The Whispering Room

By: Dean Koontz

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Jane Hawk - fiction's most relentless, resourceful, stunning new heroine - continues her battle against a murderous conspiracy in the riveting sequel to The Silent Corner.

"No time to delay. Do what you were born to do. Fame will be yours when you do this."

These are the words that ring in the mind of mild-mannered, beloved schoolteacher Cora Gundersun - just before she takes her own life, and many others', in a shocking act of carnage. When the disturbing contents of her secret journal are discovered, it seems certain that she must have been insane. But Jane Hawk knows better.

In the wake of her husband's inexplicable suicide - and the equally mysterious deaths of scores of other exemplary individuals - Jane picks up the trail of a secret cabal of powerful players who think themselves above the law and beyond punishment. But the ruthless people bent on hijacking America's future for their own monstrous ends never banked on a highly trained FBI agent willing to go rogue - and become the nation's most wanted fugitive - in order to derail their insidious plans to gain absolute power with a terrifying technological breakthrough.

Driven by love for her lost husband and by fear for the five-year-old son she has sent into hiding, Jane Hawk has become an unstoppable predator. Those she is hunting will have nowhere to run when her shadow falls across them.

©2017 Dean Koontz (P)2017 Recorded Books

Much better than The Silent Corner

Here Koontz blends his new hot dark female avenger protagonist with classic Koontz writing as he works hard to tone down the protagonist. In the first book Jane Hawk would kill somewhat minor bad guys with little compunction and the paranoia ran very deep (which I found off putting), now she has a conscience, questions the raw paranoia and the story blooms in classic Koontz style. This was not the very best of Koontz but I enjoyed the listen and finished it quickly. There were lots of great characters (much more than Silent Corner) and plenty of twists and turns.

The narration was very good with very nice characterization and subtle expressions of emotion that enhances the listen.

Food for Thought

After listening to my 1st JANE HAWK novel, I almost decided to return it after the first 3 hours, not because of it’s content, but because I felt that the narrator was having trouble coming up with different voices with the introduction of every new character. Many of the men sounded too much like each other and the same problem with the women. When I was able to read a book, my imagination would take care of this, but when you are listening to a book, you have to depend on the narrator to handle it.

In the end, I’m glad that I decided to ignore the trouble I was having with the books narration and to concentrate on Dean Koontz’s amazing ability to capture my imagination. He did the same thing to me after listening to the ODD THOMAS series and he was doing it again. Because I’m a 100% disabled Veteran whose disability came as a result of being in a explosion, which damaged my brain and ended up causing me to develop Generalized Dystonia. It’s a slowly, progressive condition that is rare and because it’s rare, many times even good Neurologists fail to diagnose the condition correctly. It wasn’t until my involvement with the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation that I discovered that so many people were told the same thing that I was. Mr. Cahall, there’s nothing organically wrong with you. We believe that you would be better served if you would seek help from a very good Psychiatrist. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but I went to the Psychiatrist and instead of finding help, I spent the next 3-4 years in and out of mental institutions, where I was pumped full of so many different Psychotropic drugs. I became a person who even I couldn’t recognize anymore. When you put that kind of medication into a brain that was becoming progressively more damaged, you feel as if you have no control over your life. I’M TRYING TO SAY THAT WHEN IT COMES TO DEALING WITH THE BRAIN, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

So, when Mr. Koontz began to unravel the plot, it wasn’t hard for me to believe that someone could create a designer drug that would be capable of causing a person to commit suicide. I now call those 3 years that I spent taking all of those psychotropic drugs, THE DARK YEARS! When Jane Hawk had a Medical Examiner tell her that when She removed the top of a suicide victim’s skull, she saw what appeared to be a organic spider-like device that seemed to have spread into every crack of crevice of this woman’s brain and when that device was exposed to light, it did as the instructions, embedded in it’s DNA told it to do. Because it was built from water based molecules, it melted away before anybody else could see and verify it’s presence.

When you go to a medical specialist, most of us believe that the doctor always has our best interests at heart. I believed that and I ended up going so deep into a dark hole, that it’s a miracle that I was able to find my way out. During those years I met many people who weren’t willing to listen to me. They clocked in and clocked out and regardless of what I was trying to say, they were sure to always follow the doctor’s orders exactly as they were written.

So, if these things could happen to me and the things that I experienced were only the result of people’s negligence and inflated egos, what would happen if a group of people who redefined what EVIL truly was, then everything that happened in all 4 Jane Hawk novels is within the realm of possibility.

Flying high with Jane Hawk

Dean Koontz’s The Whispering Room is the second in a series featuring Jane Hawk, FBI agent on the run to ‘unofficially’ investigate an outbreak of unusual suicides, including that of her husband. Jane takes leave from the agency to pursue the truth, but soon draws the attention of shady government and other nefarious groups that have launched a mind control plot involving inject-able nano-technology.

Dean Koontz does his usual fabulous job introducing us to an evil crew of over-the-top antagonists, who have bad intent, mayhem and, yes, world domination, on their minds. Despite their access to every high tech tracking tool, including community video, license plate scanning, facial recognition software, and website monitoring, Jane somehow manages to stay one step ahead of her pursuers...or does she? There are questions remaining at the end that make me wonder which way Jane will go in the next installment.

This is a great entry by Dean. The story moved quickly, with nonstop suspense. The tracking technology described in the book is very scary. I hope it is not real because it suggests that nothing we do is private, which I know is partly true (but only partly). Anyway, I loved this book and recommend it highly, although I think you should read The Silent Corner first. More Jane Hawk please!

Much more description than action.

Paints entire scene in detail over many paragraphs where a short sentence would be adequate.

Awesome

I have listened to this book twice and could definately listen to it again. Both the silent corner and whispering room were excellent and I can't wait for the next chapter in Jane Hawk's world to be released. Mr. Koontz keep up the good work.

Didn't like

My first Jane Hawk novel and granted I don't know who she is. Book was way too long and seemed to come to no real conclusion. First 10 chapters could have been done in 1 chapter since nothing happens. 17 hours of this book really dragged on. Very confusing to follow.

Overwritten

Brilliant concept and characters but the story's bogged down in a painful amount of description.

Great book, and an enthralling listen.

I Always enjoy Dean Koontz. Reading, or listening. I like the way he draws you into his stories. And this book hasn't disappointed me.

Dammit, I had things to do!

I really did have things I needed to do. My lawn is filled with leaves. I have plants that are still outside and need to be brought into the greenhouse before it freezes. Those same plants need some attention before I move them; re-potting, trimming, etc.. I need to get Christmas cards out, do shopping, and oh, just a host of other things, but for more than 14 hours of awake time, I listened to Jane Hawk as she struggled to get through one day after another in a world gone absolutely loony-toons with these guys who want to rule the world.

This time (SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT You have been warned!!! SPOILER ALERT) This tine the evil guys are these "intellectuals who have invented a nannite that forms a controlling network in a victim's brain and that person becomes like a slave, willing to do just about anything up to and including killing themselves.

Jane decides to take out the highly connected and very rich leaders of this cabal and goes hunting. Along the way she meets characters that are memorable as only Dean Koontz can make characters. Elizabeth Rodgers brought each of them to life with her wonderful narration of this book. Her rendition of "Grandpa Bernie" is both touching and hilarious, for example.

This is another Dean Koontz masterpiece. He just gets better and better, Get this book. If you like out-there science and action packed stories that are tightly plotted and well narrated then you WILL like this book;. I loved it.

Mary

Too much commentary, description and chapters. Did not like ending. Story was ok but needed choppy.