The Eyes of Darkness — A Dean Koontz Book Review
Backstory
I have successfully completed my read of this 1981 book. This was my first paperback read of a fictional book after a long while. Between now and last year, I was previously utilising audiobooks as they are far more convenient. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and I can not wait to read more books.
Introduction (Non-Spoilery)
This story details the story of Christina Evans, a recently divorced woman who had lost her child, Danny, when he was in an expedition trip. Or at least, that’s what she thought. She starting have reoccurring nightmares of Danny, which was unusual because it arrived all so suddenly. She attributed this to the stress of creating the biggest theatrical performance in the history of Las Vegas. And she remained convinced so, until certain inexplicably events became ever so clear-some…
My Honest Review (Non-Spoilery)
This was a pretty good book. I enjoyed every single page. It was a thrilling experience which compelled me to read further and further on into the journey of Christina Evans and to uncover the truth of what actually happened to her son, which led readers to believe: Is she being hysterical or is there a slimmer of truth in what she speaks? How can she explain it without looking delusional? And can she can actually find her son, once and for all?
Plotline (Spoilers)
This section of the article will delve into the story itself and contain spoilers:
Christina Evans finds a message board on her son’s bedroom which states “Not Dead”, which she was sure wasn’t there originally. After erasing it, the message appears again later and Christina is convinced this must be the work of some twisted individual or psychopath.
However, Christina does not have time to deal with this right now. She wants to stay focused on her theatre performance which she has so heavily invested in. A success in here will generate quite a lot of fortune. Moments later, success hit and her performance was the talk of the city.
After arriving back home to witness the same messaging on the chalkboard, she decides to go on the offensive. She initially suspects her ex-husband, with whom she has a bad emotional relationship. After confronting him in a casino, she was surprised to see how happy he was to see her. She eventually concluded that he was not the perpetrator. He wants to get back together with her, but she flips out and blames everything of the past relationship squarely on him.
Christina Evans eventually meets Elliot Stryker. She gradually manages to open up and tell her of the paranormal experiences and Stryker reluctantly decides to help her. He decides to receive permission from a judge to reopen the grave of Danny to show Christina Evan that her son actually did indeed pass away those years ago.
Stryker meets a judge with whom he had shared correspondence in with intelligence. After visiting him in a party and explaining the situation, he agrees to re-open the grave to allow Christina Evans to finally quash her doubts of Danny being alive and gain a peace of mind.
Two people later break into Stryker’s home and start questioning him. They gave their real names in front of him, which implied he was not meant to survive their encounter. He did not recognise which intelligent agencies they represented. After some mental standoffs, Stryker manages to pull the gun and escape unharmed. In the process, he retrieves a paper-list of questions he was supposed to answer.
At the same time, a gas operator arrived in the home of Christina Evans to fix a gas leak. This was unusual due to the time of night and the absence of any flashing vehicles outside. After showing her the identification, he entered and proceeded to the garage. He worked for 20 minutes and then left.
Elliot Stryker arrived and told her what happened. After Christina mentioned the gas operator, they feared the worst. They grab some materials, ran out of the house just before the entire garage/rooftop collapsed. The entire neighbourhood would have heard it.
After evading their chasers, William and Christina travel to a restaurant to discuss their options. They decide to travel to the mortician who supposedly examined the body of Danny first-hand. Christina and William charter a small plane.
They arrived at the mortician’s house only to find his dead body inside. He had been killed recently. A hitman lied in wait in the snow and decided to make an attack. But Stryker was faster and managed to kill him first. He and Christina ran out of there.
Over the course of their journey so far, both Stryker and Christina witnessed paranormal events. The once skeptical Elliot Stryker decides to take a leap of faith and follow this line of inquiry. They stumble across Billy, who is a hypnotist. Christina was a big fan of him and originally wanted to include him in her show.
It worked. Using maps and the spell of hypnosis under the control of Billy, she managed to plot a coordinate in one of the maps of the local terrain. That must be where Danny is being held. That’s where the installation lies. They decide to travel there using Billy’s Explorer.
After travelling through uncharted territory in the snow, they finally arrived at their destination. The communications appeared to be offline and gates opened for them, much to the surprise of the security guard. Danny must have been responsible, somehow. She knew.
After storming the facility and arriving the correct room, the truth was uncovered. Danny was a victim of an accident: of viral proportions. As it turns out, this secret installation was actually a centre of biological weaponry. Danny and his expedition team accidentally came across and were infected by a Chinese-constructed virus with the name “Wuhan-400”. It had a 100% mortality rate. But Danny survived.
Danny was in a room next door, looking completely starved. He had a bunch of electrodes over his head. The scientist explained he was only the survivor of the virus and they extracted the antibodies responsible for saving him. After that, he was useless. Danny was constantly infected and reinfected to see how long he would last.
During this time, he developed an increased size of his parietal lope, which Evan and Stryker surmised must be the factor allowing him to practice his psychic-telekinetic abilities. They decide to hide this information from the scientist to prevent any potential studies of a such a kind in the future.
They eventually escape the facility after Danny uses his psychic abilities to take down the enemy helicopter.
Afterwords
I enjoyed this read and would recommend to people who are interested in conspiracy thrillers with a hint of the paranormal genre. A great break from my usual science-fiction or fantasy genre. A great read with a twist of thrill guaranteed to compel you to complete the journey!
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