"The City", by Dean Koontz

I always loved Dean Koontz for the way he has given us magical stories to read slowly and savour while taking our time to live inside each one of them and enjoy every moment. “The City” is a must to take time with and let the words and style tease our analytical side in order to capture the essence of one of the very best narratives in this genre.

The hauntingly beautiful story is of a young boy of ten growing up in New York during the sixties. Told from the perspective of his older self, Jonah Kirk now in his late fifties recounts how he yearned to become “a piano man” like his beloved grandfather.

Of course this mystical tale is more than a story about music and the people who make it, it has dark forces at work, nightmares and dreams come true and our protagonist finds himself often tangled with some very bad people while trying his best to make the right choices to keep everyone safe. With a master’s touch Mr. Koontz builds tension, heightens the suspense and adds the feeling of impending doom to keep us at the edge of our seat till the plot reaches its dramatic conclusion. To be honest, although this book is beautifully written and has good characters it lacks the supernatural and horror some may look for. This apart, the narrative is held together with the amazing language and with this we can easily forgive all the faults we can find.

I zipped through “The City” in no time it was that captivating.