Strangers

By: Dean Koontz

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 29 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

“The plot twists ingeniously...an engaging, often chilling book.” - The New York Times Book Review

A writer in California. A doctor in Boston. A motel owner and his employee in Nevada. A priest in Chicago. A robber in New York. A little girl in Las Vegas. They’re a handful of people from across the country, living through eerie variations of the same nightmare.

A dark memory is calling out to them. And soon they will be drawn together, deep in the heart of a sprawling desert, where the terrifying truth awaits...

©2008 Dean Koontz (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A unique spellbinder that captures the reader on the first page. Exciting, enjoyable, and an intensely satisfying read.” - Mary Higgins Clark

“[Koontz] is a great storyteller, and Strangers features a plot so original you’ll be reading, with chills, well into the morning." - New York Daily News

“Koontz is a master at constructing vivid, eerily realistic worlds that hold readers spellbound. A memorable thriller.” - Booklist

Exceptional Story

I loved this book. Koontz is great at writing a book with just the right combination of emotions in the right ways and places. They're exciting, thrilling, a bit scary but in the end they are uplifting and inspiring. This is a quality that is sorely lacking in some other authors.

Long but worth every minute

A tale well told of people from all walks of life pulled into a mystery that promises to transform mankind

Drag dawn a bit, and then had an anti climatic end

The story was good, and the performance was ok, but, it dragged on a bit and once it started to catch steam, it went by a little quickly and the end was more philosophical than addressing the endings of the characters. Did Faye ever recover her memories? Did Jorga's daughter (Marcy) fully recover? Did Jack and Jorga get together? Too many loose ends.

What an amazing imagination!

This was a little different, but Koontz always has wonderfully detailed and diverse characters. The performance was excellent and the story piqued the image of future possibilities.

Fantastic depth to the characters and storyline

I appreciate the way Koonze develops his characters. The narrator did a great job voicing the different characters and kept the story flowing.

Wonderful

I read this book many years ago. I was in graduate school and was introduced to the author by a new friend. It was a wonderful diversion. What a pleasure to listen to it after all this time. Thank you.

It depends on your personality I guess

I listen to audiobooks in the car on the way to work and back which equals about 1-1/4 hours of listening each day. So a book this long (29 hours) will take me about 4-1/2 weeks to finish.

I've listened to several different readers over the past few years and would give the narrator of this one an average score, say three out of five stars. He does most of the characters reasonably well and has a little trouble with the women voices (but he is a guy with a deep voice so go figure). Generally for me the narrator thing is a non-issue, he doesn't ruin the book in my opinion, and he doesn't make a bad book good (I'm not saying this is a bad book, just that his reading wouldn't make it better if it was).

The book itself has excellent character development and the characters are very believable. They seem like real people with real thoughts and are not superficial or outrageously successful, or "super people", which makes them believable.

Yes this book is long, but so are other books with a lot of detail, which brings me back to my title. If your personality is such that you must move quickly through a book and don't care about character development details but want to get to the action, then either skip this book or wait for an abridged version.

However, if you are like me and can grow to like a story because you grow to understand and then like the characters, then this book is for you.

Bottom line: if you are patient, can delay gratification and like a good mystery, then you will like this book. If you are impatient and need more instant gratification, then you probably better skip it.

You gotta get this book

I'm a huge Koontz fan, trying to read his books as soon as they hit the streets. I have thought "In the Corner of his Eye" was my all time favorite but "Strangers" comes a close second. The characterizations are awesome, you really get to know each and every one of the people whose story he is telling. They are living breathing folks that you come to care deeply about and to cheer on when things go so amiss for them. I miss these guys now that I've finished the book and wonder often how their lives would progree.

Top 5 for Dean Koontz

Strangers is one of the better Dean Koontz books I've read. It is long but the cast of characters is interesting and their mysterious but similiar circumstances keep you interested in their toils long through the book. The book has an air of supernatural to it without being ridiculous except for parts of the end but the book doesn't rap up in 5 minutes and the wait is well worth it. Koontz develops the characters in such a way as to keep you interested and you feel their plight and their humanity. Kudos

Wonderful Story

This is the book that started me reading every book Dean Koontz has written. It continues to be one of my favorites and I'm thrilled Audible has it. I loved listening to it. Thank you Audible!!