Dean Koontz has shown in his half-century of writing that he is capable of almost anything. He jokes in a recent online interview about his genre-crossing career, as well as the image of an eerie albino mountain lion that appears in the first chapter of his latest novel, the mystical and suspenseful THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS.

If you are a long-time Koontz reader like I am, then you will recognize many of his recurring tropes in this book: mysterious animals, young people with special gifts who are in peril, and evil government or corporate entities looking to impose their bad karma on the natural world around them. These familiar plot devices are all used very effectively in this story centered on Vida, a young woman who lives off the grid in the mountain cabin where her uncle raised her. She is at one with the forest and all its inhabitants, but the real world just finds a way of crashing her party and seeking to eliminate what they cannot understand or control.

"[The finale is] tremendously exciting and some of the most suspenseful writing I have ever seen from Koontz.There are many great messages in THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS, and Vida is a relatable character you can root for."

Uncle Ogden raised Vida off the grid and taught her how to make life in the forest work. The only real example of the world outside of their private Garden of Eden is a library filled with myriad books, most of which she has read. Vida’s life is not all calmness and serenity for she has known pain and tragedy --- the untimely loss of her parents and, many years later, her great-uncle. The biggest blow was the murder of her fiancé. Jose Nochelobo was a high school principal who was killed by those opposing him as he stood on the steps of the Kettleton town courthouse protesting the billionaire business seeking to come in and destroy their local wilderness in the name of corporate greed and profit.

Kettleton is not a nice place anymore and has been corrupted not only by corporate outsiders but also by the criminal underworld in which many of its residents are involved. One of the heads of this criminal syndicate was Belden Bead, a really bad man who somehow disappeared from the world after a run-in with Vida on her property. She defended herself against him, and he ended up shooting himself and bleeding out. She took her big digger rig and buried him and his car on her wide expanse of land. Now, sometime later, someone else has come to her home from Kettleton seeking revenge and other nefarious designs on her.

Deputy Nash Deacon is Belden’s cousin and knows that Vida had something to do with his disappearance. He blackmails her into what he calls submission, whereby she stays alive and he comes by whenever he wants for food, sex and whatever else he wishes to subject her to for his silence about what she did. It is one of the highlights of the novel to see her turn the tables on Deacon and have him “disappear” as well. However, this time it will come at a high price as there are many others from both the criminal and corporate sides of Kettleton who are determined to make her pay once and for all.

Vida is not someone to be trifled with and has a sense of harmony with the flora and fauna in the forest that includes the great wolf Lupo and his pack. The finale pits the evil representatives of Kettleton against Vida and Sam, who she was destined to meet as per a visit to a seer when she was young. It’s tremendously exciting and some of the most suspenseful writing I have ever seen from Koontz.

There are many great messages in THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS, and Vida is a relatable character you can root for. My favorite line from the novel comes from her mind, and it also provides the impetus for the title: “In her experience, it is civilization, riven by human arrogance and greed and envy, that is, at its worst, a forest of lost souls.”