets up the courage, she finds her friends parents both dead and her friend tied up on the bed. She promises to find a weapon and come back to aid her, but before she can intervene, Vess carries her friend into his mobile home.

Chyna enters to try and save her friend, but finds it is too late and she is already dead. Unfortunately, the mobile home is now on the move and Chyna is stuck in there with the killer.

She tried to make her escape at a gas station, but overhears about an innocent sixteen year old girl that Vess is holding in his basement. She then decides that it's not enough to run and stay alive. She must also save the girl.

The novel moves at a fast pace and keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. As in real life, things don't always go so well for Chyna and Vess knows that she's in his vehicle and is interested to see how things play out.

There's really no down sides to this novel. It's one I'd recommend to everyone, especially fans of Koontz.

My rating: Four and a half out of five snails.