An Amazon Best Book of the Month: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
“Readers who were wondering how Koontz could possibly follow up his remarkable Jane Hawk series can breathe a sigh of relief. His new novel finds him still at the top of his game…Scary, sickening (in that good way), and touching, this is a novel that will delight both the author’s legion of fans and those who finally decide it’s time to find out what this guy Koontz is all about.” —Booklist (starred review)
“If you’re a dog person, you’ll love Devoted.” —The Sacramento Bee
“Canine or human, it is hard to find a more lovable character in fiction than Kipp. Devoted has every mark of a classic.” —Associated Press
“A warm, deeply engrossing tale…Not to be missed.” —Providence Journal
“The author’s knack for suspense reaches new heights with his latest work, Devoted, a nail-biter that matches up a sweet tech wizard named Woody Bookman, 11, who refuses to speak, and his telepathic, super-intelligent dog, Kipp.” —AARP
A telepathic dog and a silent autistic boy with a genius IQ are at the heart of this audiobook, which is enhanced greatly by Edoardo Ballerini’s performance. Kipp, the dog, understands that he needs to find Woody Bookman, an 11-year-old genius. Woody, who suspects that his father’s death was not an accident, believes that he and his widowed mother are in danger from a very bad, very dangerous man. Some of this story requires suspension of disbelief, and Ballerini’s narration makes that easier. He brings a level of realism to the characters and their situations that some listeners may find otherwise missing.The worst villain (there are several) sounds appropriately evil; other characters—even the silent ones—have their own distinct voices. G.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
2020-01-13
When he and his widowed mother are threatened by a freakish killer, a brilliant 11-year-old boy on the autism spectrum teams with an orphaned dog with human intelligence to fight off evil.
The boy, Woody, hasn't spoken a word in his life but has created a sophisticated virtual world to escape to and can hack the most complex dark web networks. He's determined to avenge his researcher father, who died in a suspicious helicopter crash. The dog, Kipp, orphaned by the death of his aged, loving caretaker, is part of an underground canine network boasting many other similarly advanced, genetically engineered dogs. (These dogs, who call themselves the Mysterium, are capable of such miracles as retrieving books from the library and reading them at night.) Out of the blue, a man who once worked with Woody's father and briefly dated Megan, Woody's mother, propositions and then threatens her. "I am becoming the king of beasts," he boasts, after having bitten a young woman to death. There is certainly no lack of raw action in the book, Koontz's first following five novels featuring investigator Jane Hawk. It just takes a certain kind of reader to...swallow the plot. Depending on one's susceptibility to heart-tugging boy-and-dog tales, the novel will either be dismissed as a work of cloying commercial calculation or enjoyed as a crafty blend of genres.
The worst fear raised by this odd creature feature is that it will spawn a sequel.
