Dark Rivers of the Heart

Last week, I picked this book off of my book shelf by process of elimination. I need to clear some of the books off my "unread" shelves. So I counted the number of books on them and chose a book off of the shelf that had the most books. Then I looked at the authors on that shelf. I had more books by Dean Koontz on that shelf than any other author, so I chose the oldest of those books. Stupid, I know, but I needed some method to help me narrow my choices.

I realized a few pages in that the story was familiar. I had read it before. My premonitions about what would happen next were too specific for it to be just a similar story line to something else I had read. I must have put that book on the wrong shelf when I unpacked them after our move. I must have read it a long time ago, because I couldn't remember the ending. The book had hooked me even though I knew I had read it before, so rather than put it on my "read" shelf, I re-read it. I guess that is a testament to how suspenseful and gripping Dean Koontz books can be.

Dark Rivers of the Heart was published in 1994 by Dean Koontz. I have found that normally Dean Koontz is good for a scary, supernatural thriller. This book was not supernatural in any way though. This was a legal/political thriller, with serial killers mixed in. It was excellent and had me hooked from the beginning, even though I had read it before. Dean Koontz gets political in this one, regarding our freedoms as Americans and the power that the government has. It is a book that makes you think about the realities of those freedoms and whether we are truly as free as we think we are. But most of all it is a fast paced thriller, a true page turner because you have no idea where Koontz is going to take you. This book didn't give me nightmares or make me afraid to read late at night alone, as his books sometimes do, but it was no less gripping.

There is an Afterward written by Koontz that explains some things about the political side of the book. Fact vs. fiction and what his beliefs are. Fascinating. Another one I would recommend.

Happy Reading!