QUICKSILVER by Dean Koontz (Thomas & Mercer, January 2022) Hardcover, 366 pages. ISBN #1542019885 / 9781542019880
Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .
Quinn Quicksilver was born a mystery—abandoned at three days old on a desert highway in Arizona. Raised in an orphanage, never knowing his parents, Quinn had a happy if unexceptional life. Until the day of “strange magnetism.” It compelled him to drive out to the middle of nowhere. It helped him find a coin worth a lot of money. And it practically saved his life when two government agents showed up in the diner in pursuit of him. Now Quinn is on the run from those agents and who knows what else, fleeing for his life.
During a shoot-out at a forlorn dude ranch, he finally meets his destined companions: Bridget Rainking, a beauty as gifted in foresight as she is with firearms, and her grandpa Sparky, a romance novelist with an unusual past. Bridget knows what it’s like to be Quinn. She’s hunted, too. The only way to stay alive is to keep moving.
Barreling through the Sonoran Desert, the formidable trio is impelled by that same inexplicable magnetism toward the inevitable. With every deeply disturbing mile, something sinister is in the rearview—an enemy that is more than a match for Quinn. Even as he discovers within himself resources that are every bit as scary.
My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .
I was in the mood for a fast-paced, suspenseful read - - a bit of escapism - - and what better author to choose randomly than Dean Koontz, dubbed by some as "the master of suspense." I was not disappointed, and suspect that this is the beginning of a series of books featuring these characters. I would welcome that. There is plenty more story to tell, even though Koontz wrapped this up and didn't leave readers hanging. There are still bigger questions to be answered.
The characters are fun and the dialogue is sometimes silly but entertaining. The story is narrated by Quinn Quicksilver, abandoned at three-days-old, and raised by a convent of nuns. Things go wrong in his busy but quiet life as a magazine writer when he submits his DNA for analysis, trying to get a clue as to who his parents might be. That triggers a search by a ruthless government agency for individuals with certain attributes that he is only now discovering that he possesses.
Koontz peppers Quicksilver's narrative with some wry observations about modern society, government, politics, etc. that sometimes seem to be a little too on the nose for a 19-year old to pick up on (although nowhere in the story does it indicate how old Quinn is later as the first-person storyteller).
I chuckled at several of these, and one comment in particular struck a nerve. Sometimes fiction parallels reality, and vice versa. During the climatic break-in at a cultish community for the rich and privileged (also suspected of containing members of an alternate universe) Quinn says this:
"As we descended the stairs, I despaired that so many people, born with the knowledge of intuition and the ability to reason, shaped their lives instead by sheer emotion. So many were swept away by boldfaced lies and swayed into currents of vicious fantasies, until they were so far from the shore of truth that they couldn't even see it. They were everywhere in our time, controlled by those who taught them to fear what didn't threaten them and receive with gladness those ideas and forces that would rob them of purpose, of meaning, of security - - and sooner than later would take away their lives as well." I did not laugh at that one. Sad, but true.
I've read several of Koontz's novels over the years, but don't consider myself that knowledgable of his works. However, based on the few books that I recall, it seems like QUICKSILVER features a return to some older, familiar, and popular settings and themes of Koontz. This is good escapist fun, if that's what you're looking for.
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