- Hardcover: 307 pages
- Publisher: Alfred a Knopf; First trade edition edition (Jan 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 067942525X
- ISBN-13: 978-0679425250
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.7 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,737,825 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Chyna Shepherd is a twenty-six-year-old woman whose deeply troubled childhood taught her the hard rules of survival, and whose adult life has been an unrelenting struggle for self-respect and safety. Now rare trust has blossomed for Chyna into friendship with the woman whose family home she is visiting for the weekend: a farm in the Napa Valley surrounded by vineyards and hills, which Chyna can see from the guest-room window where she sits at one o'clock in the morning, fully dressed, unable to sleep. Suspicions she learned in childhood still make her uneasy in unfamiliar houses--even this one, where her closest friend is sound asleep down the hall. And in this case her most disturbing instincts prove reliable. A man has entered the house, a man who lives for one purpose: to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse, or limits--to live with intensity.
His name is Edgler Foreman Vess. He likes to make words with the letters from his name--GOD, DEMON, SAVE, RAGE, ANGER, FEAR, FOREVER, are just a few of them--and then makes sentences with the words. One of his favorites, GOD FEARS ME, is sometimes the last thing he whispers to his victims. Edgler Vess is a self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer": On this night, his adventure--murdering everyone in the house--becomes Chyna's long nightmare.
Trapped in Vess's deadly orbit, Chyna thinks only of getting out alive. But when she inadvertently learns the identity of Vess's intended next victim, waiting for him far from Napa Valley, Chyna is gripped with concern for this other person, who is as innocent as Chyna, and as endangered. Driven now by a sense of responsibility for another, by a purpose and meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna rises to unexpected heights of courage and daring--her only hope as the threat of Edgler Foreman Vess closes in and grows more horrifying moment by moment.
Intensity unfolds over the course of just twenty-four hours, but within that brief time frame, Dean Koontz gives us what is perhaps his most inventive, emotionally intricate, and terrifyingly suspenseful novel yet.
His name is Edgler Foreman Vess. He likes to make words with the letters from his name--GOD, DEMON, SAVE, RAGE, ANGER, FEAR, FOREVER, are just a few of them--and then makes sentences with the words. One of his favorites, GOD FEARS ME, is sometimes the last thing he whispers to his victims. Edgler Vess is a self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer": On this night, his adventure--murdering everyone in the house--becomes Chyna's long nightmare.
Trapped in Vess's deadly orbit, Chyna thinks only of getting out alive. But when she inadvertently learns the identity of Vess's intended next victim, waiting for him far from Napa Valley, Chyna is gripped with concern for this other person, who is as innocent as Chyna, and as endangered. Driven now by a sense of responsibility for another, by a purpose and meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna rises to unexpected heights of courage and daring--her only hope as the threat of Edgler Foreman Vess closes in and grows more horrifying moment by moment.
Intensity unfolds over the course of just twenty-four hours, but within that brief time frame, Dean Koontz gives us what is perhaps his most inventive, emotionally intricate, and terrifyingly suspenseful novel yet.
About the Author
Dean Koontz's novels have sold over 200 million copies worldwide and more than 30 have appeared on national and international bestseller lists. He lives in southern California with his wife, Gerda.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book is a great success! It begins with the murder of the heroine's best friend and family, only she was not found, and is left alive. On a strange whim she hides in the back of the killer's portable home, and things quickly hot up. As always Koontz's killer is intricate and complex.His thoughts leave you chilled, and although when summed up the plot appears farfetched, when read you can't help but believe it. The many twists leave you amazed at koontz's sheer genius! The ending is especially poignant, but I didn't know whether to feel happy or sad. A real thriller, and a fantasic read. You really enter the head of the insane.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is by far one of Koontz' best best books! It is very intense, fast-paced and exciting. The action starts only about 15 pages into the book and doesn't let up until the very end. It has an origional storyline of the main charactor, Chyna (pronounced like the country), being trapped in a motor-home with a serial killer. She is trapped with him from the majority of the book and it is actually quite scary in places which is unusual for a Koontz book.
A good fast-paced read for any fans of Koontz or of the thriller genre.
A good fast-paced read for any fans of Koontz or of the thriller genre.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was the first Dean Koontz novel I ever read. He writes with style and imagination, and he maintains an electrifying emotional and narrative pace throughout the book: this is page-turning fiction at its dynamic best.
Is this a thriller or is this horror? It was filmed in the USA as a fairly bland thriller which stayed close to the book in most of its aspects. It has, however, recently been transformed into an excellent French horror film, "Haute Tension" ('High Tension' in the States, 'Switchblade Romance' in the UK), which had added a whole new dimension to the tale, albeit diverging somewhat from the book towards the end.
A young woman is unwilling witness to the slaughter of her friend's family and pursues the murderer by stowing away in the man's mobile home. Koontz manages the story, which is basically one of hide-and-seek, with professional exactitude. He knows every inch of the settings he uses, has worked out to the precise second whether someone could hide here, move there, hide there, move again.
It is a very well handled novel, both from the perspective of his narrative story-telling skill and from that of the artistry of resolving a plot. It's a big enough book, but its subject is claustrophobic - escape in tight spaces and close quarters. Well handled, tense, gripping, and an excellent read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Gripping, harrowing and truly intense
"Intensity" is a roller-coaster ride of emotions, veering from hope to despondency, from shivers down the spine and then to a wry smile at the laconic humour within, it is... Read more
Published 14 days ago by LG
A Very Dark Thriller
One of the best books I have read by this writer of horror.Dont read this book if you are feeling down, as its very dark with no let up from start to finish. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. A. L. France
Content
Still the best book re writing capability and content ... Love it ... Just wish the film had kept to the book !!
Published 1 month ago by P. Thomas
Ho hum!
Well, first I will say that I did enjoy the book. It was a compelling read. However, I have to agree with some other reviewers that it needs cutting. Read more
Published 1 month ago by worldofjimbob
Don't read alone at night!
I've always been one of those who can watch pretty much anything on tv and never have nightmares, but reading this book alone at night before going to bed creeped me out so much I... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Ardnaxela
Very intense, feels very claustrophobic too!
I always wondered what it must feel like to hide from a murderer and kidnapper or even worse being sequestrated by one? well I sure found out after reading this one! Read more
Published 12 months ago by frenchie
WOW... Be prepared to be scared!!!
This is one of the best books in this genre I have read. Why? Well, a simple plot (and not an original I might add) is made into a very INTENSE and gripping book, Dean Koontz has... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Ms. C. Dowding
A GOOD READ!
Great story overall - but slow at the start but leads up to a gripping end!
Published 22 months ago by Ms. A. Bryceland-young
Everything comes to him who waits.....................................
I simply can not agree with those reviewers who give this novel five stars whilst saying it is "fast paced" because if it is anything, it is most definitely NOT fast paced. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2009 by R. Faulkner
An excellent page-turner but some flaws
There is no doubt that this book is one of those classic page-turners, which leaves you extremely reluctant to set the book down (to the point where I nearly forgot to get off the... Read more
Published on 9 Nov 2009 by R. Loughins
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