about the book
Fourteen-year-old Billy Lucas slaughtered his own family. All of them. Brutally.
When homicide detective John Calvina walks into the crime scene, he realizes immediately he has seen this scene before. He lived it, two decades ago, when he was just fourteen years old. John was also the only survivor of a similar slaughter. His whole family dead. All of them.
Only on that night, John killed the killer. The man was named Alton Turner Blackwood and had come to town to kill. Tall and scarecrow- thin, Blackwood was abnormally strong. His hands were immense and he had orangutan- long arms. His malformed shoulder blades were thick, “so that bat wings appeared to be furled under his shirt.” Blackwood was evil—pure evil. John killed him for sure…but was he back?
After visiting Billy in the psychiatric ward, the homicide detective, who has spent his life working with just the facts, is now convinced something supernatural is happening. He suspected as a child that Blackwood was a demon of some kind, and now he is sure.
Some really weird things are happening. What John doesn’t realize is that he is not the only one experiencing these strange things. His wife and his children are also being targeted.
Now twenty years later, it’s back. This evil thing likes killing…likes it a lot. And it has already started. Billy’s family was just the first. This time it intends John’s family to be the last. All of them. Brutally. And this time, John is going to die, too.
about the author
After reading Dean Koontz’s super-scary novels, you’ve got to wonder how his mind comes up with the dark, twisted ideas. He assures us he is really a pussycat and his villains create themselves. Blackwood, the evil guy in What the Night Knows is Dean’s spookiest character so far. Dean just hopes he never meets Blackwood for real some dark and stormy night!
Dean was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He thought school was tedious and boring so he skipped as much as he could, especially college classes. To relieve the boredom, he read a lot and played in pinochle tournaments. In his senior year at Shippensburg College, he won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and has been writing ever since.
At first he wrote only at night and on weekends. After graduating, he accepted a full-time position as tutor and counselor to underprivileged children in the Appalachian Poverty Program. But there was a big problem—the very kids he was trying to help had a history of beating up their counselors. Dean lasted a year and then headed to suburban Harrisburg to teach English.
After a year and a half there, his wife Gerda offered Dean a challenge. She would support him for five years, so he could write full time and become a successful author. Five years later Gerda quit her job so she could run the business end of Dean’s very successful writing career. So far he has sold more than 450 million books in 38 languages!
Gerda and Dean have been together since high school. They live in Southern California with their golden retriever Anna. Dean writes about ten hours a day but still finds time to read— about 200 books a year! Their personal library contains over 40,000 volumes!
Sources:
Author website
Author interview : Book Page
Author interview : Huffington Post
Also by Dean Koontz:
Innocence. Bantam Doubleday Dell. 2013.
The Odd Thomas series. Bantam Doubleday Dell. 2003-2014.
The Darkest Evening of the Year. Bantam Doubleday Dell. 2007.
The Good Guy. Bantam Doubleday Dell. 2007.
The Husband. Bantam Doubleday Dell. 2006.
Velocity. Bantam Doubleday Dell. 2005.
Life Expectancy. Bantam Doubleday Dell. 2004.
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