Darkfall is a novel which epitomizes Dean Koontz’s writing style. Creepy and chilling, the book opens with a gang leader sequestered inside his house, protected by a single bodyguard. Throughout the night they hear several scratching and hissing noises. Assuming the noises are only rats, the gang leader pays no serious attention. The next day both he and his bodyguard are found dead.

The main character, Jack Dawson is a police officer for New York. When Jack sees the corpses of the two men he instantly thinks that the cause of death is supernatural. I found this unrealistic because cops have to look at the evidence and find a plausible cause of death. In the end he was right but because he knew this it made the story completely predictable. I’m not against supernatural theories but because it was his first thought I found it to upfront and blunt. If Koontz slowly introduced the idea of supernatural beings it would have added more to the story.

When Jack family becomes a target for the murderer the style of writing changes. There is much more dialogue and less description. I liked this better than the style before it kept you reading. You finally got inside the characters heads and could see the fear rising in Jack.

Darkfall was full of those suspenseful moments where people walk into a trap or are being chased . The book was so scary that I couldn’t read it in the dark. The description of each demon was bone-chillingly detailed, however some of the description took away from the story. The gory moments were a lot to handle because Koontz described them so clearly. You could picture every cut and gash because it was so descriptive.

The relationship between Jack and Rebecca, Jack’s assistant and love interest, gets confusing sometimes.They are complete opposites and argue, but then they start kissing and being all lovey. Throughout the novel, they are either at each others throats or making out. I find this confusing and irrelevant to the story itself. The book hinted that the duo had a deeper history but it was very vague and never explained fully, which also was confusing. The romance between Jack and Rebecca ruined the premise of the book. I wanted to read a horror/mystery but instead got romance.

Though the beginning of Darkfall is slow,  the pace quickens as the story progresses. At first, I thought that it was just going to be another “wannabe” horror book that might be a little scary. But I was wrong. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a good scare and is open to some romance. But be warned: you might want to keep the lights on while you read.