Phantoms by Dean Koontz (2002, Paperback, Reissue)

Koontz dazzles the pages of Phantoms with fantastic images of creatures from times gone by.

A woman and her sister return to a town, dark and quiet. Evidence suggests that people just "vanished," but with further investigation, ghastly scenes suggest a murderer has befallen the unsuspecting town.

As local police assist in the homicides, more and more evidence indicates a supernatural power is responsible. A clue is found which starts to unfold the mystery of ages, and the explanation for all of our History's great disappearances of animals and Civilizations.

People are dying, and yet being found undead, in possibly the most spell-binding novel in modern Science Fiction. Through pages of heart-racing drama, Koontz entertains the reader with possible theories of past extinctions!

A must read for the Koontz enthusiast and die-hard Sci-Fi thrill seeker.

A whole town turns up missing and there are very few clue. An unseen enemy is after the one who have come to town. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Jenny intended to bring her sister to live with her. Snowville was a lovely little town of just over 500 residents. Many which she called her friends. On her return to Snowville she found her cook and friend dead. From there it only got worse.
Through great trial she finally reached the Sheriff in the next larger town. He came very quickly but it wasn't going to be enough. Dean R. Koontz does a wonderful job of leading us into sure doom only to pull us back but not for long. The Phantom is revealed ... the clues might not be enough to save their lives. Everyone must die ... It has always been that way. But not this week.
This has a wonderful ending going from tragedy to tragedy. But the ending makes very good sense. A wonderful reading book. Share it with a friend.

To many, Dean R. Koontz is little more than "that other guy who isn't Stephen King." But I confess that I've read more of Koontz than of King. Which isn't to put King down in any way. I just like Koontz slightly more. And "Phantoms" is Koontz's best, hands-down.

I'm sure by now most people are aware of the plot thanks to the 1998 movie, but for the uninitiated, here goes: one slow Sunday in the mountain resort town of Snowfield, California, Sgt. Paul Henderson of the county sheriff's department is attacked by a mysterious...something in the sheriff's station. At that exact moment, Snowfield's resident doctor Jennifer Paige is returning from the airport with his fourteen-year-old sister Lisa in tow. Lisa had until recently been living with their mother in L.A., but, with the mother dead, Jenny has custody of her little sister and is bringing her to live with her in Snowfield.

Upon returning that evening however they are shocked to discover Jenny's housekeeper Hilda dead. Her body is in an odd state. All swollen and purple, with her face frozen in a scream of terror. Trying to find help, the sister only discover that Jenny's next door neighbors apparently vanished while eating dinner, and proceed to the sheriff's station where they find Sgt. Henderson dead, his corpse in the same condition as Hilda's. This time there is a new clue: Henderson had fired at something as he died but the bullets are nowhere to be found.

The phones are out (of course), and whenever Jenny tries to use one all she gets is a mysterious, creepy whispering sound, as if thousands of people are all whispering at once. Finally, though, she is able to get through to the police department in the neighboring town of Santa Mira, where Sheriff Bryce Hammond is in the midst of grilling murder suspect Fletcher Kale. Word of an entire town dead or missing takes precedence over a routine murder investigation, and so Sheriff Hammond loads up some deputies and heads on over to Snowfield to investigate. (In the meantime, Kale escapes custody and becomes an important character later on.)

Joining up with Jenny and Lisa, the cops begin investigating the town for clues, finding that, indeed, everyone is either missing outright, or dead, their corpses oddly swollen and purple. Things take a turn for the weird when the bodies begin disappearing and a gigantic moth attacks one of Hammond's deputies and eats his face off (!). On top of this, the group finds, in a locked, windowless bathroom, the cryptic message "Timothy Flyte: The Ancient Enemy," and Lisa begins seeing the dead deputy walking around....

"Phantoms" piles on mystery after mystery and gets stranger and stranger as the book goes on, reading like an excellent supernatural detective story. The subplot with the escaped Kale was quite good, and the ultimate explanation for what is going on (and the entity responsible) is pretty inventive for its time. My one gripe is that one of my favorite characters (I won't say who) dies what seems to me a pointlessly gratuitous death at the end, and, also, at times Lisa seems way too old, her dialogue far too sophisticated for a mere fourteen-year old. Beyond these minor complaints, "Phantoms" is an awesome sci-fi horror extravaganza and I highly recommend it.

Item was in excellent condition. Good Price. I was a little surprised that the cover of the book I recieved was not the same as the one in the picture, but hey, as long as the story inside is the same!

Very different and another book that had a movie based on it... the movie is totally different though.
This is another twisted tale by D.K. somewhat like a Stephen King book, but so much better! great storyline with happy endings and some not so happy endings. not what I would have expected.