Product Description

Dean Koontz has surpassed his longtime reputation as “America’s most popular suspense novelist”(Rolling Stone) to become one of the most celebrated and successful writers of our time. Reviewers hail his boundless originality, his art, his unparalleled ability to create highly textured, riveting drama, at once viscerally familiar and utterly unique.

Author of one #1 New York Times bestseller after another, Koontz is at the pinnacle of his powers, spinning mysteries and miracles, enthralling tales that speak directly to today’s listeners, balm for the heart and fire for the mind. In this stunning new novel, he delivers a tour de force of dark suspense and brilliant revelation that has all the Koontz trademarks: adventure, chills, riddles, humor, heartbreak, an unforgettable cast of characters, and a climax that will leave you clamoring for more.

Dylan O’Connor is a gifted young artist just trying to do the right thing in life. He’s on his way to an arts festival in Santa Fe when he stops to get a room for himself and his twenty-year-old autistic brother, Shep. But in a nightmarish instant, Dylan is attacked by a mysterious “doctor,” injected with a strange substance, and told that he is now a carrier of something that will either kill him...or transform his life in the most remarkable way. Then he is told that he must flee--before the doctor’s enemies hunt him down for the secret circulating through his body. No one can help him, the doctor says, not even the police.

Stunned, disbelieving, Dylan is turned loose to run for his life...and straight into an adventure that will turn the next twenty-four hours into an odyssey of terror, mystery--and wondrous discovery. It is a journey that begins when Dylan and Shep’s path intersects with that of Jillian Jackson. Before that evening Jilly was a beautiful comedian whose biggest worry was whether she would ever find a decent man. Now she too is a carrier. And even as Dylan tries to convince her that they’ll be safer sticking together, cold-eyed men in a threatening pack of black Suburbans approach, only seconds before Jilly’s classic Coupe DeVille explodes into thin air.

Now the three are on the run together, but with no idea whom they’re running from--or why. Meanwhile Shep has begun exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior. And whatever it is that’s coursing through their bodies seems to have plunged them into one waking nightmare after another. Seized by sinister premonitions, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to crime scenes--just minutes before the crimes take place.

What this unfathomable power is, how they can use it to stop the evil erupting all around them, and why they have been chosen are only parts of a puzzle that reaches back into the tragic past and the dark secrets they all share: secrets of madness, pain, and untimely death. Perhaps the answer lies in the eerie, enigmatic messages that Shep, with precious time running out, begins to repeat, about an entity who does his work “by the light of the moon.”

By the Light of the Moon is an audio of heart-stopping suspense and transcendent beauty, of how evil can destroy us and love can redeem us--a masterwork of the imagination in which the surprises come page after page and the spell of sublime storytelling triumphs throughout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #484159 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-06
• Released on: 2007-02-06
• Formats: Audiobook, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From Publishers Weekly
Perhaps more than any other author, Koontz writes fiction perfectly suited to the mood of America post-September 11: novels that acknowledge the reality and tenacity of evil but also the power of good; that celebrate the common man and woman; that at their best entertain vastly as they uplift. His latest is one of those best, exciting and deeply moving, shorter than usual and also less prone to the overwriting, the flood of similes and metaphors, that sometimes overwhelms his storytelling. As usual for Koontz, the novel opens at full throttle: a mad doctor invades a motel in Arizona, injects both itinerant artist Dylan O'Connor and struggling comic Jillian Jackson (strangers to one another) with an unknown substance that, he says, is his life's work and will have some unknown effect, then warns them to flee before his enemies kill them; soon after, the doctor is slain by heavily armed assailants. The rest of the story is an extended chase, as Dylan and Jillian, along with Dylan's high-functioning autistic brother, Shep, dart around the West, only steps ahead of the assassins. Within hours, the effects of the injections materialize: Jillian experiences portentous visions-a flock of birds, a woman in a church; Dylan is overcome by the need to rush to the aid of people in distress (among others, in an intensely poignant scene, an elderly man searching for his missing daughter); and Shep learns to teleport himself and others. (Interestingly, Koontz bases the science behind these developments on nanotechnology, the same mechanism used by Michael Crichton in his just published Prey, an object lesson in how two writers can take the same premise and generate two very different yet excellent novels). The novel's only flaw is its abrupt ending, contrived probably to allow sequels-a probability that Koontz fans, but also anyone else who reads this novel, a predestined bestseller and rightfully so, will applaud.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Someone menacing is after itinerant artist Dylan, his autistic brother, and their new traveling companion, Jilly, a stand-up comic who has visions. And they only have the novel's 24-hour time span to figure out who it is.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Tiny machines injected into the bloodstream cause changes in personality, intelligence, talents, and behavior. Dylan O'Connor; his autistic brother, Shep; and comedian Jillian Jackson receive these nanobots against their will and spend the rest of the book coming to grips with their plight. Koontz's passion for alliteration makes itself glaringly obvious in the audio production. But Stephen Lang brings an amazing talent for characterization to the complex story, especially with the character of Shep. Not only are the voices and speech patterns of each character unique and believable, but the pacing of their conversation achieves complete realism. Lang's Brooklyn background occasionally creeps into the descriptive passages, but with so much dialogue in the book, it really doesn't matter. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

An Eerie, Fast-Paced Page-Turner Not to Be Read in the Dark
Dylan O'Connor and his autistic brother Shep are on a road trip when they are ambushed by a stranger. Dylan is injected with something that is supposed to change him, something wonderful...if he doesn't die first.

Jilly and her plant Fred are also traveling the same route and she discovers that she too is a "carrier" like Dylan. She joins forces with the brothers, and their race for survival relies on their quick wit in evading those who follow them and Shep's ability to remember the man who injected them.

The story has a "Rain Man" mood, laced with Dean Koontz' expert ability to create suspense and mystery. What is the purpose of the injection? Is it for the good of mankind or is it pure evil? For years, I've read Koontz, back when he was Dean R. Koontz, and for years I wondered whether he was a pseudonym of Stephen King's, like Richard Bachman. Regardless of who Koontz is, he rates as one of the true masters of suspense and horror. Sometimes the scariest things are those based on fact rather than fiction. And Koontz has a way of making us believe anything is possible. A great read!

By the Light of the Moon should be read with ALL lights on! I salute you, Mr. Koontz!

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif, [...]

I Wish I Could Rate This in the Negative Numbers
Turn on your fans and get out the air freshener, folks! This one is truly a stinker!

I didn't like this book at all. That stupidly unappealing Jillian character made a bad story even worse. I did not like her AT ALL. She was truly demented! I wish I could warn people about just how poor this work is. In some ways it reminds me of the movie "Minority Report," that is the part about anticipating crimes before they occur. I didn't like that movie either, but even it was better than this book.

Shepherd may have had autism, but that stupid Jillian made him look neurotypical and socially savvy by a long shot. At least Shepherd didn't bestow an identity to some plant and pretend it was something one could have conversations with. At least he was polite and not looking for ways to insert verbal daggers like Jillian did. For Pete's Sake! And people criticize folks with AUTISM for having poor judgment and a general lack of social skills!

If you want to read about "folding into time," read L'Engle's 1962 classic "A Wrinkle in Time" instead. That is vastly superior to this and is an excellent read for all ages. If you want a GOOD story with some supernatural elements, read Duane's "Wizard Alone." Duane's book portrays a wizard with autism in a sympathetic and interesting way and does not rely on heavy-handed cliches as this book does. Autism is explained in an intelligent, forthright manner in "Wizard Alone." Although Duane's book is geared for the young adult audience, it is still an excellent and unique look at autism and is well written with delightful characters. If you want to read an excellent book about realistic characters with autism, read Elizabeth Moon's book and Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time." Those are outstanding works that speak volumes.

Be warned about this book. There is a plethora of better selections.

Very plainly..........
In my humble opinion, it is the worst, or should I write least favorite book I've ever read. Shep this, and Shep that. The novel was extremely irritating to the point I just wanted to pull out the pages and sling it across the room. This is my second Koontz book I've read. The first was "From the Corner of His Eye", which was wonderful. It is on my list of top novels. This book, by my opinion, is garbage. Find out for yourself if you like it or not. I would strongly recommend getting and reading "From the Corner of His Eye" though.