THE DARKEST EVENING
On the cover of the February Dog Fancy magazine, "Exclusive Excerpt - Dean Koontz's 'The Darkest Evening of the Year,'" grabs your attention. Interesting marketing; publicize a "dog" book in a publication read by dog people. On page 32, the stunning book jacket silhouettes a Golden Retriever against a fiery sunset. The orange and black cover shot is highly recognizable. The accompanying short excerpt will surely have more people rushing to buy this book.

I don't usually write about books, but there has been incredible hype about this book, and I fell for it. Last month, I was reading Dean Koontz' novel, "The Husband," when the author appeared in prime time commercials touting his new book, "The Darkest Evening of the Year" in an obvious attempt to lure the holiday gift giving market to his latest effort. Hey, it worked on me.

Koontz is a prolific writer, but I hadn't read any of his books before. I enjoy the suspense-mystery genre for a fast paced, engaging read as long as it's not too terrifyingly graphic. I want to be entertained and distracted, not frightened to death.

So, I liked "The Husband." It had enough twists and turns, despicable characters, action and smattering of horror to keep me intrigued. The story is of an ordinary guy, a landscape gardener, who suddenly finds himself in an extraordinary situation. His wife is kidnapped by the bad guys and he has just 72 hours to come up with $2 million, an incomprehensible sum to him, to free her. Of course, he can't tell the cops, and the bad guys seem to be allseeing and all-knowing. His wife was no slouch either, plucky and cool-headed during the worst of times. This book held my attention and, as an untutored writer, I found Koontz's sometimes fanciful way with words and descriptions a fascinating exposure. No dogs in this one though.

If "The Husband" was a book I enjoyed reading, then another of his books, particularly one with a theme close to my heart, the power of the human-animal bond, would be perfect. We were getting ready for our annual family trip just before the holidays, and a good book seemed like the perfect thing for my Christmas present to me. I believed I would like this book so much I even broke one of my cardinal rules: never, ever take a hardcover book on a plane trip.

I was so convinced I wanted to read this book that I purchased it at the first opportunity, which happened to be the airport bookstore, so I paid not only the hardcover price, I paid full price. I didn't get to read it first though, my husband Fred did. He finished

it, complaining throughout about the content and style, but kept saying he thought I would like it. When I finally got to it myself, I understood his objections. It was just too much for me, and I not only stopped reading it about a third of the way through, which I never do, I left this expensive newly-released book behind in the hopes that someone else might appreciate it more than I did.

There is no doubt that Dean Koontz loves dogs, and he deeply loved his recently departed Golden Retriever, Trixie. If you visit his website, he has an extensive and cleverly animated conversation with Trixie, who is waiting for him at the foot of the Rainbow Bridge. Trixie talks about all the wonderful things there are to do in heaven; she is learning origami and how to play the piano and the angels give her tummy rubs.

Koontz' love for Trixie was no doubt the inspiration for this book; in fact he says in his website dialog with the dog that he was unable to write for a month after she died. "The Darkest Evening" features several Golden Retrievers, including one with supernatural powers. There are two good guys - the female protagonist is a Golden rescuer - and her architect boyfriend. The two bad guys are sociopathic killers who are stalking their good guy ex-lovers. There is a definite message about the importance of dog rescue, adoption, the Golden breed and animal cruelty, but it just wasn't enough to carry the story for me. The people weren't real, the dogs weren't real, the situation was too contrived, and I lost interest early in the book. I wasn't the only one; over half of the reviewers on Amazon.com didn't like it either, rating it 3 stars or less.

So, I've made my point; in my opinion, this is one book you can skip. But I guess when one has sold over 325,000,000 copies and has had 10 novels on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list, a distinction achieved by only a dozen writers, you're allowed to throw one in for commercial success every now and again. With an intensely comprehensive marketing campaign and distinctive cover design even this bomb will keep Koontz in

dog food a long time. I

Jan Jaeger is owner of Geronimo's, Ltd., Nantucket's pet supply and gift shop, and is a member of DWAA and CWA (Dog and Cat Writer's Associations of America). Her pets at home are Junior, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and three cats. At the shop are cats Messrs. Fish and Chips, Flower bunny, Millie guinea pig and two budgies. Send e-mail to jan@geronimos.com.