"A few minutes past one o'clock in the morning, a hard rain fell without warning. No thunder preceded the deluge, no wind. The abruptness and the ferocity of the downpour had the urgent quality of a perilous storm in a dream". ***** Thus begins Dean Koontz's riveting read, The Taking, as our main character, Molly Sloan, a self-doubting writer living with the lingering emotional issues of her past in the supportive companionship of her devoted husband, Niel, finds an already disturbed night's sleep interrupted by this violent and unheralded rainstorm. Leaving her husband still sleeping, she finds something so ...  Read the complete review

The Taking is a great piece of fiction by Dean Koontz, who is my favourite writer of suspenseful thrillers. The story revolves around the main character, Molly Sloan and her husband Neil. It starts when Molly awakens during the night and, as she is a writer she goes downstairs to work on her manuscript. Her attention turns to coyotes outside on the porch which have come out of the woods nearby. Sensing that they are frightened she steps onto the porch and becomes uneasy because of the strange silvery rain which has an odd scented smell. Her husband and her eventually flee to the nearby town with some of the other residents. ...  Read the complete review

Following on from my recent review of Koontz's THE HUSBAND, I decided to look over reviews of some of his previous novels as I have a tendency to do from time to time. Stumbling across a review of THE TAKING, I remembered that I had read this but had forgotten exactly what it had been about...knowing that his books are, almost without fail, light and easy reads, I decided to pick it up again and refresh my memory.... I am so glad I did!! Though it doesn't bode well that it did not linger longer in my memory, this is by far one of his most ambitious yet also most enjoyable thrillers for quite awhile. Molly wakes up in the middle of the night to a ...  Read the complete review