Krishna
Koontz is now back at his near best. I had the distinct feeling that he was running out of ideas once he finished his masterpieces like Watchers, Midnight, Shadowfires, The Bad Place etc. His recent Wintermoon, Tick Tock etc were decidedly second best. (Only Intensity packed a weak punch) Now he has come back with a wonderfully written psychological thriller in False Memories. For Koontz fans at least, it is guaranteed to glue them to the book until finished. (Yes, I know that this is not a new book but I am comparing the books written by Koontz just prior to the time this was published.)
The characters, good and bad, have been etched with a wonderful sense of feeling. The main characters, Marty and Dusty Rhodes, Dusty’s no-good brother Skeet, friend Susan and her doctor Mark Ahirman, are all powerful enough to stay in your mind.
There may be quarrels on how a psychological thriller like this can be classified as horror in the lines of his other works like Midnight or Phantoms but there is no denying the fact that the tension is palpable at most times and it has the scariest description of what a phobia can do to a person that I have ever come across in a book.
I have some grouses about the book too, especially in the fact that there are some cinematic moments where Skeet and Dusty’s weird assistant play Sherlock Holmes behind a suspected culpri. These are minor, compared to the taut construction and good storytelling, but these are enough to get my rating down to 7/10
— Krishna