Midnight (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = Midnight


image_caption = Cover of "Midnight"
author = Dean Koontz
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Horror novel
publisher = Berkley Publishing
release_date = 1989
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 480 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-425-11870-3
preceded_by =
followed_by =

Midnight is a novel by the best-selling author Dean Koontz, released in 1989.

Plot introduction

Four people encounter the horrifying transformation that is slowly undergoing a small California town.

Plot summary

The book opens with four separated stories that join into one plot later on.

Janice Capshaw, a jogger, is killed by a pack of unknown beasts while running one night, on the beaches of the coastal town of Moonlight Cove. Her sister Tessa Lockland comes to town to investigate, as the official history is that she committed suicide, something that seems unlikely for someone so optimistic as Janice.

Meanwhile, Sam Booker, an undercover FBI agent, arrives to investigate the deaths of two agents. The incident was covered up by the local police department, which leads to suspicion of foul play.

In a horse ranch near the town, Chrissie Foster sees her parents revert to an animalistic state after returning home because she missed the school bus. They trap her in a cupboard, and call a man called Tucker to help them "transform" their daughter. When they take her out of the cupboard, she uses a spray can to shoot into their eyes and runs for her life, first by horseback, then on foot. While running, she goes into a storm drain pipe where a raccoon has died. The smell covers her scent, and from relative security, she sees that her parents and the man called Tucker have transformed into a type of predator-human hybrid.

At evening, Sam goes out to eat, and notes that the local pub is almost empty, though the restaurant is full. A lot of the patrons act strangely: they eat ravenously, but there is no small talk between them. When Sam leaves the restaurant, he phone calls his son -with whom he has a strained relationship- and then takes a walk. In the empty streets, he's stalked by two creatures, but evades them by hiding in a garage. Then he searches for the unknown FBI informant.

At the same time, Tessa is attacked in her hotel room by two more of the creatures, and flees the building, while other guests are killed.

Chrissie sleeps until dawn in the truck bed of the local school's gardener, and remains hidden there to hitch a ride downtown. She searches for help from the local priest, but he converts into a monster and chases her away; at this point, she has realized that the police and most citizens of Moonlight Cove must have been transformed, so she continues to search for a safe haven.

Sam and Tessa, after respective encounters with the monsters, meet up in a laundromat, where Tessa is hiding and Sam is attempting to use a phone. After comparing notes, they realize that somehow the local police have shut down the phone lines. Tessa allies with Sam, and they head to meet Sam's informant, who is revealed to be Harry, a wheelchair-bound Vietnam veteran who lost the use of all limbs but his right hand, now lives vicariously through his telescope, and interacts with the world through his trained dog, Moose. Chrissie, in her search for security, meets up with them at Harry's house.

Meanwhile, Loman Watkins, the chief of police in Moonlight Cove, is becoming more and more disillusioned with his existence as a "New Person", especially with the "regression" of many fellow policeman, and has been ordered to hunt down "regressives" by Thomas Shaddack, his boss, the head of New Wave Microtechnology, a company operating out of Moonlight Cove.

It is revealed that many of the citizens of Moonlight Cove became willing and unwilling subjects of an experiment in nanotechnology by New Wave and Shaddack. The mechanical probes change people's mental and physical properties, making them stronger and fitter, at the expense of their non-vital emotions. These "New People" become so torn by their emotionless existence that they "regress" by transforming into physical manifestations of primal emotion. As the collapse of Shaddack's plan progresses, a new regression emerges, in which New People fuse themselves to computers in a similar quest for escape. After being forced to kill his son, who had become a human-machine hybrid, Watkins decides to kill Shaddack to stop any further horrors.

Shaddack's past is briefly described, and it becomes more and more obvious that Shaddack is becoming increasingly insane. He is a sadistic monomaniac, and Loman likens him to both Doctor Moreau, and Jim Jones. Shaddack has fitted himself with a heart rate monitor device which will kill every New Person if he dies, and is on the run to avoid any complications in his plan to convert the entire town by midnight.

A group of three "regressives" stumble on the abandoned "Icarus Colony" in which they stay for the night. Slowly they devolve into a single gelatinous organism with an intense hunger that calls out with a seductive cry to nearby animal life.

Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie leave Harry's house to contact the FBI. They escape through the sewers and manage to reach the local school, where they access a working computer using a stolen passport. Loman and Shaddack both note their location through the network, and individually head to that location. Meanwhle, Harry is attacked by a conversion team that regresses in his house, and he is pinned down in the attic with a revolver. He saves a single bullet for himself if his defense fails, choosing death over conversion.

Shaddack continues his descent into madness, and notes that his emotional state is now that of a manic young boy. He begins to hallucinate, seeing a figure from his childhood beside him. When he reaches the school, he attacks Sam and they are involved in a brief gun duel which ends with Shaddack holding the three of them hostage, intent on killing Sam and then forcing Chrissie and Tessa to "do things to him". Suddenly, when Shaddack is about to kill Sam, Watkins shows up and shoots Shaddack coldly. He explains to Sam that he can finally have peace, and then dies along with the rest of the now fully-regressed Moonlight Cove.

The FBI shows up shortly and cleans up the mess, and Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie head off to a hopeful fate, along with Harry, who survived the attack. The FBI's cleanup goes uneventfully until a brief incident in which the Icarus Colony creature, having rejected the nanites from its body due to its gelatinous state, almost seduces several agents to their deaths. A fire destroys it, eliminating the last remnant of Shaddack's mad experiment. The book ends with Sam's reunion with his son that suggests hope for their relationship, and for the newly formed family of Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie.

External links

* [http://www.allreaders.com/Topics/Info_6664.asp Midnight Book Review]