By the Light of the Moon: A Novel

Written by Dean Koontz

Narrated by Kate Rudd and Seth Podowitz

Dean Koontz has surpassed his longtime reputation as “America’s most popular suspense novelist” (Rolling Stone) to become one of the most celebrated and successful writers of our time. Reviewers hail his boundless originality, his art, his unparalleled ability to create highly textured, riveting drama, at once viscerally familiar and utterly unique.

Author of one #1 New York Times bestseller after another, Koontz is at the pinnacle of his powers, spinning mysteries and miracles, enthralling tales that speak directly to today’s readers, balm for the heart and fire for the mind. In this stunning novel, he delivers a tour de force of dark suspense and brilliant revelation that has all the Koontz trademarks: adventure, chills, riddles, humor, heartbreak, an unforgettable cast of characters, and a climax that will leave you clamoring for more.

Dylan O’Connor is a gifted young artist just trying to do the right thing in life. He’s on his way to an arts festival in Santa Fe when he stops to get a room for himself and his twenty-year-old autistic brother, Shep. But in a nightmarish instant, Dylan is attacked by a mysterious “doctor,” injected with a strange substance, and told that he is now a carrier of something that will either kill him...or transform his life in the most remarkable way. Then he is told that he must flee--before the doctor’s enemies hunt him down for the secret circulating through his body. No one can help him, the doctor says, not even the police.

Stunned, disbelieving, Dylan is turned loose to run for his life...and straight into an adventure that will turn the next twenty-four hours into an odyssey of terror, mystery--and wondrous discovery. It is a journey that begins when Dylan and Shep’s path intersects with that of Jillian Jackson. Before that evening Jilly was a beautiful comedian whose biggest worry was whether she would ever find a decent man. Now she too is a carrier. And even as Dylan tries to convince her that they’ll be safer sticking together, cold-eyed men in a threatening pack of black Suburbans approach, only seconds before Jilly’s classic Coupe DeVille explodes into thin air.

Now the three are on the run together, but with no idea whom they’re running from--or why. Meanwhile Shep has begun exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior. And whatever it is that’s coursing through their bodies seems to have plunged them into one waking nightmare after another. Seized by sinister premonitions, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to crime scenes--just minutes before the crimes take place.

What this unfathomable power is, how they can use it to stop the evil erupting all around them, and why they have been chosen are only parts of a puzzle that reaches back into the tragic past and the dark secrets they all share: secrets of madness, pain, and untimely death. Perhaps the answer lies in the eerie, enigmatic messages that Shep, with precious time running out, begins to repeat, about an entity who does his work “by the light of the moon.”

By the Light of the Moon is a novel of heart-stopping suspense and transcendent beauty, of how evil can destroy us and love can redeem us--a masterwork of the imagination in which the surprises come page after page and the spell of sublime storytelling triumphs throughout.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Apr 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798400124549

Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz is the author of more than a dozen New York Times No. 1 bestsellers. His books have sold over 500 million copies worldwide, and his work is published in 38 languages. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania and lives with his wife Gerda, and their dog Elsa, in southern California. Dean Koontz is the author of more than a dozen New York Times No. 1 bestsellers. His books have sold over 500 million copies worldwide, and his work is published in 38 languages. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania and lives with his wife Gerda, and their dog Elsa, in southern California.

[Thomas Cunningham · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is another great by Dean Koontz. I wanted the story to go on. I wanted more, which is a sign of great writing. I don't know how he does this so well, but he always does it. In his books, the characters always have an interesting backstory that gives them depth and makes you love and feel how they must be feeling. I highly recommend this book to everyone looking for a fun, exciting ride that you won't to get off of.

[Vicki Chaney · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very entertaining!! I enjoyed it immensely! I thought the ending was a little simple after all of the suspense and action, but overall it was great!

[Sarah Moody · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of his best books ever. Between this and Watchers, I cannot determine number one. Suspenseful, dramatic, and exciting, this book delivers astonishment. I did not want it to end. I hope there is a sequel. Great characters and excellent narration.

[sharonmariabidwell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A re-read for me as part of a book clearance, although I enjoyed this as much, if not more, than the first time around, so may hold on to it awhile. Not only a solid plot, but Koontz creates an enjoyable balance of characters here. Even the antagonist, with his self-serving justification, lifts the mad scientist level somewhat. Yes, it’s necessary to suspend disbelief, but then this is a supernatural thriller — what else should the reader expect except the miraculous? The penultimate part with Shep being a little bit ‘something’ (the best way I can describe it, giving nothing away) has always stood out for me and the urge to protect the protagonist’s autistic brother makes for plenty of suspense.

[stephanie_m-868484 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I had read this novel when it first came out and thought it was pretty good. Not the best Koontz novel, but still pretty good.
Now I’m wondering about this. This novel now seems rather different for me, maybe because I’ve grown and matured as a person (I’d like to think).

The overly descriptive and loquacious (

[buffalogr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"By The Llight of The Moon" begins when Jilly, Dylan, and Shep's lives collide in a motel where a mad-scientist type character injects them with "stuff" and promises that "it does something different to everyone." While the plot revealed itself in time, the story was alll about the three characters and the mad scientist. In the end, the revealed thesis was one of goodness and wonder--but getting there? not so much.

[kalyhi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of his best ones.

[bauernfeind · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Idiotic. Seemed like a series of essays written by 8th graders challenged with using their most flowery, crazy writing style. I don't think I've ever read a Koontz book and based on this I never will again

[carol420 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"By The Llight of The Moon" begins when Jilly, Dylan, and Shep's lives collide in a motel where a mad-scientist type character injects them with "stuff" and promises that "it does something different to everyone." There were a lot of characters to contend with but overall it was a very good book. There was a lot of humor in this one that is usually missing from Koontz's books. It also lacked a lot of the "creepy" factor that we readers have come to associate with Dean Koontz.

[claudia.anderson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

good fast moving story, seems like it should be the start of a series

[steeleyjan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"By The Light Of The Moon" is one of Dean Koontz's best, and is a example of what he can deliver when he is on top of his game.

Mr. Koontz provides the reader with his usual edge-of-your seat suspense. But in this novel, he takes you on a mysterious scientific adventure, and a little less of a supernatural one.

You will meet and come to know each character well, and will be right there with them on this adventure.

Stephen Lang has become one of my favorite narrators, and was a great choice for this novel.

This is a great novel if you want to experience Dean Koontz at his best.

[kaydi35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked the book although I don't think it's Koontz' best book. It's about a guy, Dylan, and his autistic brother, Shep, who are on a road trip. An older man breaks into their hotel room and injects them with "stuff". Then they meet Jilly who has also been injected with "stuff". The next day takes them on the ride of their lives, including their revenge on the man who injected them.

I listened to this as an unabridged audiobook. It kept my rides interesting and I would recommend it.

[chromiumdomium · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely loved this book form start to almost the finish. I won't spoil the ending of the story, but feel that it didn't need the last few paragraphs. I loved the concept of the story and found it very involving. It could have been a classic, but for the small issue of the last little bit. I would urge everybody to read it if your a fan of this type of writing. The dialogue between the main main characters and the characterisation is brilliantly done and the nature of the autistic brother is very well portrayed. A superb read that keeps you turning the pages, but you'll have to forgive the author for the ending, I suppose.

[todd_russell_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

By The Light of The Moon starts strong. The first 100 pages are Koontz firing on all cylinders. We’ve got this creepy genius doctor injecting Dylan O’Conner with a strange substance that he calls “stuff.” Koontz does a great job reminding us readers that this stuff could be killing Dylan or it could be doing amazing things.

Dylan’s 20 year old autistic brother Shepard is a faithful, sympathetic sidekick. Shep’s heartbreaking condition makes him talk like a thesaurus rambling different definitions of words and constantly repeating phrases, particularly to do with the title of the novel. The relationship between Shep and his brother is strong, poignant and pokes readers square in the chest. A few times Koontz had me hoping by the end of the book maybe, just maybe, there might be some miraculous cure for Shep’s condition. I wanted a cure for Shep’s autism. Bad.

And then there is the traveling comedian, Jilly. She’s tough and doesn’t get along with Dylan at first. Jilly was also kidnapped by the creepy genius doctor for long enough to inject with the same mysterious stuff. Dylan, Jilly and Shep are on the run from bad people who want to kill them because of what they might do on the stuff. Don’t get on me for all the italics, I’m borrowing from Koontz. If/once you read the book you’ll be stuck doing that every time you type the word too.

So that’s the first 100 pages of By The Light of the Moon and it’s good. The setup sucked me in. I was hooked, compelled to see what this trio would do and where they would go on their adventure. Enough to work through the next 200 pages which, unfortunately, don’t have the equal swift pacing and energy of the beginning. Sure, there’s a ton of character expansion and conflict between the trio and readers aren’t sure whether or not to like Jilly.

And let’s not forget poor Shep. What about Shep? I asked myself one too many times in the middle of the story what if Shep wasn’t in By The Light of The Moon? Yes, he has these cryptic repeating messages which add the eerie factor but was he necessary to the overall story? What if Koontz had left Shep on the cutting room floor of his first draft editing? Would that much of the story have been lost or changed?

I won’t spoil the ending but will admit that Koontz proves why he’s a master storyteller in the final 100 pages. He puts the car back in gear and goes full throttle and by the ending readers are left wanting a sequel. You can see on the Koontz website readers have been asking him as repeatedly as Shep would ask: will there be a sequel?

This is how the great authors like Koontz roll.

I’ve been reading Dean Koontz for over 20 years and I’ve seen him change as a writer. His strongest horror writing was in the eighties (The Watchers, Phantoms, Whispers, Strangers era), when he first made it big on the scene.

Back then Koontz was tenacious, hungry, willing-to-chew-up-the-reader writer smashing his keyboard like guitarist at the end of the concert. That was Dean R. Koontz, remember him? It isn’t quite the same author of Dean Koontz books today. Maybe the ‘R’ that was dropped stood for ‘R’aw? Koontz was never as unhinged as some of the other popular horror writers (Barker, McCammon, King) but his stories were scarier than they are today.

To summarize: By The Light of The Moon. would have been a better read for me at about half the words. Maybe the sequel that I’m sure Koontz will write someday and sell a ton of copies (and yes, I’ll probably buy one too), will be a better replacement for the middle section of this book.

[davidlerickson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

With the exception of 'One Door Away From Heaven' this Koontz novel is the best he's created. I was taken by the uniqueness of not only the plot, but the characters and incredible scenes. Wouldn't we all love the ability to move through time and space, making the kind of incredible decisions that would try even the stoutest soul.
The final confrontation with the bad guy, utterly ruthless and yet with a compelling gift, was a totally unexpected thrill, despite the fact that we all know it had to happen.
If I could give more than 5 stars, I would.

[ggannell_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. A great mix of suspense, action and humor.

[jlouise77_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As always, I loved Dean Koontz's story, but his writing in this book was very different than most of the ones Ive read by him. There was WAY too much discription and I could almost read the whole book by skimming for the 1 sentence in each paragraph that was important to the story. Some descrition is good, but taking a whole paragraph to describe a tree and the majority of the words being 7 letters or more is a bit overboard. Especially when the next paragraph is more of the same describing the sky over the tree and so on and so forth.

[aloel_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dylan O'Connor is a gifted young artist just trying to do the right thing in life. He's on his way to an arts festival in Santa Fe when he stops to get a room for himself and his twenty-year-old autistic brother, Shep. But in a nightmarish instant, Dylan is attacked by a mysterious "doctor," injected with a strange substance, and told that he is now a carrier of something that will either kill him...or transform his life in the most remarkable way. Then he is told that he must flee—before the doctor's enemies hunt him down for the secret circulating through his body. No one can help him, the doctor says, not even the police.

Stunned, disbelieving, Dylan is turned loose to run for his life...and straight into an adventure that will turn the next twenty-four hours into an odyssey of terror, mystery—and wondrous discovery. It is a journey that begins when Dylan and Shep's path intersects with that of Jillian Jackson. Before that evening Jilly was a beautiful comedian whose biggest worry was whether she would ever find a decent man. Now she too is a carrier. And even as Dylan tries to convince her that they'll be safer sticking together, cold-eyed men in a threatening pack of black Suburbans approach, only seconds before Jilly's classic Coupe DeVille explodes into thin air.

Now the three are on the run together, but with no idea whom they're running from—or why. Meanwhile Shep has begun exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior. And whatever it is that's coursing through their bodies seems to have plunged them into one waking nightmare after another. Seized by sinister premonitions, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to crime scenes—just minutes before the crimes take place.

What this unfathomable power is, how they can use it to stop the evil erupting all around them, and why they have been chosen are only parts of a puzzle that reaches back into the tragic past and the dark secrets they all share: secrets of madness, pain, and untimely death. Perhaps the answer lies in the eerie, enigmatic messages that Shep, with precious time running out, begins to repeat, about an entity who does his work "by the light of the moon."

BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON is a novel of heart-stopping suspense and transcendent beauty, of how evil can destroy us and love can redeem us—a masterwork of the imagination in which the surprises come page after page and the spell of sublime storytelling triumphs throughout.

[loucypher_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dylan, Jilly, and Shepard are attacked and injected with some "stuff". What is this injection going to do and who are the people trying to kill them now?

Once again a well written and fast paced novel by Dean Koontz. I liked the characters and overall pace and plot. But the story never seemed to get to that "point" of great book, just kinda maintained at good through the whole story.

[annthatcher · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Powerful title and typical tripped-out Koontz material. First paragraph, and you find out that this guy named Dylan gets mugged brought together by chance and circumstance and injected with an evil substance of God knows what by a mad scientist type of man. Research has to be done to find out what they've been injected with -- also what's at store in their future. Only to learn that they have developed some type of supernatural-like abilities which will come in handy later on. However, Dean Koontz is a master of suspense and story-telling... feeling been far better if the author had cut out fluff-- and stuck to the compelling story. The end was a disappointment.

[readingrat_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My first Koontz book. I enjoyed the characters and the fast pacing. A little disappointed by the ending though.

[amacmillen_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

illy, Dylan, and Shep have been injected with nonorobots by a Dr. Powell. They have developed exta powers and can not see into the future and visit the past. Shep is autistic and is the first to be able to "fold himself and others to other locations and into the past. Mr. Lantern in the end has been given powers, too. This leads them to be freek like and in the end they agree to use there powers for the good of mankind.

[ct4bergeron · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

On the road, on a hot Arizona night, Dylan O'Connor is overpowered by a stranger who injects him with an unknow substance. All he's told is that he's the «carrier» not of a disease but of something wondrous that will transform his life in remarkabler ways - if it doesn't kill him in the next 24 hours. Now Dylan, his autistic brother, Shep, and another «carrier» a young woman, are swept into a desperate search for the shattering truth of what they are and what they might become. But first, they must elude those sent to destroy them. their only chance to survive is to discover the meaning of the message that Shep, with precious time running out, begins to repeat about a man who does his work... by the light of the moon.

[kevinjoseph_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the hands of a lesser author, this novel's unlikely heroes (Rainmanesque brothers with DC Comics-style abilities earned through childhood tragedy) might come across as silly. But in the hands of the metaphor-spinning Dean Koontz, arguably the most talented suspense writer working today, these unlikely elements congeal into a wondrous thriller that explores the ageless themes Koontz is so fond of: good and evil, the natural and the supernatural, the deep scars of a fractured family life, and the wonders and perils posed by futuristic technology (in this case nanotech).

While this book would warrant five stars from any other author, I gave it four because the first half of the novel lacked some of the pulse-racing plot points of his best books (like "Odd Thomas") and because the senseless act of violence that his heroes must thwart lacked a real connection to the rest of the story. Even an A-minus effort from Koontz is a worthwhile read, however, and we can only hope that this author continues his work by the light of the moon, spinning his brilliant tales.

-Kevin Joseph, author of "The Champion Maker"