Ricochet Joe Read online

  “A modern Swift . . . a master satirist.”

  —Entertainment Weekly

  “Koontz has a knack for making the bizarre and uncanny seem as commonplace as a sunrise. BOTTOM LINE: the Dean of Suspense.”

  —People

  “If Stephen King is the Rolling Stones of novels, Koontz is the Beatles.”

  —Playboy

  “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 [and] demonstrating that the real horror of life is found not in monsters, but within the human psyche.”

  —USA Today

  “Far more than a genre writer. Characters and the search for meaning, exquisitely crafted, are the soul of his work. This is why his novels will be read long after the ghosts and monsters of most genre writers have been consigned to the attic. One of the master storytellers of this or any age.”

  —Tampa Tribune

  “Dean Koontz almost occupies a genre of his own. He is a master at building suspense and holding the reader spellbound.”

  —Richmond Times-Dispatch

  “Demanding much of itself, Koontz’s style bleaches out clichés while showing a genius for details. He leaves his competitors buried in the dust.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Koontz has always had near-Dickensian powers of description, and an ability to yank us from one page to the next that few novelists can match.”

  —Los Angeles Times

  “Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose.”

  —New York Times Book Review

  “Koontz raises intriguing questions about life, death, evil, and faith that are worthy of C. S. Lewis.”

  —Flint Journal

  “If there’s an element of menacing chaos in Koontz’s body of work, there’s also another common thread: Good people, fighting back, can make a difference . . . Koontz knows how to set hooks throughout his novels and has a knack for foreshadowing without giving away the plot store.”

  —Associated Press

  “Perhaps more than any other author, Koontz writes fiction perfectly suited to the mood of America: novels that acknowledge the reality and tenacity of evil but also the power of good; that celebrate the common man and woman; that at their best entertain vastly as they uplift.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Koontz’s astonishing novel[s] show him making moral fable[s] out of dark fantasy materials . . . object lesson[s] in the unfashionable virtues of fortitude, prudence, and a faith far firmer than with-it moderns generally tolerate . . . Loaded with dialogue the likes of which haven’t been rampant since the 1930s heyday of screwball comedy . . . Richly sympathetic [characters] . . . emotionally powerful and thought-provoking.”

  —Booklist (starred review)

  “Koontz is a master of melding the supernatural with the commonplace. [His] writing crackles with dry, tongue-in-cheek wit.”

  —Boston Globe

  “Dean Koontz straddles the genres . . . he provides a giddy ride.”

  —Observer (UK)

  “Classic Koontz features a distinctive narrative that verges on the wise-crackingly facetious . . . He is also a dab hand at tying in a wacky love story . . . an acquired taste, but one acquired by millions.”

  —Times (London)

  “Koontz skillfully blends elements . . . of romance, horror, fantasy, mystery, suspense, thriller, and detective fiction . . . All of Koontz’s novels are about how to live and his people are the main event. You can believe them. You can believe in them . . . He can be wickedly satirical and funny . . . he has a good deal of faith—like Dickens and Chekhov—in individuals.”

  —Tampa Tribune

  “Dean Koontz is as much philosopher as mystery weaver . . . as much mystic as realist, as much romantic as pragmatist.”

  —Asbury Park Sunday Press

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2017 by Dean Koontz

  Illustration copyright © 2017 Oliver Barrett

  Motion design by Belief Agency

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Oliver Barrett