Dean Koontz’s The Silent Corner is one of five science fiction books I saw listed for summer reading in a prominent magazine. Though summer is basically over, I’m finally getting around to the list. I haven’t read a lot of Dean Koontz, but from those I have read, I would have classified him as somewhere between horror and thriller. So I was surprised to find him on this list. But not having read a lot of his books, it could have just been my ignorance.
The front cover of The Silent Corner says “A novel of suspense,” and as I started to read the book, that would have been my assessment as well — suspense/thriller. But as I continued reading, I began to see some science fiction elements. So now I label it “thriller with science fiction elements.” The story itself is of FBI agent-on-leave Jane Hawk, who is investigating her husband’s apparent suicide, and stumbles into a wide-ranging plot of human control and societal manipulation. It reminds me mostly of some of Robin Cook’s work if we were to start in the middle.
All that being said, it is an excellent book, as Koontz is an excellent writer. The reader is kept in suspense from beginning to end. Jane’s life is constantly in danger and she never knows from where that danger will come. Still, she pushes forward to find the source of the plot and end it.
One word of caution — The Silent Corner is the beginning of a new series, so everything will not be resolved in this one book. That could be good news or bad news. If you enjoyed following Jane Hawk through her many travails, you’ll get a chance to do it again in Kontz’s next book The Whispering Room. I, for one, will line up to get it.