Relentless by Dean Koontz HarperCollins HK$94
Relentless, Dean Koontz's latest novel, could also describe his career. In almost 40 years, he has bashed out 60 novels. Koontz is as eclectic as he is prolific, mixing horror, science fiction, thrillers and, in his series starring Odd Thomas, zany comedy. Relentless is a ticklish book to review, in part because its story revolves around a book reviewer called, with all the subtlety of a punch, Shearman Waxx. His latest target is Cubby Greenwich, a successful novelist whose latest book is called One O'Clock Jump. When Cubby learns that Waxx has trashed it with the most erroneous of readings, he imagines the critic being 'killed by a flying furnal with rabies' (a furnal is a fictional flying squirrel). 'Nobody reads his reviews but geeky aficionados of snarkiness,' says Cubby's wife Penny, who advises him to let it drop. Which, of course, he doesn't. What follows is bizarre even for Koontz. Fearing that Waxx is about to whack his family, Cubby gathers his clan and flees, with the fulminating critic in hot pursuit. Mixing jokes, suspense and one of the more surreal endings I have read of late (it involves salt shakers), Relentless is the weirdest fun this side of David Lynch.