I wasn’t aware Dean Koontz’s beloved golden retriever Trixie had passed away, but THE DARKEST EVENING OF THE YEAR won’t let you forget it, informed as it is by that death. Ostensibly a suspense novel – albeit one with an oddly generic title – it seems to have been written as a 350-page tribute to the power of dogs.

Our heroine is Amy Redwing, a fervent canine-lover who rescues them from abusive homes. As the novel opens, she and her architect boyfriend Brian are doing just that, attempting to coax a retriever named Nickie from the clutches of her tequila-blitzed owner and the cruel swing of his tire iron.

They succeed, barely, also managing to rescue the ass’ wife and kids in the process. That very night, strange things befall the both of them. For Brian, it’s a series of bizarre, cryptic e-mail messages from his past, as well as an almost hallucinatory experience sketching pictures of dogs. For Amy, it’s the overwhelming feeling that someone is in her house, although no alarm has been tripped.

Then there’s the appearance of a fat private investigator who’s addicted to living vicariously through the online Second Life service, a strange couple who revel in post-coital pyromania, more than one hired killer, a girl with Down syndrome and more nuttiness – the threads of which eventually tie together, of course, in fatal-for-some fashion.

But the melding is odd. And no one piece emerges as the standout to carry us through. For the first third, EVENING is almost all Amy, all the time, but then she disappears every few chapters for the other characters to establish their own stories. Unlike Koontz’s recent string of thrillers like THE HUSBAND or THE GOOD GUY, it lacks the first-page immediacy that allows to story to peel out before you’ve even had a chance to buckle up.

As a result, one’s interest flags in and out, invoking entertainment and disappointment, both only mildly. I think those readers into dogs – and I mean really into dogs – are going to dig it more, since some passages are near-masturbatory for man’s best friend. For those who aren’t, the supernatural tinge at the end is going to seem a bit overboard.

This is a slight offering from Koontz, but understandably one he had to get out of his system in order to grieve. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• BROTHER ODD by Dean Koontz
• DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK ONE – PRODIGAL SON by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson
• DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO – CITY OF NIGHT by Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman
• DEMON SEED by Dean Koontz
• THE FACE OF FEAR by Dean Koontz
• FOREVER ODD by Dean Koontz
• THE GOOD GUY by Dean Koontz
• THE HUSBAND by Dean Koontz
• ODD THOMAS by Dean Koontz
• VELOCITY by Dean Koontz