Product Description

Edgler Vess is a sociopath intent on murder. He lives for one purpose only: to satisfy all appetites as they arise, seeking ever more outrageous experience. To live with intensity.

When he attacks her friend, Laura, Chyna Shepherd is saved by the instincts developed during a dark and turbulent childhood. Not knowing Laura is already dead, Chyna follows, hoping to save her friend, as Vess carries her body to his motor home – a dungeon and morgue on wheels. The killer, unaware of her presence, drives away.  But Chyna is now trapped in his dangerous orbit.

 Her sole aim is to get out alive, but when she learns the identity of the killer’s next intended victim, she knows she must act to save that precious life - and take risks beyond any that she ever imagined she could endure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23287 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

About the Author
Dean Koontz’s novels have sold over 200 million copies worldwide and more than 30 have appeared on national and international bestseller lists. He lives in southern California with his wife, Gerda.

Customer Reviews

Great book for long journeys
This was the first Dean Koontz novel I ever read. He writes with style and imagination, and he maintains an electrifying emotional and narrative pace throughout the book: this is page-turning fiction at its dynamic best.

Is this a thriller or is this horror? It was filmed in the USA as a fairly bland thriller which stayed close to the book in most of its aspects. It has, however, recently been transformed into an excellent French horror film, "Haute Tension" ('High Tension' in the States, 'Switchblade Romance' in the UK), which had added a whole new dimension to the tale, albeit diverging somewhat from the book towards the end.

A young woman is unwilling witness to the slaughter of her friend's family and pursues the murderer by stowing away in the man's mobile home. Koontz manages the story, which is basically one of hide-and-seek, with professional exactitude. He knows every inch of the settings he uses, has worked out to the precise second whether someone could hide here, move there, hide there, move again.

It is a very well handled novel, both from the perspective of his narrative story-telling skill and from that of the artistry of resolving a plot. It's a big enough book, but its subject is claustrophobic - escape in tight spaces and close quarters. Well handled, tense, gripping, and an excellent read.

A truly intense, exciting thriller.It lives up to the title.
This book is a great success! It begins with the murder of the heroine's best friend and family, only she was not found, and is left alive. On a strange whim she hides in the back of the killer's portable home, and things quickly hot up. As always Koontz's killer is intricate and complex.His thoughts leave you chilled, and although when summed up the plot appears farfetched, when read you can't help but believe it. The many twists leave you amazed at koontz's sheer genius! The ending is especially poignant, but I didn't know whether to feel happy or sad. A real thriller, and a fantasic read. You really enter the head of the insane.

The title says it all
This is by far one of Koontz' best best books! It is very intense, fast-paced and exciting. The action starts only about 15 pages into the book and doesn't let up until the very end. It has an origional storyline of the main charactor, Chyna (pronounced like the country), being trapped in a motor-home with a serial killer. She is trapped with him from the majority of the book and it is actually quite scary in places which is unusual for a Koontz book.
A good fast-paced read for any fans of Koontz or of the thriller genre.