The Agent

by Dean A. Koontz

Detective Frank Mueller of the Anchorage Police Force flies to an oil camp in Alaska’s High Arctic to investigate what is being called a murder/suicide. A man’s body was found outside the camp being consumed by a Polar Bear. His sister found strangled to death in her room. Detective Bernadette Callahan of the RCMP Serious Crimes Unit is investigating two bodies that have turned up in a tar pond in Canada’s Northern Oil Sands. Over two thousand kilometers separate the crimes. Soon both detectives will find how the deaths are linked, and the potential threat to North American Oil. They have to work together to convince their superiors what they’ve uncovered is real. This detective thriller touches the edges of science fiction, while surfing the realms of what is already possible in science—and the manipulation of world oil.

400 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2019

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warning: This is not the same prolific Dean Koontz who has written so many suspenseful and ghostly novels. I didn't know that when I purchased this book. This is Dean AL Koontz, and the Agent seems to be the only one of his books that is on Goodreads. Amazon, where I purchase all of my Kindle books, also did not warn that this is not the same author I know and love. Seems a bit tricky, but okay. I did like it, but with some caveats. First of all, it is extremely complicated, and I had a difficult time keeping track of the many characters - like a Tolstoy novel. I was more than halfway through it before I finally started to feel comfortable with who's who. It also skips from the viewpoint of various characters and my head was spinning at times. I did learn some things about North American oil and different ways it is extracted from the earth. It begins with a couple of murders, two in Alaska and two in Canada. Detective Bernadette Callahan of the RCMP Serious Crimes Unit is the main character, but there are a few others who take up lots of space and time as well. It took me four days to read, which is a long time for me. I almost put it down a couple of times. The last 25% of the book moves fairly swiftly and the denouement is pretty good reading. I gave it three stars mainly for the interesting characters and the fact that the ending is complete with all loose ends tied up. But it could use some tightening and editing. And I do feel manipulated and deceived that the author isn't the Dean Koontz I thought it was.

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Buyer beware - Not Dean Koontz. If you'll look closely at the author name you'll see they used the same font as the original Koontz uses BUT they slipped in a kind of hidden "A". One of the few books I've returned electronically. Poorly written. I finished the first 3 pages & said "Wait a cotton-pickin' minute". Obviously written by an imposter

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh didn't finish it. This is not our loved Dean Koontz, totally different guy.

[Ginger Gritzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize this wasn't THE Dean Koontz when I started reading this book, but the writing style and many punctuation errors clued me in that something wasn't right.

[Jim Dykstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book thinking it was written by the other Dean Koontz. I was pleasantly surprised. The story, told entirely in the vernacular of the Old West, was well written and worth the read.