The Forbidden Door – a #BookReview – #greatreads

Title: The Forbidden Door (A Jane Hawk Novel) Book 4 by Dean Koontz

Genre: Currently #60 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Literature & Fiction, Action & Adventure, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Suspense

Publisher: Bantam – Random House LLC

Publication Date: To be released September 11, 2018

Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title and Cover: The Forbidden Door – Compelling colors, interesting face, same model as book covers 2 and 3(?) but I don’t see here a vision of the “real” Jane Hawk.

Okay, yes, I didn’t read book 1 but I did read books 2 and 3 and I must say if Book 2 hooked you, Book 3 stayed the course, Book 4 absolutely cements you into Hawk’s boots. They are kick-ass boots worn by a quick-witted, intelligent ex-FBI agent gone rogue. She’s mad.

Not mad, furious.

She’s tough, intuitive, and on an urgent mission as book 3 ended with a call from her son, Travis…his guardians are missing.

The architects of the nano-technology conspiracy permeate throughout society and were initially successful at turning a potential speed bump on their road to success into a sinkhole. They have turned Jane Hawk into America’s most wanted, recognizable fugitive, a canker on the back end of society, and a deadly renegade to be hunted down and eliminated. Jane lost her husband to them and soon began to see a terrifying pattern of mind-altered people.

Prominent prose paired with poetic prophecy can get damned scary in a Koontz thriller suspense. No, you don’t really have to read books 1-3 to enjoy book 4. Most reprised characters are given sufficient explanation that this could function as a standalone book. But why would you want to do that? You’d miss those pseudo-academicians, (**drum roll**) from Princeton and Harvard, who never lack in one-upmanship. I characterized their dialogue before as presenting a form of comic relief. They still do–deadly and shocking comic relief. The characters are well developed and beyond conscionable engagement, the good guys being very, very good and the bad guys horrible; the historic tug of good vs evil. As before, Koontz presents an unbalanced bad, whose tentacles extend into multiple departments, personnel, and their equipment.

In her quest to rescue Travis (after his guardians are killed) and his newly recruited BFF, Cornell, Jane discovers that the nano-injections given to a populace of a small town desert community have resulted in extreme and deadly behaviors. These unfortunates who’ve vaulted through “the forbidden door” are wreaking enough havoc that it may even serve as a minor cover for her covert mission to retrieve her son with the help of a couple of her buddies, enlisted characters from previous installments. She has overlooked nothing in her preparation for the run to Borrego Springs from vehicles to personnel.

While Jane makes preparations, we sink deeper into the support characters that round out this narrative with such power. Commanding characters ring true throughout. I’ll repeat what I said before, Koontz has found a winning formulaic…I love his prose, the bits of information he drops as an aside, revelations about all manner of men and materiel and his $300 words, including his brand of Koontz philosophy. The man can drive home a point!

The Jane Hawk series began with THE SILENT CORNER, progressed to THE WHISPERING ROOM (my review and recommendation here), survived THE CROOKED STAIRCASE (my review and recommendation here) , and in THE FORBIDDEN DOOR has become a crusader to save her five-year-old son from the techno-Arcadians against whom she launched a campaign to combat the heinous conspiracy to “adjust” the entire population of the world. They appeared to have a good start. However, there may be a problem with the origins of so many of the Arcadians, Janis Dern for one. Her partner Chris Roberts knows that “…brandishing a gun is like striking a match in the dark to find the source of a gas leak.”

(Homeland Security, the FBI, or law enforcement) “They possess no warrants, but a lie is not a lie when there’s no such thing as truth.”

I was given this uncorrected proof download by Bantam Books-Random House LLC and NetGalley (thank you!). I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read and review and heartily recommend it to Koontz fans, those who don’t know they are Koontz fans (you will be), and anyone who enjoys a serious thriller, suspense, mystery, sci-fi-horror.

Rosepoint Publishing:  Five of Five Stars 

The Author: (Goodreads Author page) Acknowledged as “America’s most popular suspense novelist” (Rolling Stone) and as one of today’s most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.

Dean R. Koontz has also published under the names Leigh Nichols, Brian Coffey, David Axton, Owen West, Deanna Dwyer and Aaron Wolfe.

(Amazon Author page) Dean Koontz, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirits of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.

I put a spotlight on Mr. Koontz in 2017. Read more about this amazing author here.

©2018 V Williams