When does CPR become deadly?

Well in keeping with the theme of my last few posts, this time I am posting about another dark suspense novel by Dean Koontz. This one is called "Hideaway" and it was pretty good. The author definitely did a good job of keeping me on the edge of my seat. The plot was a little out there, but overall I think that any fan of scary books or scary people would think this was worth their time.

The book is based around four people, with a fifth loosely intertwined at the end. There is a couple named Lindsay and Hatchford(called Hatch), who at one time were very much in love with each other, but found their love strained after the death of their only child to cancer at the age of five. They were reminded of his death by each other, but neither had the courage to leave the other. Well they are on a trip to some cabin or something, and are driving in a blizzard when they accidentally hit the back of a semi which is stuck in the road. They are thrown down an embankment and into an icy river. We find out that the driver was drunk, and feels bad, kind of. Well anyway, Lindsay manages to pull Hatch out of the car, but he drowns and freezes or both.

Enter the creepy Dean Koontz stuff. Well there are some doctors who have found ways to bring people back from the dead after they have been gone for over and hour. Hatch is the perfect candidate because he is frozen and thus well preserved. But, and this may come as a shocker, SOMETHING GOES HORRIBLY WRONG..........

well not at first really, but Hatch comes to find that is somehow psychically connected to this really frightening young man who calls himself Vassago. After this there are a number of chapters from Vassago's point of view, and I must say the author created a very psychotic character. I have to wonder a bit about the overall sanity of any author who can come up with someone that creepy. Vassago was also brought back after a long time dead by doctors, but he isn't all nice like Hatch, oh no.... He wanted to go to hell, and is now killing as many people as he can to earn his way back in.

Well since Hatch can see his crazy counterpart, it works the other way too. Vassago starts to obsess about killing Lindsay, and their newly adopted daughter. You can see how all this might come to a thrilling conclusion, but I won't ruin it by spouting the details.

My opinion of this book is that it was very well written, and it had that elusive original premise. Mr. Koontz is now 2 for 2 for books I liked. I guess he's not as cheesy as I was led to believe..... Or maybe I'm cheesier than I'm willing to admit.