Dark Rivers of the Heart Review

Dark Rivers of the Heart

-          Dean Koontz

Publisher: UK – Hodder

Spencer Grant is physically and emotionally scarred. An outsider, he often sits for hours in bars just to avoid being alone - and to tell his story to someone who won't remember it the next morning. But last night he met Valerie and something about her melted his isolation. Then she doesn't turn up for work and he finds her home abandoned, with a strange message fixed to the wall. Before he has time to wonder who or what Valerie is, the house is hit by an explosion. Spencer escapes, only to find himself on the run - not only from his past but also from the conspiracy he has unwittingly stumbled on.

I’ve read a lot of Dean Koontz books – not all of them but a lot of them. I find them a comfort read. You know what to expect – the good guys are pure, the bad guys are evil and there is usually a dog who saves the day at least once.

Dark Rivers was no exception. The hero – Spencer was an upstanding good guy with a troubled past and a heroic dog. The heroine was a resourceful, beautiful woman with advance knowledge of the worst of humanity but also faith in the best of it. Dean Koontz has a faith in the goodness of people and dogs that is somehow uplifting – and if after a while a lot of his novels have a similarity to them in terms of characterisation – the story and the humour carries you through. And there is a lot of humour in Koontz books.

This was the perfect for me at this time – I was in the middle of moving and needed something that would entertain but not taxing, something easy to read and something that would distract me from cardboard boxes and delivery men. And it is a great read – action, humour, big conspiracy and hope.

Recommended for fans of Dan Brown (to see how it could be!) and James Rollins. 7.5 out of 10