Dean Koontz books

• Dean Koontz's The Bad Place
• Dean Koontz's Brother Odd (Odd Thomas Novels)
• Dean Koontz's Darkfall
• Dean Koontz's The Eyes of Darkness
• Dean Koontz's The Face of Fear
• Dean Koontz's Fear Nothing
• Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Book One: Prodigal Son
• Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Book Two: City of Night
• Dean Koontz's From the Corner of His Eye
• Dean Koontz's The House of Thunder
• Dean Koontz's Intensity
• Dean Koontz's Life Expectancy
• Dean Koontz's Lightning
• Dean Koontz's A New Collection: Shattered/Whispers/Watchers
• Dean Koontz's Night Chills
• Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas
• Dean Koontz's The Servants of Twilight
• Dean Koontz's Shadowfires
• Dean Koontz's Three Complete Novels
• Dean Koontz's The Taking
• Dean Koontz's Velocity
• Dean Koontz's The Vision
• Dean Koontz's The Voice of the Night
• Dean Koontz's Watchers

Dean Koontz appears to be a storytelling machine, cranking out book after book, many of which are fodder for movies or TV. Koontz writes obsessively, and he is well aware of how much of himself--especially his difficult childhood--is displayed in his works of fiction. "My childhood was a nightmare," Koontz once told an interviewer. His father, he says, was an alcoholic with a violent streak who held 40 jobs in 34 years. Koontz credits his mother with raising him with as much normalcy as possible, but adds that she did not understand his love of books and was not supportive of his literary ambitions. He admits that he has never come to terms with his mother's decision to stay with an abusive and unfaithful spouse. Koontz had been married to his high school sweetheart Gerda for nearly three years when she encouraged him to quit his teaching job. She offered to support him and gave him five years to make it as a professional writer. Koontz already had sold three novels and several short stories, but was far from enjoying his later success.

These days, Gerda Koontz handles the business end of her husband's literary career. Koontz often puts ordinary people in extraordinary situations--stranded on an iceberg (Icebound) or trapped in close quarters with a mass murderer (Intensity). But many of his literary hooks come from the vulnerability of the characters, whether it is the grief of a man who has lost his family to a plane crash (Sole Survivor) or the determination of two damaged people to fight the odds against them (Dark Rivers of the Heart).

Literary Specialty: Suspense thrillers starring ordinary folks with vulnerable sides
a.k.a.: David Axton, Brian Coffey, Deanna Dwyer, K.R. Dwyer, John Hill, Leigh Nichols, Anthony North, Richard Paige, Owen West, and Aaron Wolfe
Date of Birth: July 9, 1945
Place of Birth: Everett, Pennsylvania
Education: Shippensburg State College, Pennsylvania
Humble Beginnings: As a child, Koontz wrote stories, bound the pages with tape, and peddled his "books" door to door
Support Group: Men Who Write Too Much. Koontz has written scores of books, most of them bestsellers.
Family Ties: Koontz married his wife, Gerda, on October 15, 1966