The Face of Fear

By: Dean Koontz

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Don’t look down.…

Because you’re trapped on the 40th floor of a deserted office building by a psychopath called "The Butcher".

Don’t look down.…

Because you’re an ex-mountain climber and a fall from Everest left you with a bad leg and a paralyzing fear of heights.

Don’t look down.…

Because The Butcher has slaughtered the guards and short-circuited the elevators - the stairways are blocked, and for you and the beautiful woman with you, there’s only one escape route.

Don’t look down.…

Because 600 feet of empty space are looking back at you.

©1977 Nkui (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Koontz's worst book ever.

What disappointed you about The Face of Fear?

The main problem is the reader. He should be reading Mary Poppins books or other fairy tales.

What was most disappointing about Dean Koontz’s story?

The story isn't too bad but his character development is long and boring. He'a tried to make his police detective into Colombo. Nice try but didn't work.

What didn’t you like about Patrick Lawlor’s performance?

His voice.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Face of Fear?

Chapter 35 should be eliminated. This was not supposed to be a porn novel.

Any additional comments?

I'm glad I bought it with a coupon, it wasn't worth the $10 price. If this was my first Koontz read, I wouldn't try another. What a mess and disappointment .

Ho Hum

A fairly quick and easy read. It was enjoyable and fast paced but nothing special. Predictable plot with a killer named "the butcher." He had to make it up, it's so mundane. The use of a clairvoyant in the plot added only a little. Why does Koontz write under a pseudonym?

I expected more.....

I expected more from Dean Koontz. I am disappointed with this book. I will still buy Koontz's books with hope of being much better.

Seriously?

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Better characters. The main characters have to be some of, if not the worse, ever conceived by Koontz. The ridiculous nature and the flip flopping of personalities was terrible. One paragraph the character is strong and overpowering, the next whimpering. Better story. The ending was lame. I wish I had a more elegant way to say it but lame.

If you’ve listened to books by Dean Koontz before, how does this one compare?

This book took forever to get going. I have read almost every Koontz mystery and the best ones are the ones that get going on page 1. i.e. Intensity.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

How to describe the narrator? I'd say every bad parody of a NY cop rolled into one. While it was not nail on a chalkboard bad it was close.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Face of Fear?

I would remove every "I don't know" from character dialog. ANNOYING!

Any additional comments?

The concept of this story had so much promise. Terrible characters and a lame story just killed the entire experience. Add to that the narrator and I wish I had not spent the money. One high point was the self deprecating Det.Ira Preduski. Reminded me of Columbo and found him completely entertaining. Build a series around him! Sorry to the Koontz die hard. I know you are going to pile on but it was what it was.

started out strong

then lost me with the hours of excruciating detail about getting down the building Got it - you know about mountain climbing. This left very little plot. The story could have ended very soon after the descent started. Did he run out of steam - really half baked idea.

Okay Mystery

Koontz has been one of my favorite mystery writers. However his last few book have fallen short I think. This one The Face of Fear was ok in that the plot held my interest but the characters were neither here nor there. The scary guys weren't terribly frightening and the good guys weren't very likeable. One of the things I think Koontz does best is to give the reader/listener interesting characters and here he disappoints. So for me this book is forgettable at best.