8 Great Questions: Dean Koontz

May 14, 2018

The latest by Dean Koontz, The Crooked Staircase, picks up with his diehard FBI agent Jane Hawk, who knows she may be living on borrowed time. But as long as she’s breathing, she’ll never cease her one-woman war against the terrifying conspiracy that threatens the freedom—and free will—of millions. Propelled by her righteous fury and insistence on justice, Jane makes her way from Southern California to the snowy slopes of Lake Tahoe to confront the lethal forces arrayed against her. But nothing can prepare her for the chilling truth that awaits when she descends the crooked staircase to the dark, dreadful place where her long nightmare was born.

Recently, Dean checked in with Read It Forward about his ideal book club, a favorite word that has mystery at its core, and how he’s a little bit Mr. Toad at heart.

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What word do you love and why? What word do you hate and why?

My favorite word is love, because of the infinite mystery at the core of its nature. As Dickinson wrote, “That Love is all there is / Is all we know of love.” My least favorite word is hate, because it’s an emotion that solves nothing, destroys everything, and comes disguised in countless self-righteous masks, so that the haters too often see themselves as noble.