The Key to Midnight (Group Read - July 2018)

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Writing as a woman named Leigh Nichols, Dean Koontz published a unique novel called The Key to Midnight which will be featured as our group read during the month of July.

Dean shares:

Like all my pen names, Leigh met a tragic end. I used to tell people that while taking a tour for research purposes, Leigh had been killed in an explosion at a jalapeno-processing plant. Later, I insisted that Leigh died in a catastrophic rickshaw pile-up in Hong Kong. The truth, of course, is uglier. After drinking too much champagne one evening on a Caribbean cruise ship, Leigh Nichols was decapitated in a freak limbo accident.
- Afterword, The Key to Midnight

[Jen]

You know, I might have to find a copy of this book with that afterword in it. Even if the book is disappointing (I hope it won't be!), that afterword looks like it will make everything better. :-)

[Mike]

Really enjoyed this one. It was the newest revised edition from 2010. Haven't read the original version or the 1995 revised one.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Mike wrote: "Really enjoyed this one. It was the newest revised edition from 2010. Haven't read the original version or the 1995 revised one."

I have the 1995 edition. I also have the 2012 audiobook. I know there is an older edition that was changed significantly, but not sure that there's much difference between 1995 and 2010. The afterword might be different and the cover of course.

[Mike]

Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "Mike wrote: "Really enjoyed this one. It was the newest revised edition from 2010. Haven't read the original version or the 1995 revised one."

I have the 1995 edition. I also have the 2012 audiobo..."

Yeah, I don't know what exactly the difference is, just that Koontz said it was a "better version," so I bought it, lol.

[Charissa]

I may join you guys on this one. I remember liking it.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

I think this is a good older Koontz book to read right now given that we are in the middle of the Jane Hawk Series. The Key to Midnight has similar themes/ideas that have been presented in other Koontz books: The House of Thunder, By The Light of the Moon and False Memory - all of which relate to Jane Hawk.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

I have missed the last couple of group reads, so I've started reading The Key to Midnight today.

[Christine]

I've missed quite a few group reads at Koontzland. I've started this one too. I love that it starts in Kyoto.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

I find a connection with Jane Hawk, also The House of Thunder, By the Light of the Moon and False Memory

[Susan]

When the title came up, following The House of Thunder, I thought I'd read it back when it was first published. I did read one back then that had a woman trapped in a Japanese nightclub, but it had a different plot. Unlike Thunder, I was wrong about this one. I may finish it tonight.
There are some themes that seem to resurface in Knootz books, like government conspiracies, interference with people's independence, mind manipulation. The Midnight Bay books, this one, the Jane Hawk series, the Frankenstein series all contain parts of them. There are probably other books I don't remember off the top of my head that would contain these ideas.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Thanks Susan :-) You are correct Susan, connections abound in the Koontz Universe. I think Key to Midnight is the one you were thinking about - you may have read an earlier edition. I can't think of any other Koontz story featuring "a woman trapped in a Japanese nightclub".

[Susan]

No, actually, I just read Key to Midnight. The book I was thinking about that I read in the dim distant past wasn't a Koontz book. That book did not have hypnosis with or without drugs in the plot. That woman was trafficked to Japan and kept in line with threats, although she did keep trying to escape. Koontz's book went in a whole different direction.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Oh, I misunderstood 🙃 thought it was a Dean Koontz book. Tnanks for reading The Key to Midnight this month 🗝