Sole Survivor
Dean Koontz

The story begins with a catastrophic, unexplainable plane crash. Three hundred and thirty dead, no survivors. Among the victims, the wife and two young daughters of Los Angeles Post crime reporter Joe Carpenter.
A year later, still gripped by an almost paralyzing grief, unable to work, unable to imagine any relief but his own death, Joe encounters a woman named Rose. She claims to have survived the crash, and hold out a tantalizing possibility: a secret that will bring Joe peace of mind. But before he can ask any questions, she slips away.
Driven now by rage (have the authorities withheld information from the families of the victims?) and a hope almost as unbearable as his grief (if there really was one survivor, could there have been others?), Joe sets out to find the woman: "The resolution of this mystery was his mission, his purpose, and perhaps an unknowable redemption." But his search immediately leads him into the path of a powerful and shadowy organization hell-bent on stopping Rose before she can reveal what she knows about the crash. And Joe's connection to her - the nature of which he comes to understand only by inches - makes him part of the quarry.
The novel unfolds at a heart-stopping pace as a desperate chase and and a shattering emotional odyssey lead Joe to a truth that will force him to reassess everything he thought he knew about life and death - a truth that, given the chance, will rock the world and redefine the destiny of humanity.

The first half of this novel is outstanding. Granted, it takes the general Koontz premise of someone being chased by something very powerful that, quite possibly, has governmental sanction. But as with most of Koontz's novels, it works. As soon as Joe meets Rose, those that are chasing her come for him. And she knows something about the plane crash that killed his wife and daughter that people do not want getting out. Including the fact that the crash was aimed to kill her and one other person on board. Someone with the same name as one of his dead daughters. Could it be his daughter?

The next part slowly goes downhill until the last quarter of the novel which spoiled the rest of it for me. It was a great idea, a great premise, and then the reason for all of this happening is just so... preachy... that is makes what could have been an excellent novel into a so-so one. And the only reason it is a so-so one is because of the first half. If the first half wasn't so incredible, this would be rated two snails and not three.

I don't like my novels preachy, especially when that preachiness deals with something like religion, which is not only a hot-button topic, but is also something that is viewed different by many people. Some believe, some do not. Some believe in different gods entirely. When a novel reverts to religion in order to wrap things up, it has failed. And to me, what could have been great, in the end, failed.

I would not recommend this novel.

My rating: Three out of five snails (and three only because of the first half, otherwise it would be two).