Warning: This book review does give away the ending so if you have not yet read this, please take caution. 🙂

One of my favorite authors of today is Dean Koontz. He has an extraordinary ability to capture you in the action of the book and keep the suspense high enough you never want to put the book down until it’s over. Not only that, but he has a pretty twisted mind.

I remember my first Dean Koontz novel was about identical twins that were separated at birth. One was raised by a loving couple and the other by a broken family of criminals. Over time the two find themselves and once they discover their link, they see the potential they have – one for evil never realized and the other for good never dreamed about. It doesn’t help that the evil twin is also a clown…. (shudder)

When I picked up Moonlit Mind I wasn’t sure what to expect. Koontz has the ability to write about all people in all walks of life so I wasn’t sure where this one would go (although I knew there would be a twist at the end).

The book is about a 13 year-old boy who ran away from home when he was 9 because he witnessed the ritualistic killing of his younger brother. While on the street he becomes the companion to a dog he names Harley after his brother. Together they visit a homeless girl in a department story where Crispin (the boy) tells the tale of his family, how they came to live under the roof of Thorton Hall (his previous home) and why he ran. At the end of the novel, Crispin decides it’s time to go back and set free the souls of his brother and sister.

Thumbs Up

One thing I did like about this novel was that it constantly moved forward both in the present and in the past at the same time. Chapter 1 is present day; Chapter 2 is 3 years earlier… So as you got to know the protagonist, his dog and his only friend, you also learn how he came to be the way he is. For instance, why does he move from place to place? Why not just live at a shelter? Why are people after him? Why does he keep a dog around? As you progress through the novel, these questions are answered one by one.

Thumbs Down

One thing I didn’t like was the end of the novel. I was so confused by the avatar and disappointed in how the protagonist didn’t stick around in the end vowing the understand more. It’s like he’s saying, “I did what I had to do and I don’t need to understand why.”

But I do!

Not only that, but I need to understand more about the people who were after him, what were they doing, what did it do for them, how did it get started?

The end left a few holes to be answered. I imagine his novel 77 Shadow Street (the next novel he produced) will shed a little more light as this address is not far from Thorton Hall.

Overall though, this was a great novel. Didn’t take me long to read. I was captured at once by the story and the characters. I give it 4 stars!

Did you read Moonlit Mind? Does it sound like your kind of novel?