Midnight
Published: 1989
Author: Dean Koontz
Genre: American, Fiction, Genetic Engineering, Horror, Literature, Political, Science Fiction, Spy, Suspense, Thriller
Check out the review of this book here:
Summary
Janice Capshaw, a midnight runner, is followed and slain by a gang of enigmatic, horrific animals while running along the beach in her northern California hometown of Moonlight Cove.
Sam Booker, an undercover FBI agent, arrives in Moonlight Cove to investigate a string of mysterious deaths, including Janice Capshaw's.
Tessa Jane Lockland, Janice Capshaw's sister, also arrives at Moonlight Cove to investigate her sister's unsolved death.
Chrissie Foster, an eleven-year-old girl who lives on a farm north of town, finds her parents in a physically transformed state - half-human and part beast - and is compelled to leave for her survival.
She makes her way to town in search of assistance. The unknown animals are hunting Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie separately.
Sam and Tessa happen to meet at a Laundromat, where they had both sought refuge after being followed by the animals. They are first distrustful of one another, but they learn that in order to survive, they must work together.
Sam learns that Thomas Shaddack, a great computer scientist, is transforming the people of Moonlight Cove into something unknown. Sam also discovers that the local police are assisting Shaddack with the conversions and that their cutting-edge computer system, provided by Shaddack's business, is overly sophisticated for the demands of a small-town police department.
Because of a letter written to the FBI by Moonlight Cove resident Harry Talbot providing information on recent distressing happenings, Sam and Tessa decide to visit Harry at his home.
Harry is a Vietnam veteran who was severely injured during the conflict and now uses a wheelchair. He is not yet 'converted.' Harry has learned a lot about what is going on since he spends much of his time monitoring the residents of Moonlight Cove via his telescope, and he also discovers that the local police are participating.
Chrissie also ends herself at Harry Talbot's when her effort to visit the local church results in her having to dodge the animals once more, and she makes the rational decision that Harry could be a safe person to approach.
Together, the four characters are able to put together a more complete picture of what is going on at Moonlight Cove.
Thomas Shaddack has developed a method for transforming a person into a super-human who is immune to disease, injury, exhaustion, or emotion. However, the conversion has an unintended consequence. Life becomes intolerably pointless without the ability to experience human emotions, and the majority of newly converted villagers revert irreversibly into a beast condition, concerned solely with hunting, murdering, and digesting their victims.
Shaddack's mental state worsens as events unfold. He refuses to admit that his ideas have failed miserably and that the conversions should be halted.
When the Chief of Police, Loman Watkins, realizes that nothing can stop the town's spiral into mayhem, he pledges to murder Shaddack, which will instantaneously kill every converted person in the village.
Shaddack has implanted a microchip in each individual as part of the 'conversions,' which will murder them along with Shaddack if his heart stops beating.
The climactic fight occurs in the local high school when Sam goes there to use a school computer terminal to send a warning to the outside world and solicit help.
Shaddack is slain in the confrontation, which also kills the majority of the inhabitants. The FBI arrives to clean up the wreckage after Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie survive.
Useful Search Related Words & Keywords
FBI Agent, Island Of Dr Moreau, Koontz Books, Love Dean, Moonlight Cove, Page Turner, Sam Booker, Small Town, Stephen King, Strange Things, Vietnam Vet, Years Ago
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