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The fate of the world is in the hands of a father and daughter in an epic novel of wonder and terror by Dean Koontz, the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.
Since his wife, Michelle, left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for himself and his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach. It’s a quiet life, until a local eccentric known as Spooky Ed shows up on their doorstep.
Ed entrusts Jeffy with hiding a strange and dangerous object—something he calls “the key to everything”—and tells Jeffy that he must never use the device. But after a visit from a group of ominous men, Jeffy and Amity find themselves accidentally activating the key and discovering an extraordinary truth. The device allows them to jump between parallel planes at once familiar and bizarre, wondrous and terrifying. And Jeffy and Amity can’t help but wonder, could Michelle be just a click away?
Jeffy and Amity aren’t the only ones interested in the device. A man with a dark purpose is in pursuit, determined to use its grand potential for profound evil. Unless Amity and Jeffy can outwit him, the place they call home may never be safe again.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThomas & Mercer
- Publication dateOctober 6, 2020
- File size14673 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
A New York Post “Best New Books” Selection
“[A] spectacular, action-packed, character-driven adventure…Koontz remains white hot with another certain bestseller.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Colorful, imaginative…a lively, offbeat novel.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A terrifying new tale…A fast-paced, hold-your-breath thriller with a heart.” —AARP
“Vivid…” —Associated Press
“Dean Koontz is the master of this kind of story. His imagination has no limits and with each book he seems to top himself. It makes you wonder what traveling to other worlds might truly be like.” —Red Carpet Crash
“Some authors have used the sci-fi genre to create other worlds and critique the current world politics or realities. Koontz’s interests lay elsewhere. He’s more concerned with the human condition that remains the same across time and space and that cannot be remedied by ideology.” —The Big Thrill
“This is a genre-busting work that happily will appeal to readers who enjoy thrillers, horror, sci-fi or just a flat-out well-told story with a breakneck pace that never lets up.” —Bookreporter
About the Author
Internationally bestselling author Dean Koontz was only a senior in college when he won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition. He has never stopped writing since. Koontz is the author of seventy-nine New York Times bestsellers, fourteen of which rose to #1, including One Door Away from Heaven, From the Corner of His Eye, Midnight, Cold Fire, The Bad Place, Hideaway, Dragon Tears, Intensity, Sole Survivor, The Husband, Odd Hours, Relentless, What the Night Knows, and 77 Shadow Street. He’s been hailed by Rolling Stone as “America’s most popular suspense novelist,” and his books have been published in thirty-eight languages and have sold over five hundred million copies worldwide. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, he now lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirits of their goldens Trixie and Anna. For more information, visit his website at www.deankoontz.com.
Product details
- ASIN : B086K31XRZ
- Publisher : Thomas & Mercer (October 6, 2020)
- Publication date : October 6, 2020
- Language : English
- File size : 14673 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 365 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 1542019850
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,065 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #9 in Horror Suspense
- #11 in Crime & Mystery Science Fiction
- #15 in Technothrillers (Books)
- Customer Reviews:



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About the author

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.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2020
Top reviews from the United States
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One of the homeless men living in the woods nearby gives Jeffy a package to hold for him with the warning to not to open, don’t look inside. “Better you don’t know. It’s the incessant need to know more and more and yet still more, to know everything this is the fast track to destruction.” Inside this box, he said was the “Key To Everything”, even valuing it at seventy-six billion dollars. Yes, Billion-with-a-B. Furthermore, claiming the fate of humanity now lay in Jeffy’s hands. And he left.
This is NOT A SPOILER. It’s the start of the book. Of course we all guess that Jeffy opens the box. It’s in an attempt to hide the contents, the key to everything, from the black op helicopters and SUV’s that show up the next day. An agent claiming to be from the NSA searches the house and asks if they know Dr. Edwin Harkenback. Yep, they’re looking for Spooky Ed. The story is unraveling just as predicted.
Well, at this point you get the gist of where the tale is starting. And Dean usually finds a place for an iconic loving dog but he seems to be missing here. But there’s Snowball. Is he a red herring or a white mouse? We have a good man, a good daughter, a good mouse, a missing mother, a dastardly black ops operative and Spooky Ed of unknown background. Let the adventure begin.
"He got the bread out of the blue bag, he put 2 slices in the toaster, he pushed down the "toast" button, all the while wishing his vanished wife was with him, her blond hair, her twinkling eyes... the toast popped out and he put it on a plate and buttered it, then he sliced both pieces in half, and took it to the table where he carefully set it down next to the bowl of cereal and the blue coffee mug, which needed a refill. He picked up the coffee pot and poured hot coffee into the half-empty mug...." Ay-yi-yi. Get on with the STORY.
Cut out the interminable filler and you might have a pretty interesting short story about traveling to parallel universes.
Don't get me wrong....This is a good read and worth the time to read, but this is not Dean Koontz best effort...
Top reviews from other countries

Well, I guess it's comforting to know that nothing has really changed, it's the same old Koontz I loved from way back when.
Similar characters, situations and developments. But you know what, that's just fine by me. I think I was expecting him to have changed as a writer, to have developed, but why should he? He's highly successful and is obviously writing about the things he loves to write about, and I for one commend him for it.
If you're a Koontz fan, you know exactly what you're going to get from this book. If you're new to Koontz then strap in and simply enjoy the roller-coaster! This is one of his more streamlined offerings, where it's almost all about driving forward the action and very little time spent on the characters or world. No, this is by no means a perfect book. It's not going to crack your mind open and jam in some existential offerings that will change your thinking for life. What it will give you is a very enjoyable and speedy read, and sometimes that's all a book needs to give you.

I saw this advertised and was intrigued to give him another go. Whilst it’s readable, it’s quite weak. The story is good, but overall it feels like it was written as YA fiction, perhaps in the hope it would be picked up by Netflix. The characters are underdeveloped and the ending is rushed. I found the parts written from the perspective of the 11-year old girl particularly bad: repeatedly using the phrase ‘really and truly’ doesn’t make it sound youthful Dean. Seriously, that phrase is used on almost every page.
I’m currently re-reading an older Koontz novel and the difference in writing styles is staggering. The older novel has more depth, more suspense and the writing is just... better.
So there you go.

As always, Dean makes the unbelievable quite plausible & lots of the characters are heart-warming & totally engaging.


It started OK but then just after the free sample pages, the story fell apart for me when the carachters actions suddenly had to go beyond plausible to keep the plot together. (ie, it became impossible for him to press a button whilst also walking)
The plot remained simple and thin. The language and style was not in any way thought provoking or complex. He tried to develop a backstory on the carachters but they were simple and cliché.
The good thing was, it ends quickly.