Dark Rivers of the Heart: A Novel

POLITICAL ISSUES:
Instead of a tidy, wrapped up, happy ending, things are unstable and open. The U.S. is not a good place to be. The bad guys (government) have NOT been stopped. They are compared to fascist Germany. The author wants readers angry at U.S. government abuses, hopefully to help bring about change. It sounds good to me. I'd love to see those changes. So, this book does have educational value. The main political issue is asset forfeiture laws. The U.S. govt can "suspect" someone of illegal activity, then seize their home, cars, all bank accounts and investments. They don't have to prove anything in a court of law or in front of a jury. All they need is a sympathetic judge to sign an order - similar to getting a search warrant. This was meant to hurt drug dealers, but it's being overused and applied in non-drug cases. I'm offended that asset forfeiture laws cannot be used against any congressman - how nice to exempt themselves.

In a 1994 interview at the end of the audiobook Dean Koontz states we're living on the brink of a new dark age. To preserve democracy three things need to be done. 1. We must revoke all asset forfeiture laws in their entirety. 2. The congress must cease exempting it's members from laws passed to govern the rest of us. 3. Congress must stop enacting laws that criminalize beliefs that are politically incorrect or unusual but that harm no one. These are what George Orwell termed "thought crimes."

OPINION ON THE STORY:
It was a good suspense story. A couple of people are on the run from a secret government organization. The organization has access to every possible computer database and can hijack satellites to spy. Some parts were slow and could have been shortened. But most of the story was very entertaining with a lot of good events and action. But the untidy, open ending let me down. It did not satisfy my escapist entertainment needs.

The narrator Anthony Heald was above average.

STORY BRIEF:
A former cop and military guy Spencer is living off the grid with fake names and addresses. He meets cocktail waitress Valerie and feels a desire and hope that he might have a life with her. When he later goes to her apartment a SWAT team attacks. He barely escapes. A government agency is now after Spencer as well as Valerie, and he doesn't know why. He starts searching for her, and he's good at it.

There is not much time spent on child abuse, but it's the reason behind some Spencer issues. There are a couple of scenes where a child witnesses violence.

AUTHOR'S THOUGHTS ON THE SUBJECT OF CHILDHOOD ABUSE AND HATING THE ABUSER:
Following are excerpts from an interview with Dean Koontz at the end of the audiobook. I found it very interesting and helpful. Maybe others will too. So I've included it below.

Interviewer: You've referred to your own troubled childhood under the thumb of a father who was a violent alcoholic and later diagnosed as borderline schizophrenic with tendencies to violence. How much did you draw on your experience?

Koontz: I remember pretty clearly all of my childhood and have drawn on it rather extensively in a number of books. In his later life my father made two attempts to kill me. The second time was in front of a considerable number of witnesses, and he was put into a psychiatric ward. I was in charge of his life at that point. I supported him for the last fourteen years of his life. So I had daily contact almost. And it was an unusual situation to have contact with somebody you had known all of your life you had believed all of your life might kill you or your mother every night. As a child I expected that to happen. And here as an adult, the attempt had finally been made. So I drew on a lot of that.

Interviewer: I know that you receive a lot of mail from people who were physically or psychologically abused as children and that they relate very strongly to your portrayal of those subjects in some of your books. Do you think it's possible to endure a nightmarish childhood like that and ever really put it behind you?

Koontz: You never really forget it, but you can certainly put it behind you. A lot of people who write to me have trouble putting it behind them. It's messed up their whole life, up to whatever point they're at, and I say to them that the key is to accept the fact that you will hate the person that did this to you and that's alright. They earned your hatred. And it's fine to hate them. The point is not to let that hate consume you. You have to put it behind you. You have to go on with your life. And you have to say this happened. It was terrible, but it's over, and I can go on. A lot of people get caught up in thinking they have to forgive. Personally I don't believe you have to forgive. You can understand sometimes why the person did it to you. Much of the time you can't understand evil. It's not understandable. So you go on. If you allow yourself to become fixated on it, if you allow it to trouble you all your life, you'll never have a life. The person who abused you as a child has won. And that's the last thing you want.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Unabridged audiobook reading time: 19 hrs and 24 mins. Swearing language: s*** used once, I think. Sexual content: a few sex scenes were vaguely referred to, no details. They included self pleasuring. Setting: around 1994, mostly California, Nevada and Colorado. Book copyright: 1994. Genre: suspense thriller. Ending: good guys and most bad guys survive.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Dean Koontz books, see my 5 star review of Lightning posted 6-27-12.

I recommend Dean Koontz's MR MURDER to be followed by Dean Koontz's DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART. These are a solid one-two punch! The stories build on one another. Concepts and groups are introduced in Dean Koontz's MR MURDER that Dean Koontz's DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART play out to completion. THE interesting aspect of this book as Mr Koontz describes at some point in the forward or afterward, is the fact that his protagonist's childhood mirrors his own in that he was terrified of his father for VERY good reason. (I think that this is that book...it has been a while) Anyway, you cannot go wrong. I would strongly caution that the beginning of MR MURDER seems pointless for far too long. They it explodes into action that grips you until the end.

DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART is technically a better book, but Dean Koontz's WATCHERS is the book that my heart loves. Read it too!!

I recommend Dean Koontz's MR MURDER to be followed by Dean Koontz's DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART. These are a solid one-two punch! The stories build on one another. Concepts and groups are introduced in Dean Koontz's MR MURDER that Dean Koontz's DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART play out to completion. THE interesting aspect of this book as Mr Koontz describes at some point in the forward or afterward, is the fact that his protagonist's childhood mirrors his own in that he was terrified of his father for VERY good reason. (I think that this is that book...it has been a while) Anyway, you cannot go wrong. I would strongly caution that the beginning of MR MURDER seems pointless for far too long. They it explodes into action that grips you until the end.

DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART is technically a better book, but Dean Koontz's WATCHERS is the book that my heart loves. Read it too!!

And just may confiscate your house under a trumped-up asset forfeiture law. I just reread this and there's a fair amount of tedious padding. Some of the characters are comic book villains but I do believe the premise that government is too big and too powerful and commits abuses against its citizens. Hell, just look at our once-revered FBI. Tip of the iceberg?

Dark Rivers Of The Heart (henceforth referred to as DROTH) was my fourteenth Dean Koontz novel. Its length is pretty intimidating, and I found myself forcing myself to go on at times. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book. The story is quite interesting. It's just so long and drawn out (the flood scene in the truck)with so much techincal mumbo jumbo. I also didn't really care for the characters as much as I do in his other books. I didn't really like the female lead very much, whereas in a book like Watchers, I became very attatched to the female lead. I never really felt attatched to the characters.

The ending, when we learn about the male lead's dark past is disturbing indeed. His father was a true nutcase whose idea of "art" is extremely twisted. I love books like Intensity with psychopaths in them, but the character of Steven Ackblom just made me squirm. But I did find it very interesting and chlling.

DROTH also features a villian who wants to achieve perfection in the world. He's compassionate and caring, but he believes in shooting suffering or severly imperfect people in order to relieve them of their burden that he thinks they carry and simultaneously inching the world closer to perfection. You can see some of the (severly misguided) good in him, that is until he shows support for people like Steven Ackblom.

Basically the book is for Koontz to let out some of his political feelings. Take politics, a corrupt criminal government agency, two lonely people falling in love while running from the agency, a couple of psychopaths, and a smart dog named Rocky, and you have Dark Rivers Of The Heart.

My favorites so far are Intensity, Watchers, Whispers, Hideaway, The Door To December, Darkfall, and Phantoms.

I must say I particularly liked the government conspiracy/abuse of authority theme & information about the Forfeiture laws. The villainous lovers, Roy & Eve were absolutely perfect & maybe my favorite villains created by Koontz. Eve Jammer on her rubber sheets doing her thing was particularly delightful. However, the development of characters overall seemed to lack & I would have liked Koontz to go more into some of the characters (The Lee's for example). The romantic coupling of the main characters seemed weak, lame, thrown together, & unrealistic. The whole circumstances of Valerie's reaction to Spencer following/stalking seemed very unrealistic. I just can't see a woman falling for this guy who basically was stalking her after meeting her once.

What REALLY drove me mad though, was the never ending car chase - it goes on for almost 30 pages! I thought it would never end! Did the editor not notice or am I the only person??? Then the part about using "GODZILLA" or govt. defense weapons from Star wars program was just too over the top IMO. I thought the ending was lame, however I liked how things ended for Roy & Eve.

I hate to give Koontz 3 stars & if this would have been a 300-400 page bk. I might rate it higher, however this bk. dragged & in the case, I think less mighta been more.

My advice: Don't let this be your 1st Koontz bk. unless you are into govt. conspiracy themes.

Dark Rivers of the Heart is my latest venture into the totally intriguing world of Dean Koontz. Im tellng you, this author has hooked me like few can. In DROTH, we are introduced to a man named Spencer. Spencer is a real loner, and due to some tragic circumstances in his past, he likes to keep it that way...but hes lonely, and he wants a chance at a real life. So when he meets up with a woman named valerie, a woman who really looks at him and seems to listen, he is head over heels in love within moments. Shortly after meeting Valerie, she goes missing....Spencer is frantic when he realizes that the woman is in major trouble and he knows that to involve himself will only bring the chaos in his direction, but he cant help himself...he decides the risk is worth it and jumps head first into more trouble than he could have ever imagined.

Dark Rivers of the Heart was without a doubt an entertaining read. Spencer was so unbelievably clever that I fell for him immmediately. I loved his sensitivity as well, but the mans mind is what really made me adore him...just brilliant. My problems with this book had a lot to do with the female lead. I had trouble connecting with her. I wanted her to be more appreciative of Spencer than I thought she was. I also felt that sometimes the story got a little muddled with too much tech talk. But for the most part it was, as always in DK world, a totally entertaining ride.

Rogue agents of US intelligence community well concealed, a monstrously evil man as the hammer for this secret group are the bad guys. Spenser has a past that tortures him in his efforts to help the woman who is being chased. The confiscatory powers of our alleged constitutional government are revealed as well as the high tech resources for data collection revealed. I enjoyed the relationship Spenser has with his dog Rocky with whom Spenser converses with as a real person. That is not to mean a far-fetched insanity but anyone that has pets would understand. Fast paced and kept me reading to climax.

A truly different kind of Koontz novel, with so much emotion, violence, love, hate, technology, dogs, and chasing, that it seems as though "Dark Rivers of the Heart" may just be a collection of all the great aspects of all of his previous novels. The initial chapter takes us into the mind of Spencer Grant, a mysterious, scarred (literally, but emotionally as well) individual who subconciously knows that he must enter the Red Door and meet the woman he has been waiting for his whole life. He doesn't know why he feels this way or where this will lead him, but Spencer must continue to see Valarie Keene. What Spencer did not know is that a SWAT team is after Valarie and that he eventually becomes a wanted man by a mysterious illegal agency. But Spencer is even haunted more by a terrifying, forgotten past that may even destory him before his other enemies do. Right on top of Grant is special agent Roy Miro, whose prime interest is killing Valarie and trying to make the world a better place. Koontz does a magnificent job depicting the characters of Spencer, his love interest, agent Miro (who is perhaps the most interesting of all the characters because of his unusual look upon life), and even Spencer's benign dog Rocky. "Dark Rivers of the Heart" is an exhilarating cat-and-mouse chase that takes a peak at what the future might hold if technology continues to advance before our eyes and how corrupt our government truly is. A total 180-degree turn for Koontz, but this novel is perhaps his most intriguing, believable, and thoughtful one to date.

An evil villain with warped morals, loner hero and faithful dog. The key ingredients to most of Koontz masterpiece novels are all in Dark Rivers of the Heart. After not finding a woman (Valerie), who he only recently met at her workplace, a bar called The Red Door a concerned Spencer and his sidekick Rocky decide to go and break into her house (well Rocky waits in the car) to make sure nothing is wrong and narrowly avoid a SWAT team raid by government officials. Not deterred by this Spencer still decided to help Valerie who is being trailed by Roy Miro, a man who has access to a super government computer called Mama which can delve into and operate any other computer in the world such as the EPA's video satellite that can pinpoint an image of anything on the ground from space. He also does not mind the occasional murder believing in most cases he is helping the victims escape a bad life. He also likes to keep souvenirs of things of beauty from his victims. Both Spencer and Valerie have pasts they are trying to escape from and if anyone's computer skills are a match for Mama, Spencer's are.

This is one of Koontz's masterpieces. One you'll stay up for nights to finish, miss work and forget about what is on TV until you've finished.

Believe it or not, red-blooded American male over 40 that I am, this is the first book by Dean Koontz that I've read. Because of this gap in my higher education, I am able to approach my review with no preconceived attitudes about what Mr. Koontz writes or how this book compares to his others.
Koontz doesn't paint a pretty picture of our super secret agencies and their methods and motivations. He also has a couple of bones to pick with real agencies and about which he gets a bit preachy. The first bone has to do with the attack on The Branch Davidian compound in 1982. The second has to do with the serious injustice of a great number of the questionably valid seizures of assets resulting from frequently unfounded accusations of criminal activities. (I've got a lot of adjectives in that sentence, but I really think that "injustice" {not an adjective}, "questionably," and "unfounded" are appropriate to the discussion.)
My reading elsewhere, of fact based reports, supports Koontz's accusations. I wonder, however, if he didn't go a bit overboard in this novel.
We start with a super secret government agency that seems almost omnipotent. This agency knows, or can find out, who you are, where you are, what you're doing, and how to destroy you. The head of this agency, Roy Miro, is a psychotic madman who, among other things, believes himself to be some sort of angel of death who has been placed on this planet to put unhappy people out of their misery. It seems that those he kills are much better off than those whom he believes deserve punishment of his making.
His nemesis, our protagonist, Spencer, or Grant, or one of several other aliases, just wants to be left alone and live in absolute anonymity. Only his accidental involvement with a woman who knows too much about Roy's operation turns Spencer into Roy's target and obsession.
Most of the novel is a series of chases where Roy seemingly holds all the trump cards. (Mixed Metaphor - Yeah, I know.) Spencer, at first alone, and later in the company of his mystery woman, through, skill, ingenuity, and an awful lot of luck and improbable coincidence, survives everything Roy can throw his way and seems to have a new lease on life as the sun sets in the west. But wait! Roy, the indefatigable, has teamed up with a female counterpart who is at least as evil and dangerous as Roy, himself. As our book draws to a close, we find Roy and his new help-mate doing their best to reshape the world to suit themselves.
Is there another encounter looming just over the horizon? Who knows? Knowledge of how they all got to this point, at what costs, and where they are going next, will be your reward for reading this novel.

Valerie Keene was married to the Attorney General's son. When Valerie discovers that the Attorney General is crooked and runs his own illegal agency, her husband is killed and she is framed for his death. Valerie goes on the run to gather enough evidence to take the Attorney General down. She is now working as a cocktail waitress in a bar. Spencer Grant is an ex-cop and a very talented computer hacker living alone with his dog Rocky. Spencer Grant falls for Valerie at first sight, and becomes obsessed with her. After several nights of hanging out in the bar, Spencer tails her home from work. When Valerie does not show up at the bar the following night, Spencer goes to Valerie's house to see what's up. When doing so, he walks in on an assault team of the Attorney General's crooked government agents. Spencer is forced to run for his life, and flee the area. Now with crooked government agents on his tail, Spencer must use all his resources to locate Valerie, so that the two can work together, and bring down the Attorney General.
Dark Rivers of the Heart is an amazing book, and definately one of Koontz's best. This complex and suspenseful book is one of the best chase novels that I have ever read. This book brings a lot of paranoia and conspiracy because of the endless chase after Valerie and Spencer. The story also takes an interesting look at the government in general. It shows that we are anything but free, and that we are monitored at all times. The governmental conspiracy that Koontz creates, really provides for a thought provoking and exciting part of the story!
The characters are absolutely fabulous. Spencer Grant is my favorite character. The fact that he puts his life and everything he has at risk for a woman he doesn't know is very commendable. His hacker skills are impressive, and once again Koontz creates an intelligent and loveable dog to be Grant's companion. Valerie Keene is highly intelligent, beautiful, resourceful, and a skilled computer hacker as well. Spencer and Valerie make a great team. The main villan of the story is a man named Roy Miro who leads the team of crooked agents. He is perhaps one of the best villans Koontz ever created. Roy is brutal, sadistic, and out of his mind because he sees killing as an act of mercy. The most surprising character is Eve Jammer. She is an ex Vegas showgirl that works with Roy at the agency. She spends her time using the Atorney General agency's information to blackmail people. Eve is beautiful, intelligent, and ruthless. Roy and Eve make the perfect team in and out of the bedroom!
Overall, Dark Rivers of the Heart is an outstanding book. It is probably one of the best chase novels ever written. The suspense and action in the book is unending, the characters are all great, and Koontz creates a frightening and realistic government conspiracy.

I enjoyed the seesaw action of this book, going from Spencer Grant to Roy Miro and back, then adding in the subplots of Harris Descoteaux & Eve Jammer. The most exciting section was the car being carried downstream in a flood. The mystery aspect where Spencer recovers his memory and comes to terms with the past read like a psychological thriller. For me, I never felt like I really knew Grant; but perhaps that is what occurs with a character who doesn't totally know himself. Roy Miro was certainly an interesting little guy, running around killing people for their own good. Rocky the dog was a great animal character whose reversal at the end made him essential to the plot. With his head bobbing in enjoyment during the car chases, he was a wonderful character. I also enjoyed Eve Jammer and her writhing rubber sheets. I wondered if Koontz intended to say that the only way a woman would become president was through sex and assassination. That raised my eyebrows a bit. Valerie is a great woman lead, independent and capable. The introduction of Steven Ackblom near the end of the tale was chilling and a great catalyst to bring the tale to conclusion. Overall, this was an intricate book. I enjoyed watching how the pieces fit together more than being moved by the characters.

I must say I particularly liked the government conspiracy/abuse of authority theme & information about the Forfeiture laws. The villainous lovers, Roy & Eve were absolutely perfect & maybe my favorite villains created by Koontz. Eve Jammer on her rubber sheets doing her thing was particularly delightful. However, the development of characters overall seemed to lack & I would have liked Koontz to go more into some of the characters (The Lee's for example). The romantic coupling of the main characters seemed weak, lame, thrown together, & unrealistic. The whole circumstances of Valerie's reaction to Spencer following/stalking seemed very unrealistic. I just can't see a woman falling for this guy who basically was stalking her after meeting her once.

What REALLY drove me mad though, was the never ending car chase - it goes on for almost 30 pages! I thought it would never end! Did the editor not notice or am I the only person??? Then the part about using "GODZILLA" or govt. defense weapons from Star wars program was just too over the top IMO. I thought the ending was lame, however I liked how things ended for Roy & Eve.

I hate to give Koontz 3 stars & if this would have been a 300-400 page bk. I might rate it higher, however this bk. dragged & in the case, I think less mighta been more.

My advice: Don't let this be your 1st Koontz bk. unless you are into govt. conspiracy themes.

Reading this book during the pre-election season was probably not a good decision. The paranoia rightfully exhibited by the two central characters only added to my own paranoia of living in these times. I liked the story, the quick saves and the knowledge gained. Don't like the yucky feeling of how realistic the whole thing is.

Here's the typical Dean Koontz novel*: (1) an emotionally tortured, often widowed ex-military or ex-law enforcement guy (2) meets an equally emotionally damaged, often divorced or widowed woman (3) who together encounter Something Unusual (could be teleportation, alien encounters, time travel, or genetically engineered animals), and (4) in the course of understanding/unraveling the Something Unusual, heal each other.
The two best variations on this formula are "Watchers" and "Dark Rivers of the Heart." To give away the Something Unusual here would take away too much fun, but suffice it to say that there's a psychotic government (?) assassin running loose with a license to kill, more or less.
What distinguishes "Dark Rivers" is that the paranoid atmosphere Koontz generates is palpable, and exists even when you are reading chapters devoted to the assassin. Second, Koontz's writing really shines at parts; the first chapter -- go ahead, read it -- resonates with emotional depth; you really feel the loneliness and desperate hope of the hero. The sequence set in Utah with the assassin's ruminations on how to fit in with the Mormon police officers is unexpectedly (but no doubt intentionally) funny.
While the book is not as explicitly violent as some of his other works ("Phantoms" and "Hideaway" come to mind), there are some disturbingly nasty scenes, particularly near the conclusion, so readers with weak stomachs should proceed cautiously.
* Admittedly, the Moonlight Bay novels ("Fear Nothing" and "Seize the Night") have diverged a bit from this.

I remember reading this novel almost 2 decades ago, but could only remember the climax nothing that came before it...after re-reading it I can understand why.

The cover of the novel should have been bare white with a black bar code and called "Generic Dean Koontz Thriller" as "Dark Rivers of the Heart" really doesn't break new ground. Actually, it's a hodge-podge of cliches taken right out of other (better) Koontz tales.

1. - Hero with a haunted past. Spencer Grant definately fits the bill, even touting a scar as a daily reminder of his horrific past. Unfortunately Grant is such a snooze, spouting his love for a woman he met for 20 minutes at a bar.

2. - The brunette heroine with a haunted past. Valerie Keene is a mysterious figure who finally makes an appearance halfway through the story. Once she comes on the scene you almost wish she stayed in the shadows.

3. - The dog. Meet Rocky, an animal rescue dog with a haunted past.

4. - The Killer. Roy Miro is a compassionate man who feels so bad for some people he thinks they will be better off in the next world, and does his best to send them there. He is also the point man for a shadowy government agency out to nab Valerie Keene. This character is one of the few bright spots in the novel.

Koontz lets the technology get in the way of the tale, spending quite a bit of time talking about modems, laptops, passwords, codes, satellites, computer access, computer hacking etc. all cutting edge circa 1993. Now a decade later, we can sit and smirk when Roy has to use cellular phone to connect to a modem so that he can then use his laptop to access a computer in Washington (think of how much easier Roy's job would be with an iPad??).

As if the dated technology doesn't dilute the story enough, Koontz takes up quite a bit of the novel talking about how the US Government can steal from any individual using the Asset Forfeiture laws. All of the horror Koontz talks about where the government can seize someones property with little or no reason were basically made obsolete with 2000's Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act. (and besides with most of our liberties being threatened by The Patriot Act on a daily basis...Asset Forfeiture looks pretty mild in comparison).

"Dark Rivers of the Heart" does contain a few action scenes that are fun nail biters, Grant's ride down the river, and mini-mall encounter were top notch fun...unfortunately they are buried in a dull and dated story.

This book conjures up far greater horrors than Koontz's usual spate of psychotic killers and fantasy bogeymen. The enemy here is the state, the all-intrusive, all-controlling, faceless accumulation of power and those who seek it, waging a relentless war to own the very lives of the citizens they pretend to protect and serve. The antagonist, Roy Miro, is not some cardboard "evil villian;" he is in fact a highly driven and deeply philosophical creature who fervently believes, deep in his soul, that the state CAN lead us to Utopia and that perfection IS acheivable, and that the greatest threat to mankind is any individual who desires privacy. The inherent abuses of runaway Asset Forefeiture laws are taken to task with a vivid harshness not normally found in your standard political "techno-thriller."

Buy this book and put it on your shelf in between Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" and John Ross's "Unintended Consequences." Then invest in some quality cryptography, give serious thought to obtaining a firearm if you don't already own one, and, oh yeah, and stop giving out your social security number to every self-important Federal twit who demands it!

Put the ingredients together for a great book. The hero & heroine, each with their own deep seated inner turmoils. 2 very psychotic villains & the hero's dog which is afraid of his shadow.
Putting this all together & adding Mr. Koontz's masterful writing style & command of the English language & you have a very difficult novel to put down.
The story is a thriller & not a supernatural piece. The novel is very plausible, if not believable. The characters all tie together very well. Rocky, the nervous & jittery dog, provides some tongue in cheek humorous spots.
I've had the book for quite sometime before I got around to reading it. Sorry it took me so long. It's a very enjoyable novel

Dean Koontz wrote this novel shortly after the Ruby Ridge and Waco slaughters. The story he told, while fiction, was for the most part, a fairly accurate depiction of how things really are. The next few novels he wrote were lack-luster, and he actually apologized for that. He was in a bit of a funk at the time, the result of knowing what he now knew as a result of doing research for "Dark Rivers of the Heart."

I read the book when it first came out. It's an excellent read. But, it's not scary in the typical Koontz fashion (super-natural), it's scary because it's real.

I picked up this novel because one of my students is a Dean Koontz fanatic and billed this as his best. I preface by saying I'm not usually a reader of thrillers, and I found Koontz's psychological and philosophical depth here to be shallow at best.
However, Koontz has written a thriller, not a study of the human psyche or soul. The novel's core is an extended chase: the bad guys pursue the good guys with all the creepy technology at their disposal. It's thrilling! It's scary! It keeps you turning the pages!
I found some of the values implicit in the text a little scary (libertarianism veering toward anarchy; conformist, homophobic views of human sexuality; etc.); but I love Koontz's reverence for the novels of Philip K. Dick!!
I suspect that if you like Koontz's other work, you'll like this novel.

My issue with Koontz is that his endings generally suck. I really enjoy the book, then want to tear my hair out after reading the last 30-40 pages. This book had a pretty unbelieveable "gee-whiz" aspect to the ending, but I found myself just kind of glossing over that and enjoying the closure that he brought for the characters.

Speaking of characters, I would have given this a 4 1/2 stars, if the rating was available, based on the wonderful blend of characters -- well written, wonderful interaction.

The downsides: the unbelieveable technical aspect of the ending, and the flood scene seemed to be excessively long, although well written from a descriptive standpoint. These two aspects were distracting enough to not get a 5 star from me.

Overally, one of Koontz's best, I think.

This book was just freaking great. For some, life changing.

Again, Koontz sticks to his formula of the ex military guy with the emotional trauma, the rogue Gov't agency and a mysterious female character who leads us on a journey. The difference in this and any other novels like it is in the rich detail and pain that I felt through the pages.

You will really grow to love the characters in this book and justifiably so. Spencer is so righteously haunted by his past and his chase for Vallery will obviously change his life. The growth of the characters (even the dog had impressive character development) and the width of the story would have made this an impressive TV mini-series and feels more like a series of acclaimed novels than a single book.

Like every Koontz book, the first 100 or so pages begin slowly but it will pay off in spades folks.

Things start out fast, but we end up being bombarded with Big Brother paranoia. The subplot was just some extra paranoia that wasn't needed and didn't add to the story or the main plot at all. It was just a way to add extra pages. Koontz bombards you with paranoia.

The main character's inner dialogue was also tedious because it didn't sound like him. His inner dialogue sounded like it was coming from the narrator. I was thinking while reading the inner dialogue that no one talks to themselves like that (like narration of a novel) or to another person at a bar for that matter.

The dog was just another unnecessary character that didn't do much of anything until the end. You could make a case that the dog represented how broken the main character was, but at least make the dog more involved instead of being scared the entire time.

Peasants and Dragons? Phoenix and Dragon would have made more sense. The way the main character falls in love and becomes basically obsessed with Ellie didn't make sense either. Oh I barely know you but somehow I'm in love with you. It was still mostly an enjoyable read. He just needed to dial down the paranoia.

This is a very fast-paced, intense read, like the best of the Koontz thrillers, but with a very strong emotional punch not fit for sensitive readers. As a tech-thriller from the mid-90s, it may be a bit dated, but that doesn't really matter because this book is character-driven. This is probably my favorite non-series book by Koontz.

Unlike most of Koontz's books, Dark Rivers of the Heart had a bleak backdrop that was bigger than the main story. While Koontz likes to put his main characters through hell, the anxiety and gloom are temporary. The good guys win, all is right with the world.

In this story, however, Koontz writes of an America that fulfills every conspiracy theorists' worst predictions. The U.S. government is not run by Congress and the President, it's run by an unnamed, secret government agency. And the execs of this agency are all criminals -- pedophiles, sociopathic serial killers and so on.

***SPOILER ALERT***
At the end of the story, the bad guys have even more power than they began with. The person pulling the strings thinks nothing of incest to blackmail a family member, or arranging the assassination of the President and Vice President. Not the usual ending for Koontz. Oh, don't worry, the main characters have their triumph, but only for themselves, not for the country.
***END SPOILER***

It's still a decent read, and I would have given it a 3 if not for the anachronistic feel. When a book is reissued and presented as a new book like this one was, the publisher should allow the author to update the story to match current audiences.

This was originally written in 1994 and computer technology plays a big part of the story. Reading a story with 1994 level technology is one thing, but since Koontz was projecting where computers can take us after 1994, he has many pages of descriptions throughout the book explaining a technology that is now commonplace or, to modern minds, silly. It was enough to push me out of the story so that I read the book over a full week instead of within a couple days, which is how I usually read Koontz.

That said, the main characters (a man, his dog and a woman) are some of the most complex that Koontz has created. They are the best reason to read this book.

Having lost my library privileges in the State of California due to a complex government conspiracy, I have been forced to steal or borrow all of my reading materials since 1995. When I met him, my husband's literature collection included only some Garfield comics, 25 or so books by Elmore Leonard, and the collected works of Dean Koontz. I began with Koontz's "Dark Rivers" (after realizing that Elmore Leonard sucks the cheese from between my toes), and it is one of the best books I have ever read. I truly empathize with the waitress-of-many-secrets, being a secretary-with-many-secrets myself. Spencer Grant was a brilliant psychological portrait of a man in crisis. I felt like I knew him personally, and have even dreamt about him. What I like best about ALL of Koontz's novels is that they prey upon the modern sense of pervasive paranoia. Koontz not only justifies this paranoia, but he actually asserts that it is ONLY the paranoid people of the world who are mentally equipped to perceive reality as it is (the thing-itself), rather than, to paraphrase Lawrence, the ideas we choose to believe merely because they match the rest of our mental furniture. Not only CAN anything happen at any moment, but anything and everything DOES happen, and is happening, at every moment, from the supernatural to the just plain unbelievable. Dark Rivers of the Heart would make a great movie. P.S. - I am still eagerly waiting for Koontz to write The Book of Counted Sorrows, undoubtedly his masterpiece-to-be.

I'm pretty much in agreement with Booklist's review. I give it 2-1/2 stars.
Koontz needed to give this book a final edit and cut out about a third of it. He makes the same points over and over again; intelligent readers get it the first time. Perhaps he's trying to create a mood similar to the nerve-wracking piano score in Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT, but Koontz sounds his music with much less tension and effect. I kept thinking, as I was reading it, of the scene in A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (keeping with the "river" theme) when Tom Skerritt reviews the composition his son has been writing and hands it back to him saying, "Good. Now half as long."
Dean, it's basically good stuff but some times you do go on! (His love affair with foliage becomes exceptionally tedious). Less is more.
Koontz's "formula-writing" gets tired & predictable if you read a lot of him. You're not sure what will happen but you know how it will happen. (The protagonist will always forget about the safety on that gun at a critical moment. This is suspense? Puh-leez!)
Like eating junk food, Koontz is a fun splurge now & then, but usually lacks nutritional value. However, if you haven't read his LIGHTNING be sure to pick that one up. Great premise! Two thumbs up.
Otherwise, for an intelligent, banjo-string taut, psycho-thriller with the right balance of rich, descriptive prose and goose-flesh suspense, devour RED DRAGON, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, or HANNIBAL by Thomas Harris. He's not as prolific as Koontz, but Harris obviously takes the time to research, edit, and refine his work for his readers to savor; a fact this reader greatly appreciates.

This is my favorite Dean Koontz book -- period. I read it many, many years ago and was blown away. It has villains whose depravity is so great, they are among the vilest antagonists in any book I've ever read. Yet the hero is even better. A fantastic mix of horror, mystery and survival.

While Dark Rivers of the Heart is not as distopic as George Orwell's 1984, the message is more terrifying because it is so much closer to reality. Dean Koontz' descriptions of currently available technology are close to the mark. I work for the government at a military proving ground, and found most of the technological tricks to be on the edge of what is available today. The main villan, Roy Miro, is similarily believable. I see an erie mirror image of him in a recent interview with Pol Pot, who killed millions in Cambodia ( he politely asserts it was only hundreds of thousands) for the "good" of society. Perceptive readers will find the use of politically correct symbology and philosophy by Mr. Miro to be absolutely masterful. The ending, with all its uncertainty and unknowable twists of fate, is consistant with the "too close to reality to be comfortable" theme of the book. I highly recommend this book, and am buying several to lend to friends. If "Dark Rivers of the Heart" appeals to you, I suggest that you consider "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross. The two authors explore many of the same problems from different perspectives. Unintended Consequences seems slightly more optomistic than "Dark Rivers of the Heart" Both are excellent reads that keep you turning pages far past your bedtime.

Dark Rivers of the Heart is a page turning thriller involving sociopaths with unlimited power and means to perform deeds. A man and a woman on the run confront the evil of their pasts as they lead their pursuers on chases. The hunter becomes the prey in this novel that explores the twisted minds of the most evil people. This definitely ranks near the top of Koontz' early novels and on par with good suspense novels.

I enjoy reading anything Dean Koontz writes. While this story was pretty good, it was no Odd Thomas novel. A bit more blatantly preachy but still thought provoking. It will rattle around in my head for awhile.

Sorry, Dean. I appreciate what you do for the genre and all, but I just cannot finish a Dean Koontz novel. I got to about page 300, and thankfully someone stole the book while I was in Mexico.

I tried to read "Intensity" and thought it was lame, but this one was tricky. I liked the main villian, but Spencer Grant and his canine sidekick were too cheezy for my taste. The pacing was off- if this were a quick 300 page paperback, it could have been swell, but drawing out a corny story with cornball charcters is not my idea of time well spent.

Sorry, Dean...maybe I'll give you one more strike till you're out (talk about cheez)but I think you are going the way of the dodo bird as far as my world is concerned.

Quite simply, I loved this novel. There's not many more words that one can describe as one of the best books that he has read in his life. It is amazingly creative and imaginative, and even koontz seem to of shed his optimism he sometimes shows in alot of his novels, you can't help thinking that the innocent people who lives are wrecked in this novel could well be yours. And that is one of the fine points of the novel, how close it is to the reality of our society today....
The villian though, is one of the best charcters I have read about. Roy Miro is one of those insane guys who even though they don't look and act crazy, they are. Apart from being a agent of this unknown government agency, he's also a serial murderer, killing certain people whom he believes are unhappy in this world and the next would be be far more pleasant. But, as you read about him through the novel, you can't help liking him and his antics...

I have many Koontz favorites, Watchers, Lightning, to name a few, but I have probably enjoyed Dark Rivers as much as any of the others. It has the usual dog, the normal super villain, and the normal couple struggling with circumstances thrust upon them, all put together in such a way that makes a first time reader loose sleep from inability to stop reading.

Mike

This book captured my attention right away and I couldn't put it down. There is a lot going on in this story, but it comes together and it all fits. Great read, lots of twists and turns and full of mystery and suspense.