The Key To Midnight
Dean Koontz

ZURICH: 1968
A group of scientists known as "The Clinic" have perfected Midnight, a terrifying form of total mind control.
JAPAN: 1978
Millionaire investigator Alex Hunter hadn't come to Kyoto to fall in love, but Joanna Rand was the most beautiful, most exciting woman he'd ever seen. What disturbed him was the certainty he'd seen her before. In pictures of a senator's daughter who'd disappeared ten years ago. Slowly, he helps awaken her to a frightening fact. She is not the person she thought she was. Her mind, her memories, have all been created for her.
What could she have known that was so important? What could they have done to bury it so completely? The answers are hidden half a world away, in a conspiracy neither of them could have suspected.

For an older novel written by Koontz which was even written under a pen name, this book isn't half bad. It's not up to the usual Koontz standards, but that could be why a pen name was used when this novel was originally released.

One of the good aspects of this novel is that even though it is set in the late 1970's, it can be read in the modern era without realizing that it was set more than 30 years ago. It doesn't feel like it was set then, and it's always impressive when a story can stand the test of time.

The characters are engaging and there are plenty of twists and turns, especially at the end, that will keep the reader engrossed.

The story is a good one, however, there are times when believability is stretched a bit too thin and the characters often act in a different way than a normal smart person would. This can lead to frustrations, at times, with the story line and the direction it is going in.

Overall, it's a decent read, but not spectacular. I'd recommend this to Koontz fans and fans of sci-fi mind control stories.

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