Lightning
Published: 1988
Author: Dean Koontz
Genre: Contemporary, Crime, Fiction, Horror, Literary, Literature, Science Fiction, Supernatural, Suspense, Thriller, Time Travel
Check out the review of this book here:
Summary
A mystery blond stranger (Stefan) prevents an inebriated Dr. Paul Markwell from attending to the difficult and delicate birth of Laura Shane in January 1955, amid a bizarre lightning storm.
Laura's mother dies after childbirth, despite the fact that she is a perfectly healthy and wonderfully beautiful baby, and she is left to be raised by her father, Bob Shane.
An addict tries to steal Laura's father's convenience store when she is eight years old; however, the blond stranger reappears, protecting them both and coaching them on what to tell the cops.
Bob Shane dies after a heart attack in 1967. Laura sees the stranger looking over her again after her father's burial and comes to believe he is her guardian angel, along with an unidentified guy asking for her as she attempts to follow him.
Laura is placed in the McIlroy orphanage, where she meets Thelma and Ruth, twins who become her greatest friends. She also encounters Willy Sheener, a terrifying child molester who also works as the maintenance worker and custodian.
Willy falls in love with Laura because of her unusually excellent looks and follows her throughout the orphanage.
Following a series of strange episodes, her mystery angel pays a visit to Sheener and viciously beats him. This frightens him for a while until Laura is sent to live with the Dockwielers, with whom she soon bonds.
Laura is able to fend off Sheener and finally murder him, but the stress of seeing the scene leads her new foster mother to have a fatal heart attack, sending Laura back to the orphanage.
Soon later, Laura becomes 13 and is sent to another institution for older children, where she learns that Ruth was killed in a fire in McIlroy.
Laura's creative writing at college catches the notice of Danny, a naïve man who has fallen in love with her from afar. Following a failed attempt to be her secret admirer, they agree to a date and eventually fall in love.
Laura becomes a well-known author of numerous novels after their marriage and gives birth to a son, Christopher Robert. Because the birth was challenging, she will be unable to have children in the future.
Years later, the blond man's (eventually revealed to be named Stefan) intervention saves Danny, Laura, and Chris from a tragic disaster.
A little time later, the unidentified man appears. Danny and the blond guy both attack, but Danny dies from multiple gunshot wounds before Stefan kills the man and tells Laura what to say, just like years before at the grocery store.
He vows to return soon and tell more, but he doesn't return until a year later, injured, in a remote stretch of winter woods. Laura and Chris are able to heal him at a doctor they find in the phone book, but they soon face mysterious assassins.
The gang seeks refuge at a modest hotel. Stefan regains consciousness and eventually reveals his story. He was 35 years old when he was born in 1909. He is from Nazi Germany in 1944, and he is a member of a covert time travel program that sends spies to the future to discover methods to affect the result of World War II.
Stefan had already arrived in an alternate version of 1984 and had met Laura, who was paralyzed as a result of Dr. Markwell's inebriated mistakes during her birth. Despite her infirmity, she created wonderful poetry volumes that encouraged Stefan to abandon his objective and travel to unpleasant portions of her life in order to alter them. His commander, however, became suspicious of him and pursued him, sending the assassins into the future to learn of their course.
They obtain numerous items they require with the assistance of Thelma, who has grown wealthy as a comedienne and actress after her sister's death.
Fat Jack, an arms dealer, provides them with weapons as well as Vexxon nerve gas. Stefan is ready to travel back in time with the help of contemporary computing technology. He kills the five guys on duty at the moment with the nerve gas and disposes of their remains six billion years later. He jumps to visit Winston Churchill and tells him that the time machine institution must be attacked; Churchill agrees.
Stefan also travels to Adolf Hitler to persuade the dictator of different issues that must be resolved, damaging the German war effort in the process.
While he is gone, Laura and Chris are ambushed by additional Nazis in an empty piece of the rain-washed desert after records of a police stop are uncovered.
Stefan returns to discover Laura and Chris dead. He gets around the machine's time limit by sending Laura a message to save them. Despite this, Chris and Laura must face all four guys. The second cylinder of nerve gas becomes useful. Laura finally kills all four guys chasing them while protecting Chris to the best of her ability.
Laura and Chris are questioned by the authorities over the course of many months. They quickly believe a narrative about 'drug traffickers' seeking vengeance. Laura backs up her claim by turning Fat Jack over, which she was about to do anyway (he does not blame her, due to his personal beliefs).
Stefan, who had been hiding with Thelma, returns to live with them. Laura eventually falls in love with him after giving him more time.
Useful Search Related Words & Keywords
Edge Of Your Seat, Guardian Angel, Koontz Books, Laura Shane, Page Turner, Twists And Turns, Years Ago
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Any kind of support, even a simple 'like, thumbs up or a small comment' is enough and helps me grow, create and freely do more stuff and work on projects for the benefit of many.
Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/namsu
Help me grow into a global force: https://www.patreon.com/namsu
Support with crypto coins/tokens: https://cointr.ee/namsu
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
