An excerpt from this novel appears in the book Love of Goldens as the story “A Mind of Its Own.”

From The Truth About Handguns: Exploding the Myths, Hype, and Misinformation by Duane Thomas
Paladin Press, 1997, p112, Chapter Nine “Gun Trivia”
”163. In the first paragraph of the Dean Koontz novel Watchers, on his 36^th birthday Travis Cornell gets ready to go hiking through a rural canyon in Southern California. He takes with him only three things. Name them.”
The answer is given on page 118: “He took only a package of Oreo cookies, a large canteen full of orange-flavored Kool-Aid, and a fully loaded Smith & Wesson .38 Chief’s Special.”

Watchers is book number 87 in the book Thrillers: 100 Must Reads edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview, 2010). [see Appendix B]

Books – September 1987
p30: “…But the book is neither racy or realistic, neither potent nor practiced, despite the face that Koontz has apparently, been guilty of at least ten previous novels…”

Playboy – March 1989
“Books” by Digby Diehl
p33: “Ghost stories and other scary tales are always best when told out loud, which is why a novel such as The Silence of the Lambs (Audio Works), by Thomas Harris, works so well on tape. So does Watchers (Brilliance), by Dean R. Koontz. But for some real spine tingling, put your earphones on, turn off the lights and see how long you last with Prime Evil: A Taste for Blood (AudioWorks), with stories by Stephen King, Paul Hazel and Thomas Tessier, read by or Ed Begley, Jr. ”

Other editions: