Not Entirely Sure

Got a bit of fiction out of the library at work a couple of weeks back, thinking I might get a chance for light reading over the September break. Picked up something by Dean Koontz since I was still in the mood for a bit of horror after finishing The Stand and I've wondered for years about the quality of his work without ever dipping my toes in the water. (Dreadful metaphor, but I hope you see what I mean.) I suppose I've always thought of him as a poor man's Stephen King - and I'm sure I'm not coining any kind of phrase there but just re-cycling a tedious cliché - and I decided that just wasn't fair given I'd never read a thing by him.

Well, now I have, the novel in question being What the Night Knows. And I'd say it was an entertaining read, being reasonably gripping, if a bit predictable once I'd picked up on the evil- spirit-cum-serial-killer that can transfer from one person to another, and even lurk in houses. If I'm not mistaken there was a Denzel Washington movie a couple of decades back based on the same conceit, except for the houses bit.

The thing is though that I can't decide if Mr Koontz is a talented writer, as opposed to a cut-price King, and I should go on to read a few more or whether he's not really up to scratch and to be avoided (In my case) as likely to become tiresome. He's certainly not a low-brow version of the Horrormeister. If anything, he has distinct literary pretensions mixed in with occasionally genuinely good moments - indeed, sometimes pages that are really well put together. He's very good at points on the sensibilities of the three children of the central family in the novel. But the kids do get a bit much at times, a bit overly precocious. And the family are a bit too complacently uniquely special.

I might just give another novel a go, but I'm not exactly in a hurry to do so.