Very good book. Not one of the very best, but not the worst by Koontz. It is somewhere in the middle.
Helpful Score: 3
Dean Koontz deals in horror--the horror of the mind. Are those real memories, or just a recurring nightmare? Read this one in a pleasant place, when you're not alone.
Helpful Score: 3
Oooohhhh Koontz is one freaky dude! Chilling!
Helpful Score: 2
not too scary, but with the trademark Koontz twists and turns. Great read.
Helpful Score: 2
Dean Koontz....awesome read as usual!
Helpful Score: 2
Makes you wonder - are "they" really out there, doing this to little-old-us? Scary thought - damn good book!
Helpful Score: 2
I didn't reallly like it, but someone else might.
Helpful Score: 2
This is a tightly written book about brainwashing. It a fast paced page turner.
Helpful Score: 2
a classic work of fiction. chilling
Helpful Score: 2
This is a release of an older book, as the author said it is a better version. I read it years ago and really enjoyed the suspense. Not a horror book but a story of a beautiful woman who didn't know she wasn't who she though she was. Really good book, one of his best.
Helpful Score: 2
This is a first class page-turner with non-stop action...unpredictable, psychological, and traumatic on your nerves. Although this is one of Dean Koontz's first books, it doesn't lack the suspense which he weaves into every page of his writing. From the very first page, his characters, Joanna Rand and Alex Hunter, took an almost tangible form in an exotic setting that was very realistically painted.
The plot was enhanced by being set in Japan. Joanna Rand, a successful business owner, is plagued by crippling phobias that prevent her from leading a normal life. Alex Hunter crosses paths with her during his visit to Japan and finds her situation intruiging. Since he is a detective, he recalls her as a missing person he had been looking for many years earlier. While trying to uncover her story, he discovers that there's a deeper and more frightening dimension to her history.
The story is so gripping that I was reading like a machine. At one point I almost got hypnotized myself while reading a scene where the character is hypnotized. The reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the book took a political twist at the end. I must admit, though, that I was gritting my teeth down to the very last word. Very intense and well worth reading.
The plot was enhanced by being set in Japan. Joanna Rand, a successful business owner, is plagued by crippling phobias that prevent her from leading a normal life. Alex Hunter crosses paths with her during his visit to Japan and finds her situation intruiging. Since he is a detective, he recalls her as a missing person he had been looking for many years earlier. While trying to uncover her story, he discovers that there's a deeper and more frightening dimension to her history.
The story is so gripping that I was reading like a machine. At one point I almost got hypnotized myself while reading a scene where the character is hypnotized. The reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the book took a political twist at the end. I must admit, though, that I was gritting my teeth down to the very last word. Very intense and well worth reading.
Helpful Score: 2
I completely loved this book and I reccomend it to anyone.
Helpful Score: 2
Another incredible story by D. Koontz. You won't want to put it down!
Helpful Score: 2
I love Koonz, as usual you never know what to expect.
Helpful Score: 2
This book was a real page turner.
Helpful Score: 1
The revamped version of the book originally published under the pseudonym of Leigh Nichols. It was an interesting story of an American woman living in Japan, who was someone else in a forgotten earlier life, and a man named Alex who had been looking for her for 12 years. There are a few creepy spots, but the story needed them to develop to an exciting conclusion. I couldn't put it down for the last 100 pages or so.
Helpful Score: 1
this started my love for koontz.
Helpful Score: 1
entertaining.
Helpful Score: 1
A compelling read that kept you page turning to the thrilling conclusion. A woman with a strange dream every night and the one man who can help her, by unlocking the dark secret of her soul..
Helpful Score: 1
Very good.
I enjoyed this book very much. A little graphic with some of the violence, but not too bad. I'd read another Dean Koontz book.
This book has been all but rewritten. reflects his aged and total ability to hold ones interest and is as smooth as butter when it switches from scean to scean thus a joy to read. The suspense and solutions are just right. All of the elements are taken on and leaves nothing uncovered. you will fully enjoy this book.
One exciting stem-winder,'many keys to midnight', or 'roll back time' ... maybe, 'dreams without memory,' any of those could have been a title for this book. A grand read, nearly an experience.
One exciting stem-winder,'many keys to midnight', or 'roll back time' ... maybe, 'dreams without memory,' any of those could have been a title for this book. A grand read, nearly an experience.
Not one of his best. A bit of a slow starter and the characters seem a bit, well, just not Koontz quality. If you are new to Koontz, do NOT start with this one. Start with Watchers or one of the others he has out first.
I had a hard time putting this book down! I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
Another good one by Koontz.
I read "The Key to Midnight" during hurricane Sandy (Oct. 30, 2012) and during the nor'easter almost a week later.
You (the reader) follow Joanna and Alex on a wild goose chase almost all over the world in order to find out ALL the information. First and foremost, what was done to Joanna? Naturally followed by why and by whom?
Coincidentally, it all starts when Alex decides to take a month long vacation in Japan. One of his first stops: Gion. More specifically, the Moonglow Lounge where he discovers one of his unsolved cases walking, talking, and singing in front of him.
Again, all coincidence...or so it seems.
* * *
After all is said and done have to admit it was an entertaining read. I felt small parts were dated and expected, but then it was printed in 1975, 1995 and again in 2010.
Two teeny, tiny points that are slightly unnerving. First, the ultimate bad guys are power hungry and sexual sadists. Second...I'm still questioning whether or not that counts as a "happy ending." Unfortunately, this might be a biased thought since I'm one of those "Disney Programmed" people!
Last and pretty much the least - if you were happy with the book don't read the "new afterward." However, if you agree with my programming and need a good laugh or a happy ending after the read then by all means read the "new afterward."
You (the reader) follow Joanna and Alex on a wild goose chase almost all over the world in order to find out ALL the information. First and foremost, what was done to Joanna? Naturally followed by why and by whom?
Coincidentally, it all starts when Alex decides to take a month long vacation in Japan. One of his first stops: Gion. More specifically, the Moonglow Lounge where he discovers one of his unsolved cases walking, talking, and singing in front of him.
Again, all coincidence...or so it seems.
* * *
After all is said and done have to admit it was an entertaining read. I felt small parts were dated and expected, but then it was printed in 1975, 1995 and again in 2010.
Two teeny, tiny points that are slightly unnerving. First, the ultimate bad guys are power hungry and sexual sadists. Second...I'm still questioning whether or not that counts as a "happy ending." Unfortunately, this might be a biased thought since I'm one of those "Disney Programmed" people!
Last and pretty much the least - if you were happy with the book don't read the "new afterward." However, if you agree with my programming and need a good laugh or a happy ending after the read then by all means read the "new afterward."
Unpredictable and tense, Koontz' first "stab at an action-suspense romance novel with a background of international intrigue" is a page-turner. Even when you suspect you might be able to predict what's happening, Koontz ensures you'll never figure out the whole of it.
Cautionary note for sensitive readers: a rape scene is described; even without the detail found in other books, it is disturbing.
The afterword in the 1995 edition (released under Koontz, not the pseudonym Leigh Nichols) provides a short, humorous look at the author's thoughts of himself and is a delightful way to finish.
Cautionary note for sensitive readers: a rape scene is described; even without the detail found in other books, it is disturbing.
The afterword in the 1995 edition (released under Koontz, not the pseudonym Leigh Nichols) provides a short, humorous look at the author's thoughts of himself and is a delightful way to finish.
Are your memories really your own? What secrets are being kept from you? Do your really know who are you? Let this book make you question....
A mesmerizing best seller.
joanna rand was not who she thought she was, and there was only one way to unlock the dark secret of her soul. the key to midnight, alex delaware
Joanna Rand left America ten years ago, and is now the owner of a nightclub in Kyoto, Japan. The one thing that she could not leave behind however, is a terrifying nightmare that she has on a nightly basis involving a man with steel fingers. When Joanna wakes up, she feels physically violated and terrified beyond comprehension. A private detective named Alex Hunter is vacationing in Kyoto and becomes instantly captivated with Joanna. However, he also knew that he had seen Joanna before in news photographs of a senator's daughter who had dissapeared 10 years ago. Alex becomes determined to help awaken Joanna to the fact that she is not who she thinks she is, and that her life, her memories, and her mind had been created for her.
"Joanna Rand left America almost ten years ago to become a singer in a Japanese nightclub. Still, she could never escape the strange dream that haunted her night after night: a single, disturbing image of a man with steel fingers, reaching for a hypodermic syringe. When she awoke, she felt violated, used--and terrified. Alex Hunter desperately wanted to help this beautiful, fascinating woman. He knew he had seen Joanna before--in news photographs of a senator's daughter who'd disappeared ten years ago. Slowly, tenderly, he helped awaken her to a terrifying fact: that she was not who she thought she was . . . that her mind, her memories, had been created for her . . . And there was only one way to unlock the dark secret of her soul . . ."
-from inside cover
-from inside cover
Alex Hunter didn't come to Japan to fall in love. But Joanna is the most beautiful, exciting woman he has ever met. Yet, Joanna is not who she thinks she is. Ten years before, a bizarre experiment recreated her mind. To be free, Alex and Joanna must reopen the door into the nightmare past.
Dean Koontz is a wonderful suspense author.
Joanna Rand left America almost ten years ago to become a singer in a Japanes nightclub. Still, she could never escape the strange dream that haunted her night after night: a single, disturbing image of a man with steel fingers, reaching for a hypodermic syringe. When she awoke, she felt violated, used and terrified.
Joanna Rand left America almost ten years ago to become a singer in a Japanese nightclub. Still, she could never escape the strange dream that haunted her night after night: a single disturbing image of a man with steel fingers, reaching for a hypodermic syringe. When she awoke, she felt violated, used, and terrified.
Alex Hunter desperately wanted to help this beautiful, fascinating woman. He knew he had seen Joanna before, in news photographs of a senator's daughter who'd disappeared ten years ago. Slowly, tenderly, he helped awaken her to a terrifying fact: that she was not who she thought she was . . . that her mind, her memories, had been created for her . . . and there was only one way to unlock the dark, secret of her soul . . . the key to midnight!
Alex Hunter desperately wanted to help this beautiful, fascinating woman. He knew he had seen Joanna before, in news photographs of a senator's daughter who'd disappeared ten years ago. Slowly, tenderly, he helped awaken her to a terrifying fact: that she was not who she thought she was . . . that her mind, her memories, had been created for her . . . and there was only one way to unlock the dark, secret of her soul . . . the key to midnight!
In true Dean Koontz style,
