The House of Thunder

by Dean Koontz Narrated by Laural Merlington, Mel Foster

Overview

A sanity-twisting Koontz classic about a traumatized woman and the terrifying place she might never escape.

“Koontz is brilliant.” -Chicago Sun-Times

Susan Thornton watched in terror as her lover died a brutal death in a college hazing. And in the four years that followed, the four young men who participated in that grim fraternity ritual also died violently-or so she thought.

Twelve years later, Susan wakes in a hospital bed. Apparently involved in a fatal accident, she can't remember who she is or why she is there. All she knows is that her life is unfolding into a menacing nightmare-and that the faces that surround her, are those of the four men involved in that murder years ago.

Have the dead come back to life? Or has Susan plunged into the abyss of madness? With the help of her neuro-surgeon, she desperately clings to her sanity while fighting to uncover who-or what-could be coming for her.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Koontz ( Watchers , The Servants of Twilight ) has come up with an intriguing premise: Susan Thornton wakes up in a hospital after a serious car accident with an odd, selective amnesia. She can remember nothing of her job, yet she is stricken with fear when the company she works for is named. And that's not all. Thirteen years earlier, Susan had witnessed the murder of her boyfriend during a brutal fraternity hazing; her testimony sent one of the four men responsible to prison. Now she sees the same men, looking not a day older, walking the corridors of the hospital. Even worse, she has recurrent macabre hallucinations involving them and the decomposing corpse of her boyfriend. Susan doubts her sanity until she stumbles upon a bit of hard evidence right out of one of the ``hallucinations.'' Koontz's resolution, involving a complex Soviet plot, transforms the story from a cozy chiller to political thriller and may not please readers tired of cold war paranoia and propaganda. Others, however, should find this tale satisfying from start to finish. (Nov.)

Library Journal

Brilliance Audio has mined Koontz's backlist to present House of Thunder, a book originally published in 1982 under one of Koontz's pseudonyms. In this work, Susan Thornton is in the hospital recovering from a car crash. There, she is terrorized by haunting figures from her remote past. Is she wigging out? Having accident-related delusions? Or are there actually ghosts who intend to kill her? The answer is, of course, none of the above, but along the way we are treated to Koontz's signature ability to confound us with the seeming plausibility of the absolutely implausible. Still, this is clearly a less mature work than his contemporary offerings: the characters are stereotypes, neither believable nor even likable; the conclusion, when it finally arrives, is a bit of a dud. The dual reading by Laural Merlington and Mel Foster is adequate but not inspired. This novel is probably best left on the shelf with our snapshots of the year 1982. Brilliance's practice of dividing a 70-minute compact disc into 99 40-second (or so) tracks is a major inconvenience for quite a few reasons. Not recommended.
—Kristen L. Smith

From the Publisher

Praise for Dean Koontz

“Dean Koontz is a prose stylist whose lyricism heightens malevolence and tension. [He creates] characters of unusual richness and depth.”—The Seattle Times

“Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose....‘Serious’ writers...might do well to examine his technique.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Lyrical writing and compelling characters...Koontz stands alone.”—Associated Press

“In every industry there exist ‘artists’ that are not only unforgettable, but know their craft better than the rest. Dean Koontz...is among these artisans.”—Suspense Magazine

“[Koontz] has always had near-Dickensian powers of description, and an ability to yank us from one page to the next that few novelists can match.”—Los Angeles Times

“Perhaps more than any other author, Koontz writes fiction perfectly suited to the mood of America...novels that acknowledge the reality and tenacity of evil but also the power of good...[and that] entertain vastly as they uplift.”—Publishers Weekly

APR/MAY 08 - AudioFile

Here's a revival of an old Koontz thriller that's worth listening to the second time around. Performed jointly by Laural Merlington and Mel Foster, this creepy story involves a woman who wakes up a partial amnesiac and can't remember anything about her job. Soon she begins to dream about her boyfriend's death years earlier, while his murderers appear to stalk her. The reading duo of Merlington and Foster is smooth together. First, they lull you into an almost peaceful state of mind, then they lower the boom—sending chills up your spine. Because of their delivery, you can’t tell what's imaginary from what's real—until it's too late. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172666872
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	09/29/2007
Edition description:	Unabridged

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