Intensity

Past midnight, Chyna Shepherd, twenty- six, gazed out a moonlit window, unable to sleep on her first night in the Napa Valley home of her best friend's family. Instinct proves reliable. A murderous sociopath, Edgler Forman Vess, has entered the house, intent on killing everyone inside. A self-proclaimed "homicidal adventure," Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immense himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse or limits, to live with intensity. Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit.
　　Chyna is a survivor, toughened by a lifelong struggle for safety and self-respect. Now she will be tested as never before. At first her sole aim is to get out alive-until, by chance, she learns the identity of Vess's next intended victim, a faraway innocent only she can save. Driven by a newly discovered thirst for meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna musters every inner resource she has to save an endangered girl—as moment by moment, the terrifying threat Edgler Foreman Vess intensifies.

Book Description
Past midnight, Chyna Shepherd, twenty- six, gazed out a moonlit window, unable to sleep on her first night in the Napa Valley home of her best friend's family. Instinct proves reliable. A murderous sociopath, Edgler Forman Vess, has entered the house, intent on killing everyone inside. A self-proclaimed "homicidal adventure," Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immense himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse or limits, to live with intensity. Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit.

Chyna is a survivor, toughened by a lifelong struggle for safety and self-respect. Now she will be tested as never before. At first her sole aim is to get out alive-until, by chance, she learns the identity of Vess's next intended victim, a faraway innocent only she can save. Driven by a newly discovered thirst for meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna musters every inner resource she has to save an endangered girl—as moment by moment, the terrifying threat Edgler Foreman Vess intensifies.

Amazon.com
A young woman staying as a guest in a Napa Valley farmhouse becomes trapped in a fight for survival with a self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer", and races to warn his next intended victim. Unrelentingly terrifying, this book lives up to its name.

From Publishers Weekly
Koontz's career has mirrored Stephen King's to a remarkable degree?the early pseudonymous novels, the bloated blockbusters, the increased use of horror as social commentary?albeit at a lag. Keeping step, this uncommonly sleek work is nothing less than Koontz's Gerald's Game: a distillation of what's come before and a slick play to regain the top by a writer whose popularity seemed to have peaked. Koontz even makes the centerpiece of Chyna Shepherd's battle against a serial killer her attempt to free herself from the restraints that bind her to a piece of furniture?the very same challenge faced by King's heroine. And just as Gerald's Game reinvigorated King's career and writing, this masterful, if ultimately predictable, exercise in high tension should do the same for Koontz's. This is basically a two-character novel, and both principals are compelling: the spirited Chyna, a youngish psychology student, and her nemesis, homicidal maniac Edgler Vess, who revels in sensation, be it pain or pleasure?in the intensity of experience. The two link when Vess kills Chyna's best friend as Chyna hides under a bed. Chyna pursues Vess but is eventually captured by him, after which she must combat not only those cuffs but also Vess's killer dogs, Vess himself and, of course, her own terror. For once, Koontz tamps down on his usual libertarian soapboxing to let the story race?which it does fast enough to give readers whiplash as they hold on to what may end up being the most viscerally exciting thriller of the year. 600,000 first printing; Literary Guild main selection.

From Library Journal
Chyna Shepherd, at 26, is very much alone in the world. Growing up with a hippie mother, Chyna's bleak childhood was filled with fear and confusion. While visiting the home of her best and only friend Laura, Chyna miraculously survives the brutal and senseless murders of Laura and her entire family. Chyna's nightmare continues when she accidently gets trapped in the killer's mobile home. Although the homicidal Vess functions normally in the everyday world, he is abhorrent and terrifying in the extreme. When Chyna discovers that Vess's next victim is an adolescent girl, she tries to stop him. No longer helpless, Chyna matches wits with the brilliant Vess in a contest for her life and her sanity. Koontz's masterly pen once again builds the suspense to almost unbearable levels and readers will scarcely believe that the story takes place over a 36-hour period. Highly recommended.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　-Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo

From Booklist
Leopards can change their spots. Witness Dean Koontz. Long a reliable best-seller, he also was always a less than accomplished wordsmith. His thrillers, grabby though they were, were loaded with flat prose, flatter characters, and the flattest ideas--the book equivalents of movies starring such second-string Slys and Arnolds as Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal. Then he switched publishers and out have come Dark Rivers of the Heart (1994) and now this pulse pounder about a homey weekend gone 'way bad. Chyna Shepherd--child of a gorgeous slut who, on account of her taste for sociopaths as boyfriends, exposed the girl to plenty of mayhem until she fled Mom at age 16--goes for a pleasant Napa Valley weekend visiting the vintner parents of her best college friend, only to become the covert witness to the family's murder at the hands of thrill-addicted serial (and mass) murderer Edgler Foreman Vess. Hardened by her childhood against even this loathsome violence, Chyna determines to keep on the killer's trail until she can bring him to justice or exact it herself. Although it cops from Harris' Silence of the Lambs, Strieber's Billy, and Thompson's Killer inside Me, Intensity is tightly written and free of cliches, thus a real advance over virtually everything else, including the politically engaged Dark Rivers, that Koontz has written. Maybe that's what good editing has done.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Ray Olson

From AudioFile
Chyna Shepherd, a psychology student spending the weekend in the Napa Valley with the family of her best friend, survives a killing spree in which all but she are murdered by Edgler Vess, a psychopath. Chyna is trapped in Vess's motor home where she must battle Vess to save herself. Kate Burton gives an extraordinary reading of this thriller, so chilling and terrifying that one can hardly bear to listen, yet one can't wait to hear what comes next. It's essential that the narrator effectively delineate the two characters in this story. Burton accomplishes this by lowering her tone for Vess's narrative and conveying the intense emotions of Chyna's struggle, as well as the memories of her troubled past. Fans of thrillers and Koontz should revel in this production. M.A.M.

Book Dimension
length: (cm)17.4 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)10.4

Dean Koontz, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives with his wife, Gerda, and the enduring spirit of their golden retriever, Trixie, in southern California.