Hideaway

Koontz's novels crest bestseller lists not only for their heart-pounding horrors but also for their celebration of righteousness and redemption. Here, the author of Cold Fire, etc., offers his most overtly religious tale yet - a fiercely exciting battle between two men who have returned from the dead. The California-set conflict is as simple as good vs. evil. In a roaringly suspenseful opening, antique-dealer Hatch Harrison, the soul of sweetness, drowns during a car accident that nearly kills his wife Lindsey as well, and is surgically "reanimated" after a record 80 minutes dead. Meanwhile, a life-hating young man known only by his self-adopted demonic name of Vassago stalks the subbasement of a nearby abandoned amusement park, admiring the rotting bodies of those he's sacrificed to Satan in hopes of being allowed to return to hell - which he apparently visited during his own brush with death. Upon awakening, Hatch's first words are "Something's out there" - for he now suffers a psychic link with Vassago, who, days later, reaps a new "trophy" as Hatch helplessly flashes on the savage killing. And at the same time, Vassago flashes on Hatch's world, including Lindsey and spunky, crippled Regina, the orphan the Harrisons have just adopted in their new embrace of life after years of mourning a son lost to cancer. Deciding that vibrant Regina would make the perfect final offering to Satan, Vassago - revealed through tense and brutal flashback as the homicidally deranged son of the surgeon who saved Hatch - cuts a bloody path to the Harrisons' door, kidnapping Regina off to his underground lair. In a slam-bang finale, amidst charnel-house horrors, the Harrisons take on Vassago with a gun, a crucifix, and a little angelic help. A grandly melodramatic morality play that will have Koontz's fans - both here and in heaven - cheering. (Kirkus Reviews)