As a girl, Joanna Chase thrived on Rustling Willows Ranch in Montana until tragedy upended her life. Now thirty-four and living in Santa Fe with only misty memories of the past, she begins to receive pleas-by phone, through her TV, in her dreams: I am in a dark place, Jojo. Please come and help me. Heeding the disturbing appeals, Joanna is compelled to return to Montana, and to a strange childhood companion she had long forgotten.
She isn't the only one drawn to the Montana farmstead. People from all walks of life have converged at the remote ranch. They are haunted, on the run, obsessed, and seeking answers to the same omniscient danger Joanna came to confront. All the while, on the outskirts of Rustling Willows, a madman lurks with a vision to save the future. Mass murder is the only way to see his frightening manifesto come to pass.
Through a bizarre twist of seemingly coincidental circumstances, a band of strangers now find themselves under Montana's big dark sky. Their lives entwined, they face an encroaching horror. Unless they can defeat this threat, it will spell the end for humanity.
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In every life, there are strange coincidences, occurrences that we find inexplicable, and even moments that seem supernatural.1 - TWENTY FOUR YEARS EARLIER
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(Thomas & Mercer, 19 July 2022, ebook, 380 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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I've been reading Koontz since I was a teenager, more than thirty years and I love some of his work and some leaves me cold. I loved The Big Dark Sky. It reminds me a lot of some of his earlier books such as Strangers which as a similar premise - a group of people brought together to stop something monstrous. The chapters are mostly very short, no more than a few pages so this is a fast read. The twists and turns and building tension kept me flicking the pages. I hugely enjoyed this.
