Product Description

#1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz delivers a thrilling novel of suspense and adventure, as the lives of strangers converge around a mystery unfolding high in the Colorado mountains—and the balance of the world begins to tilt….
  
In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificent Irish wolfhound Merlin step from shadow into light…and into an encounter with enchantment. That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to make their approach.
 
A few miles away, Camillia Rivers, a local veterinarian, begins to unravel the threads of a puzzle that will bring all the forces of a government in peril to her door.
 
At a nearby farm, long-estranged identical twins come together to begin a descent into darkness…In Las Vegas, a specialist in chaos theory probes the boundaries of the unknowable…On a Seattle golf course, two men make matter-of-fact arrangements for murder…Along a highway by the sea, a vagrant scarred by the past begins a trek toward his destiny…
 
In a novel that is at once wholly of our time and timeless, fearless and funny, Dean Koontz takes readers into the moment between one turn of the world and the next, across the border between knowing and mystery. It is a journey that will leave all who take it Breathless.   

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #303 in Books
• Published on: 2009-11-24
• Released on: 2009-11-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780553807158
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
“Koontz is a superb plotter and wordsmith. He chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition.” —USA Today

“Koontz’s books always thrill…. [He’s] so good, he’ll have readers holding their breath on one page and tearing up on the next.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“Koontz is at the top of his game...both a great storyteller and a novelist of ideas…one of the most important novelists writing today.” —National Review

About the Author
Dean Koontz, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives with his wife, Gerda, and the enduring spirit of their golden retriever, Trixie, in southern California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One


A moment before the encounter, a strange expectancy overcame Grady Adams, a sense that he and Merlin were not alone.

In good weather and bad, Grady and the dog walked the woods and the meadows for two hours every day. In the wilderness, he was relieved of the need to think about anything other than the smells and sounds and textures of nature, the play of light and shadow, the way ahead, and the way home.

Generations of deer had made this path through the forest, toward a meadow of grass and fragrant clover.

Merlin led the way, seemingly indifferent to the spoor of the deer and the possibility of glimpsing the white flags of their tails ahead of him. He was a three-year-old, 160-pound Irish wolfhound, thirty-six inches tall, measured from his withers to the ground, his head higher on a muscular neck.

The dog’s rough coat was a mix of ash-gray and darker charcoal. In the evergreen shadows, he sometimes seemed to be a shadow, too, but one not tethered to its source.

As the path approached the edge of the woods, the sunshine beyond the trees suddenly looked peculiar. The light turned coppery, as if the world, bewitched, had revolved toward sunset hours ahead of schedule. With a sequined glimmer, afternoon sun shimmered down upon the meadow.

As Merlin passed between two pines, stepping onto open ground, a vague apprehension—a presentiment of pending contact—gripped Grady. He hesitated in the woodland gloom before following the dog.

In the open, the light was neither coppery nor glimmering, as it had appeared from among the trees. The pale-blue arch of sky and emerald arms of forest embraced the meadow.

No breeze stirred the golden grass, and the late-September day was as hushed as any vault deep in the earth.

Merlin stood motionless, head raised, alert, eyes fixed intently on something distant in the meadow. Wolfhounds were thought to have the keenest eyesight of all breeds of dogs.

The back of Grady’s neck still prickled. The perception lingered that something uncanny would occur. He wondered if this feeling arose from his own intuition or might be inspired by the dog’s tension.

Standing beside the immense hound, seeking what his companion saw, Grady studied the field, which gently descended southward to another vastness of forest. Nothing moved . . . until something did.

A white form, supple and swift. And then another.

The pair of animals appeared to be ascending the meadow less by intention than by the consequence of their play. They chased each other, tumbled, rolled, sprang up, and challenged each other again in a frolicsome spirit that could not be mistaken for fighting.

Where the grass stood tallest, they almost vanished, but often they were fully visible. Because they remained in motion, however, their precise nature was difficult to define.

Their fur was uniformly white. They weighed perhaps fifty or sixty pounds, as large as midsize dogs. But they were not dogs.

They appeared to be as limber and quick as cats. But they were not cats.

Although he’d lived in these mountains until he was seventeen, though he had returned four years previously, at the age of thirty-two, Grady had never before seen creatures like these.

Powerful body tense, Merlin watched the playful pair.

Having raised him from a pup, having spent the past three years with little company other than the dog, Grady knew him well enough to read his emotions and his state of mind. Merlin was intrigued but puzzled, and his puzzlement made him wary.

The unknown animals were large enough to be formidable predators if they had claws and sharp teeth. At this distance, Grady could not determine if they were carnivores, omnivores, or herbivores, though the last classification was the least likely.

Merlin seemed to be unafraid. Because of their great size, strength, and history as hunters, Irish wolfhounds were all but fearless. Although their disposition was peaceable and their nature affectionate, they had been known to stand off packs of wolves and to kill an attacking pit bull with one bite and a violent shake.

When the white-furred creatures were sixty or seventy feet away, they became aware of being watched. They halted, raised their heads.

The birdless sky, the shadowy woods, and the meadow remained under a spell of eerie silence. Grady had the peculiar notion that if he moved, his boots would press no sound from the ground under him, and that if he shouted, he would have no voice.

To get a better view of man and dog, one of the white creatures rose, sitting on its haunches in the manner of a squirrel.

Grady wished he had brought binoculars. As far as he could tell, the animal had no projecting muzzle; its black nose lay in nearly the same plane as its eyes. Distance foiled further analysis.

Abruptly the day exhaled. A breeze sighed in the trees behind Grady.

In the meadow, the risen creature dropped back onto all fours, and the pair raced away, seeming to glide more than sprint. Their sleek white forms soon vanished into the golden grass.

The dog looked up inquiringly. Grady said, “Let’s have a look.”

Where the mysterious animals had gamboled, the grass was bent and tramped. No bare earth meant no paw prints.

Merlin led his master along the trail until the meadow ended where the woods resumed.

A cloud shadow passed over them and seemed to be drawn into the forest as a draft draws smoke.

Gazing through the serried trees into the gloom, Grady felt watched. If the white-furred pair could climb, they might be in a high green bower, cloaked in pine boughs and not easily spotted.

Although he was a hunter by breed and blood, with a Sher?lockian sense of smell that could follow the thinnest thread of unraveled scent, Merlin showed no interest in further pursuit.

They followed the tree line west, then northwest, along the curve of meadow, circling toward home as the quickening air whispered through the grass. They returned to the north woods.

Around them, the soft chorus of nature arose once more: birds in song, the drone of insects, the arthritic creak of heavy evergreen boughs troubled by their own weight.

Although the unnatural hush had relented, Grady remained disturbed by a sense of the uncanny. Every time he glanced back, no stalker was apparent, yet he felt that he and Merlin were not alone.

On a long rise, they came to a stream that slithered down well-worn shelves of rock. Where the trees parted, the sun revealed silver scales on the water, which was elsewhere dark and smooth.

With other sounds masked by the hiss and gurgle of the stream, Grady wanted more than ever to look back. He resisted the paranoid urge until his companion halted, turned, and stared downhill.

He did not have to crouch in order to rest one hand on the wolfhound’s back. Merlin’s body was tight with tension.

The big dog scanned the woods. His high-set ears tipped forward slightly. His nostrils flared and quivered.

Merlin held that posture for so long, Grady began to think the dog was not so much searching for anything as he was warning away a pursuer. Yet he did not growl.

When at last the wolfhound set off toward home once more, he moved faster than before, and Grady Adams matched the dog’s pace.

Customer Reviews

A Different Kind of Animal
In the Colorado Rockies, Grady Adams and his Irish wolfhound, Merlin, have just discovered two creatures unlike anything they've ever seen before. As they welcome these mysterious animals into their home, they soon discover that their arrival coincides with a wondrous event that will forever change their lives and millions of other all over the world.

Dean Koontz never seems ceases to astonish me with the amount of tricks up his sleeve. Each installment in his illustrious career is unique and otherworldly, with Breathless being no exception. In recent offerings Koontz has come under fire, unfairly so in my opinion, for not being the same guy who once scared us around every turn with evil characters and harrowing plots. Lately, dogs have become main characters more than usual, and for whatever reason a lot of fans and critics alike have not looked kindly upon his change of style. In a bold and effective move, Koontz sticks it to the doubters and transforms familiar elements in a way we never imagined.

Not only is Man's Best Friend featured in Breathless, but in this story animals play a bigger role than most of, if not all, Koontz's previous works. However, fans who feel like they have been missing out will be pleased to know that this is one of the most suspenseful novels Koontz has written in a while, with a fast paced plot laced with just the right amount of dread, wonder, and redemption. We're even treated to some frightening and disturbing scenes that will have many readers looking under their beds and in their closets long after reading. Once again Koontz`s prose and dialogue are delivered at the highest level as we follow several storylines to a powerful conclusion.

In the end we are left with a poignant glimpse into the beauty of nature and the mystery of life and the wonder that connects them. I love what Koontz has done of late, and I particularly love what he's given us here. Breathless is certainly a different kind of animal, but one that is well worth your time.

Always a good author to read....
Breathless by Dean Koontz is a stunningly beautiful story that stresses the divisions we find in our world between light and dark, beauty and ugliness, and redemption and damnation. While Koontz is not a stranger to using animals in his stories, Breathless stands everything else on its head.

Grady Adams is a simple man; a carpenter/craftsman who manages to provide for himself and his Irish Wolf-hound, Merlin, while working out of a converted barn. Living a relatively isolated life in the mountains of Colorado is perfect for Grady. One day, while exploring Grady stumbles onto two creatures unlike any he has ever seen. At first, he is unable to approach them before they flee. Over a few days though, he gains their trust and, the story is on. In time Homeland Security and the Army become forces that Grady and his friends must deal with. Let's just say the story is captivating and once you're hooked you won't regret picking up the book.

I hate to use the phrase "typical Koontz" when discussing any of his works because that implies every story is the same. One thing is for sure that over the years Koontz's books have been anything but typical. I know this is a cliché but most of his recent books seem to open to the reader like you peel an onion. One layer after the other is revealed until the climax is reached. You may even tear up a long the way.

Breathless is a great story packed with suspense, great character development, and fantastic descriptions.

Long time readers appreciate Koontz's ability to tell a good story and also touch the reader in a special way. Many of his stories are spiritual without being spiritual. That makes no sense at all, except it is true, at least for this reader.

Once again Dean Koontz has written a wonderful story. I highly recommend.

Peace always.

A Disappointment
I've always enjoyed Dean Koontz. I haven't read a whole lot of his books...but probably a good half-dozen of them over the years, and none have ever been disappointments. However, he's managed to leave me disappointed this time. Not because this book didn't have all the elements of a really great book. It did. But simply because it never fully realizes its potential.

Koontz gives a great setup. Lots of characters with rich histories...many of them rooted in deep pain. The gentle furniture maker who used to be a military assassin, the dedicated veterinarian who was the victim of mental and physical abuse for 10 years as a child, the serial killer who's only once come close to being caught and is on the hunt again...as a work for hire, and the twin who is on a gruesome mission to "become" his brother. All strong stuff. And then we've got the overriding mystery...two nearly-indescribable creatures who appear out of thin air and display nobler-than-human behavior. Why are they here? Where did they come from? And will they become guinea pigs in the labs of big, bad Homeland Security?

This really is a compelling set of questions...and it takes about 7 hours and 45 minutes of the 8-hour audio book to get to this place. But then...Koontz seems to weary of the story, or run out of ideas, or something. Whatever the cause, he neatly wraps up many (but not all) of the questions he's raised so quickly that it belies the (at times plodding) pace of the earlier parts of the book. Personally, I was left wanting. There's a gentle-enough sensibility about the book...I'd even describe it as beautiful at points...that I can't believe this was a cynical attempt on the author's part to provide a setup and then not finish the job...but it comes up so short of his usual work that I still had to consider the possibility.

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