A man and his wife find themselves in the middle of a web of brain-washing, mind control, and repressed memory. The first half of this book is Koontz at his best. The suspense builds until you see no way the heroes can escape and you wonder who will be the twisted villain's next victim. But then things change.
By the midpoint of the book, the primary leverage the villain has on the heroes is loosened, and what remains is only social discomfort related to defeating him. Still, there is risk based on the continued threat he poses to others and that carried me through until the ending. There is a rule in fiction (I believe it was Ursula Le Guin who coined it, but don't quote me): "The protagonist must protag." The villain is defeated with the heroes not even in the same room with him.
The main conflict remaining at that point was how to stop him without ending up in prison, and then someone else does it for him. A tidy way to resolve that conflict, but I felt cheated.
On a related note: Have you ever noticed that every psychiatrist who ever shows up in a Koontz novel (even in narrated backstory) is evil? At some point in the future, I have to put together my top ten Koontz motifs.
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