» Click here to read Pamela Kramer's review.

Review #1 by Ray Palen

Katie, the protagonist in this latest novel from the legendary Dean Koontz, has found true peace in isolation. Having survived a devastating loss that cost her an entire family and then being doubly let down by the system, she took the life insurance and inheritance money --- coupled with the profit from the sale of all personal property --- and purchased an island called Jacob’s Ladder.

"After some recent forays into pure science fiction and otherworldly subject matter, it is refreshing to see Koontz take a page out of his old and highly successful blueprint and bring us a novel that easily can stack up against his earlier work."

Katie has hidden herself inside a fortress-like stone house, which is the impetus for the book’s title, THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD. She has no electronic devices outside of multi-disc CD players on which she plays hours of only classical music each day. She is happy leading a solitary life because the negative events that have shaped her recently have left her so emotionally scarred and down on the world that she believes we may be fast approaching the End of Days once described in the Bible.

Katie is quite suspicious of authority. For her, this is represented by neighboring island Ringrock, which is home to a mysterious government research facility that may be conducting experimental work that is not completely docile. These fears are confirmed when Jacob’s Ladder is infiltrated by two agents who are apparently looking for something that may have “escaped” from Ringrock.

As Katie puts it, she isn’t a survivalist, but she wants to survive. She isn’t a prepper, though she constantly makes preparations. Her frugal, low-tech nature coupled with a non-stop feeling of paranoia will serve her well; it turns out that something is indeed very wrong on her island, and Ringrock is the source of that unease. When even the animals on Jacob’s Ladder begin acting weird, it merely confirms for Katie that her suspicions are quite warranted. If only she can figure out what the agents are seeking.

There are several chapters that take us back in time, including a look at the prior owners of Katie’s home. One of them, Joe Smith, is said to have built the place as a defense against Dachau, having personally experienced the horrors of concentration camps. When the agents go missing on her island, Katie begins to suspect that something much larger and darker is at play.

It is at this point that THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD really begins to soar and never comes down to earth again. It calls to mind some of the novels that Koontz penned as a fledgling writer --- mostly sci-fi works composed under various pseudonyms or his original nom de plume, Dean R. Koontz. Similar plot devices can be found in such Koontz titles as WATCHERS, THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT and LIGHTNING. Not only does the book very deftly combine sci-fi and horror thrills, which is why I must keep the source of the darkness here a secret, it also includes a special young person who teams up with Katie and may be a key to the events that are taking place around them.

After some recent forays into pure science fiction and otherworldly subject matter, it is refreshing to see Koontz take a page out of his old and highly successful blueprint and bring us a novel that easily can stack up against his earlier work.
 

Review #2 by Pamela Kramer

Dean Koontz is a complex writer, and so are his books, featuring the best of humanity as well as the worst. In THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD, he continues his much-repeated theme of a valiant individual fighting against the government and/or a science experiment gone awry. Here we meet a woman, Katie, who has retreated from society because of a horrific wrong done to her. She and her peaceful way of life on her isolated island are in jeopardy due to a mysterious entity that escaped from a government laboratory that also threatens the world as we know it.

Katie is everything that we might hope to find in a superhero. She is intelligent, strong, clever and good with weapons, yet also kind, compassionate and principled. She has lost everything to something not named at the beginning of the book, and we know she is living her life because of an also mysterious "Promise" she made to someone. However, we don't find out about either of these until we have read much of the novel. Koontz delivers this information sparingly and in dribs and drabs so as to keep the suspense building.

At times, the writing is so bleak that you might think Koontz despairs of the human race. Yet at other times, he presents a different view of humanity. He spends paragraphs disparaging those in power who serve government in their quest for even more power and don’t care about truth or justice. He also has nothing but contempt for those who are amoral because of either a defect in their makeup or extremely poor parenting (by the rich or the poor). Yet he believes that half of humanity does have redeeming characteristics.

"[W]hile there is often an overwhelming sense of doom in [Koontz's] novels, there is also a silver lining in the dark and looming fog that shows us a hopeful light. This story of good versus evil gives us a lot to consider."

When Katie must decide whether to escape the evil threatening mankind or to face it, Koontz writes, "These recent events have summoned her from a dream of permanent escape to the reality that in a well-lived life, there is never any escape from commitment, from responsibility not merely for family but also for others whom the violent would sweep away. She has been awakened as well to the realization that though perhaps half of humanity has no such sense of responsibility, their indifference is no justification for her to retreat into a life of self-interest." Some of Koontz’s descriptive prose is lovely and demonstrates his devotion to rewriting each page until his narrative is exactly what he strives for. For example, he lovingly describes the shore of the lake along which Katie resides: "Below Katie, gray tongues of water lick the shore stones that centuries of wet caresses have worn as smooth as the granite of grave markers."

Koontz's descriptions of characters are pitch-perfect, and the language gives readers almost immediate insight into them. He writes about a particularly despicable individual in beautifully colorful detail: "Her eyes are black olives in the well-worked dough of her face, and her hair is not pure white, as you might expect, but in part pale yellow and peppered with gray, as if she washes it in urine and finishes it with a small spray of soot." He goes on to say that "these days, most grandmothers wear pink jumpsuits or the equivalent, but Grandma Giana insists on housedresses, as if it's still 1955..."

A grandmother (like me) might wonder what kind of grandmothers Koontz meets in his California home. Most of the ones I know (also like me) have never worn a pink jumpsuit and have no idea where or why anyone would wear a housedress. Yet we can't accuse him of misogyny because, as in this story, many of his heroes are female and show more bravery and heroism than your typical male character. (Speaking of which, Koontz loves his alliteration, and it's featured often in his descriptions.) For example, he writes that "Libby is just a girl, but it was a girl of her age who raised the siege of Orléans in 1428 and broke the English army, and no one can say what a girl might have the capacity to endure or achieve." He definitely appreciates a strong, principled woman.

Koontz seems to reserve his greatest enmity for those who follow the orders of unscrupulous leaders whose goals are selfish and desires are venal: those who don’t care about others, who allow violence to hold sway to further their means, who will cover up crimes committed by the connected or wealthy. In this novel, as in others, he makes no secret of his disdain for government workers and for what he perceives as abuses of power.

While Koontz's prose isn't for the faint of heart, there are places where his humor and sense of delight shine through. Journeying away from the island, Katie and her companion, teenager Libby, must stay offline. So they can't use GPS for navigation. Katie has maps from AAA, and Libby studies them "with a sense of wonder." She says that they "are for those big, bold, pioneering souls who love complexity --- explorers, adventurers, lovers of byways and alternate routes!" Try explaining that to any youngsters these days, and they will stare at you blankly. The beauty of empty spaces and roads leading into them completely befuddles most people, but (as I was delighted to learn) not Koontz.

Koontz has penned numerous bestsellers because he writes books that are filled with action, characters we wish we were as noble and brave as, and villains we hope never to meet even in our worst nightmares. And while there is often an overwhelming sense of doom in his novels, there is also a silver lining in the dark and looming fog that shows us a hopeful light. This story of good versus evil gives us a lot to consider.

There is the dilemma about law enforcement and the military, where we see Katie's former Marine husband --- who is moral and determined to find justice --- alongside corrupt federal agents. Yet we also know the current reality regarding the Marines who participated willingly in the January 6th insurrection and the recent news that an FBI chief was perhaps providing material and traitorously working on behalf of Russia. Koontz points out that irony, in which the worst criminals have access to weapons of death, but so does Katie. It's a conundrum for sure, and that's why you will continue to think about this book and the action long after you've finished reading.