A review by finitha
The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz

5.0

One of my friends suggested this book a while back but I just put it off. Then with the onset of Covid-19, the novel gained an unprecedented popularity and now I can't really keep it aside, right?
The novel started off like a ghost story with Danny's mother seeing her dead son in another car. Well, horror is my least favourite genre along with psychological thriller, so I did have a peek at some of the spoilers. Don't want to waste my brain work finding the criminal only to realise that it only happened in the protagonist's mind. Nope, definitely not my thing.
The story tuned out to be a thriller with some elements of the supernatural. Packed with action, the narrative follows Tina Evans and Elliot Stryker on their journey to find what really happened with Danny. With just more than three fifty pages, the book can be finished in one sitting. The plot gives some old cinematic vibes, but it can only be expected since this was written way back in 1981.
So to the million dollar question that is on everyone's mind: did this 1981 novel predict corona virus? Not exactly. But a virus named Wuhan-400 (so named since it is developed by the Chinese in Wuhan lab) is the crux of the problem. Fortunately for us, the virus that we experience is far from lethal compared to the one described in the novel. The author seems to have taken great care not to insinuate something against China and US, but may not have succeeded completely. It do blames both the countries, at least that is the way I found it.