I heard somewhere that a well planned book can seem contrived at times. This is a perfect example of that. Instead of floating along on the storyline, I felt every forced bump along the way. Nonetheless, Koontz still managed to capture my attention for the best part of the novel, only losing me with the whole mysterium thing, which didn't quite capture my imagination. All in all, for any lesser writer, this could have been a car crash of a book, but Dean's experience evaded that.