I loved this book! Things start immediately, and don't let up! First you are dealing with the horror of what has occured....what happened in the town of Snowfield, California? Hundreds of people are missing. A handful of bodies are found, but what happened to them? Even Dr. Jenny Paige can't identify a cause of death. Is it the work of a psycopath? Terrorism? A Disease? Just wait till you find out what it is!!!

I'm only four chapters in, but I'm already hooked. I have had mixed experiences with this author, so I was wary, but if he can keep up the breathless mystery and suspense, this looks like it will come down on the side of one of Koontz's good books. We shall see...And done...a solid effort from Koontz and I will add it to the books that I like from him: The Odd Thomas series and the book about the mutant dog.

I read Watchers for a class. The next week, I had to read Phantoms for a different class. I didn't think it was possible, but Phantoms was an even worse piece of tripe than Watchers was. Dean Koontz is the worst author I've had the displeasure of reading. His characters are flat and unbelievable, his pacing drags, his dialogue doesn't sound realistic, he does no research or fact-checking whatsoever, and his story ideas are tired retreads of played out cliches. His prose is heavy-handed, overdone, purple narration. If I've ever read a writer who should be punished for the poor quality of his books, it is Dean Koontz. The man is a hack. Reading a Koontz novel is like having my brain raped with clumsy diction and weak imagery. The man is not subtle, and doesn't build any kind of tension in his horror stories; instead, he beats the reader over the head with a hammer of cheesy metaphors. I could, quite literally, feel myself getting stupider as I waded through these atrocious novels. Instead of reading Dean Koontz, you should probably smash your head repeatedly into a brick wall. You'd end up with the same results in half the time.