Publisher's Weekly Review
Koontz's career has mirrored Stephen King's to a remarkable degreethe early pseudonymous novels, the bloated blockbusters, the increased use of horror as social commentaryalbeit at a lag. Keeping step, this uncommonly sleek work is nothing less than Koontz's Gerald's Game: a distillation of what's come before and a slick play to regain the top by a writer whose popularity seemed to have peaked. Koontz even makes the centerpiece of Chyna Shepherd's battle against a serial killer her attempt to free herself from the restraints that bind her to a piece of furniturethe very same challenge faced by King's heroine. And just as Gerald's Game reinvigorated King's career and writing, this masterful, if ultimately predictable, exercise in high tension should do the same for Koontz's. This is basically a two-character novel, and both principals are compelling: the spirited Chyna, a youngish psychology student, and her nemesis, homicidal maniac Edgler Vess, who revels in sensation, be it pain or pleasurein the intensity of experience. The two link when Vess kills Chyna's best friend as Chyna hides under a bed. Chyna pursues Vess but is eventually captured by him, after which she must combat not only those cuffs but also Vess's killer dogs, Vess himself and, of course, her own terror. For once, Koontz tamps down on his usual libertarian soapboxing to let the story racewhich it does fast enough to give readers whiplash as they hold on to what may end up being the most viscerally exciting thriller of the year. 600,000 first printing; Literary Guild main selection. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Written with Krazy-Glu, Koontz's 27th book is his most gripping chiller yet. Simple as a snaplock, the story relentlessly lives up to its title--even the flashbacks rise above filler as they allow slight easings before the next plot lurch. Demanding much of itself, Koontz's style bleaches out genre clichés and hackneyed dialogue while also showing a genius for detail and a daunting mastery of motors, tools, hinges, and housewares arcana. The story: Chyna Sheperd, a psychology grad in her late 20s, visits her close friend Laura Templeton's family in Napa Valley on the very night that the country house is invaded by ``homicidal adventurer'' and sensation freak Edgler (pronounced Edge-ler) Foreman Vess. Vess murders Laura's parents, her brother and sister-in-law, then makes off with Laura in his big motor home. Unbeknownst to Vess, Chyna, in hiding, witnesses much of this, and, armed only with a butcher knife, sneaks into the trailer hoping to save Laura. But Laura is dead, as is a young hitchhiker hung by manacles in a closet with his eyes sewn shut and lips closed with two buttons. Worse, Chyna is herself a semiprisoner, escaping unseen only when Vess stops at a gas station, kills the attendants, and takes Polaroids of their corpses. Vess, Chyna now knows, has 16-yard-old Ariel imprisoned in his home. Thus, still alone, she steals a Honda and trails Vess, who drives up into Oregon where he has a spotlessly clean two-story log cabin in a deep woods, some high-tech computer equipment--and Ariel. Once Chyna slips inside, looking for Ariel, she finds herself looped in ribbons of Koontz's Supertacky Flypaper... A suspense masterpiece that leaves its competitors buried in dust. (First printing of 600,000; Literary Guild main selection)
Booklist Review
Leopards can change their spots. Witness Dean Koontz. Long a reliable best-seller, he also was always a less than accomplished wordsmith. His thrillers, grabby though they were, were loaded with flat prose, flatter characters, and the flattest ideas--the book equivalents of movies starring such second-string Slys and Arnolds as Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal. Then he switched publishers and out have come Dark Rivers of the Heart (1994) and now this pulse pounder about a homey weekend gone 'way bad. Chyna Shepherd--child of a gorgeous slut who, on account of her taste for sociopaths as boyfriends, exposed the girl to plenty of mayhem until she fled Mom at age 16--goes for a pleasant Napa Valley weekend visiting the vintner parents of her best college friend, only to become the covert witness to the family's murder at the hands of thrill-addicted serial (and mass) murderer Edgler Foreman Vess. Hardened by her childhood against even this loathsome violence, Chyna determines to keep on the killer's trail until she can bring him to justice or exact it herself. Although it cops from Harris' Silence of the Lambs, Strieber's Billy, and Thompson's Killer inside Me, Intensity is tightly written and free of cliches, thus a real advance over virtually everything else, including the politically engaged Dark Rivers, that Koontz has written. Maybe that's what good editing has done. (Reviewed November 15, 1995)067942525XRay Olson
Library Journal Review
Chyna Shepherd, at 26, is very much alone in the world. Growing up with a hippie mother, Chyna's bleak childhood was filled with fear and confusion. While visiting the home of her best and only friend Laura, Chyna miraculously survives the brutal and senseless murders of Laura and her entire family. Chyna's nightmare continues when she accidently gets trapped in the killer's mobile home. Although the homicidal Vess functions normally in the everyday world, he is abhorrent and terrifying in the extreme. When Chyna discovers that Vess's next victim is an adolescent girl, she tries to stop him. No longer helpless, Chyna matches wits with the brilliant Vess in a contest for her life and her sanity. Koontz's masterly pen once again builds the suspense to almost unbearable levels and readers will scarcely believe that the story takes place over a 36-hour period. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/95]Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.