Product Description

Bartholomew Lampion was blinded at the age of three, when surgeons reluctantly removed his eyes to save him from a fast-spreading cancer, but although eyeless, Barty regained his sight at thirteen. This sudden ascent from a decade of darkness into light was not brought about by a holy healer. A roller coaster had something to do with his recovery, as did a seagull. And you can’t discount Barty’s profound desire to make his mother proud of him before she died. The first time she died was the day Barty was born. January 6, 1965.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90526 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 832 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Horrormeister Koontz looks heavenward for inspiration in his newest suspense thriller, From the Corner of His Eye, which is chock-full of signs, portents, angels and one somewhat second-rate devil, a murky and under characterised guy named Junior Cain who throws his beloved wife off a fire tower on an Oregon mountain and spends the rest of the novel waiting for the retribution that will surely come. But not before a series of tragedies ensues that convince Junior that someone or something named Bartholomew is out to exact vengeance for that crime and the series of other murders that follow.

Bartholomew's own troubles begin with his birth, which transpires moments after his father is killed in a traffic accident as he is taking his wife to the hospital, and continue with the loss of his eyes at the tender age of three. Young Bartholomew has visionary gifts, though to his mother, a nice lady who's renowned for her pie-making abilities as well as her sweetly innocent nature, he's just a particularly smart kid who can read and write before his second birthday. Eventually, Bartholomew regains his sight, Junior Cain gets his comeuppance and fate conspires to bring love into the Pie Lady's life, reward the faithful and put a happy ending on this genre-bending tale. Koontz will no doubt rocket right to the top of the bestseller list with this inventive, if somewhat slower-paced, read. --Jane Adams, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Bartholomew Lampion was blinded at the age of three, when surgeons reluctantly removed his eyes to save him from a fast-spreading cancer, but although eyeless, Barty regained his sight at thirteen. This sudden ascent from a decade of darkness into light was not brought about by a holy healer. A roller coaster had something to do with his recovery, as did a seagull. And you can't discount Barty's profound desire to make his mother proud of him before she died. The first time she died was the day Barty was born. January 6, 1965.

About the Author
Dean Koontz was born into a very poor family and learned early on to escape into fiction. His novels have sold over 200 million copies worldwide and more than thirty have appeared on national and international bestseller lists.

Customer Reviews

enthralling
After reading a coulpe of the other reviews, I have decided to add my own. This book is very clever. It takes you in one direction and then the next moment to a different place (literally speaking). Characters are not who or what they first seem to be. I particularly liked the way the Enoch character was dealt with because, although he is a nasty piece of work, he is so dellusional about his own self importance that he becomes grotesque and so hilarious from the outsider's point of view... Still, he is an evil man and you will find yourelf wishing you too could 'walk where it is not raining' to help the other characters deal with him...

Sentimental and over-long - one of his weakest books
I am a big Dean Koontz fan and have read most of his (huge) output, but I have to accept the quality has slipped in the past ten years or so, and this one is his weakest yet. Books like "Watchers", "Lightning" and "Strangers" are timeless five-star classics that I have re-read again and again, but I'm afraid this is way below them.

So what's the problem with it ? First, the length. The first 600 pages set everything up v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and could have been comfortably cut by half - after a hundred pages or so, I was speed-reading large chunks. Then with 200 pages to go, things finally get into gear and it turns into a decent thriller for a spell. But unfortunately the climax is over way too quickly - after 800 pages, at least Koontz could have given a decent amount of time to disposing of the villain !

Next, the treatment of the good guys is drenched with saccharine sentimentality. I recently re-read "Watchers" and there the female heroine, Nora Devon, starts the book as a shy, reclusive woman who is struggling to get over the domineering influence of her recently-deceased aunt, but Koontz was able to make you empathize with her struggles at the beginning, without needing to make her problems over-the-top. If she was a character in "From the Corner..." she would at the very least have been viciously beaten and sexually-abused by her aunt as a child, while still devoting her life to good works among the poor and the homeless. The good guys are so purely, unrealistically good that it almost made me root for the bad guy at a few points (fortunately Koontz makes him sufficiently irritating, if not really evil, to prevent this).

And the two main characters who are children are idealized in a way that shows the author has no children of his own. A few flaws would make them much more realistic, and, to me, sympathetic.

So if you're new to Koontz, don't start with this one ! If you're already a fan, check this one out carefully before deciding to invest your time on it.

Real stinker of an ending!
Very disappointing end to what started off as a good read.

Koontz has you drawn into the story for 600 pages then seems to have either run out of ideas or been near his deadline and rushed the story,you are left feeling cheated having read so much to just have the climax done and dusted in a few pages.

Infact after the bad guy is dealt with in a mere few pages, I found myself not at all interested in the rest of the remaining story,added to that I felt as if I was being preached to about quantum mechanics.
Koontz is a great writer and there are many great books by him this could have been another.