"Koontz is back and better than ever"

Like most Hollywood superstars, Channing "The Face" Manheim finds celebrity a dual sword. Inside his Bel Air "fortress", Channing receives plenty of "gifts" from his adoring fans. However, lately one particular idolater has begun sending macabre gifts like an apple cut in half but sutured back into one piece. Channing's chief of security, former LAPD cop Ethan Thomas, is concerned as the presents from this bizarre fan turn eerier, nastier and more threatening with each arrival.

Ethan is on full alert since the arrivals of the venomous bounty and protecting his employer's preadolescent son since his arrival. Following a clue, Ethan confronts a suspect, Rolf Reynard who shoots and kills him. The next thing Ethan knows is that he is alive inside his car with no wounds, but blood under his nails. Spooked, Truman knows something outside his acceptable range of perceptions is stalking the Manheim duo, but he willingly will risk his life in an attempt to stop this malevolence regardless of its origin and powers.

The problem with THE FACE is that the book is 600 plus pages of over the edge exciting suspense that hooks the audience into needing to finish it in one sitting (expect a long but gratifying night). The story line certifies why many readers consider Dean Koontz the king of the suspense thriller with an uncanny twist or three to the plot. Ethan is a fine protagonist who is going to learn the hard way a basic law of novel physics that between heaven and the nether world there are endless possibilities that make a Hollywood scary movie seem less of a nightmare than the "reality" painted by this awesome author.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 16, 2003