Format: Hardcover, 480 pages
Release Date: September 11, 2018
Publisher: Bantam
Source: NetGalley
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense
“We’re rewriting the play, and the play is this country, the world, the future. We break Jane’s heart, we’ll also break her will.”
She was one of the FBI’s top agents until she became the nation’s most-wanted fugitive; a happily married woman before becoming a devastated widow. Now Jane Hawk may be all that stands between a free nation and its enslavement by a powerful secret society’s terrifying mind-control technology. She couldn’t save her husband, or the others whose lives have been destroyed, but equipped with superior tactical and survival skills—and the fury born of a broken heart and a hunger for justice—Jane has struck major blows against the insidious cabal.
But Jane’s enemies are about to hit back hard. If their best operatives can’t outrun her, they mean to bring her running to them, using her five-year-old son as bait. Jane knows there’s no underestimating their capabilities, but she must battle her way back across the country to the remote shelter where her boy is safely hidden…for now. As she moves resolutely forward, new threats begin to emerge: a growing number of brain-altered victims driven hopelessly, violently, insane. As the madness spreads like a virus, the war between Jane and her enemies will become a fight for all their lives—against the lethal terror unleashed from behind the forbidden door.
Story Locale: Southern California
The Forbidden Door is the fourth installment in author Dean Koontz' Jane Hawk series. The story picks up right where The Crooked Staircase left off. Where we currently are: FBI Agent Jane Hawk, mother of a young son, grieving widow of a decorated Marine, has uncovered a terrifying conspiracy behind her husbands death and scores of other exemplary citizens. She has become the number # 1 fugitive in the country having been indicted on charges of espionage, treason, and seven counts of murder.
Jane has gone off the grid in order to track down those responsible and save her son no matter what it takes. Driven by love for her lost husband and by fear for the five-year-old
son she has sent into hiding, Jane Hawk has become an unstoppable
predator. Nicknamed The Beautiful Monster by her enemies the Techno Arcadian's and their unlimited access to every technology imaginable, including nanotechnology that completely swarms the brain, and makes the person pliable to suggestions, it has become a life or death race to survive.
Those Jane are hunting may be hoping to turn the tide against her using various factions of the media, but they will have nowhere to run when her shadow
falls across them. She knows that if she is caught, it is game over, lights out, and nobody will know the truth about what is happening. The Arcadian's and their Hamlet List, a computer composed list
picking people who showed potential for future greatness and leadership;
they were consequently injected with the nano-constructs and ordered to
commit suicide or worse. Jane knows the terrible secrets. She has survived up until now with shear determination, brilliance, and a skill set that in unmatched.
In this story, Jane's allies come to her aid when the chips are really down, and it seems as though the Arcadian's may finally win. I really love Bernie Riggowitz. He is adorable and he really is on Jane's side and not just a prop to be used as cannon fodder for future installments. The second character who is on Jane's side is Luther Tillman, a former Sheriff who the Arcadian's came after and took his wife and daughter from him. Luther, Bernie, and even Cornell Jasperson, who we met in the previous installment, are just the kind of support Jane needs to survive.
Cornell
is an unusual person, both in appearance and personality. He’s a African American millionaire with Asperger’s
Syndrome. He’s such a well rounded and lovable character and, in my
opinion, does a wonderful job of representing people suffering from this
horrible affliction. His relationship with Travis is adorable and true. It's not fake. The author really researched what a character with Asperger’s
Syndrome is able to do, and how things trigger various feelings.
I won't summarize all of the secondary characters that appear in this story. There is one in particular who believes he isn't actually living in the real world, and that the Unknown Playwright is actually in charge. He and others like him are OK with pacifying contentious humans so that they can create their own kind of Utopia. They are pieces of a much larger puzzle, and therefore are not in charge or responsible for this so called revolution that will eventually see thousands of people dying.
One in particular character spends the entire story trying to track down and subjugate Ancel and Claire Hawk, Nick's parents, knowing that if they are brought to bear, they will tell him where Jane and Travis are hiding. Find Travis, and Jane will give her self up knowing she's lost. Nick's entire family is in jeopardy for that matter. I will say that all of the Techno Arcadian's we've met so far are all a bunch of psychopaths who don't seem to have a mind of their own, and have been brainwashed into believing Jane and others like her need to be exterminated quickly.
There's a key part of a previous story, The Whispering Room, that finally comes to bear in this story and man alive, was that a scary. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that you will really need to prepare yourself for the most bizzaro world happenings that mostly occur in a zombie movie. I have to give props to the author. Koontz's is a genius when it comes the various technologies and his own twisted imagination. He has without a doubt, pushed the envelope and one can only hope that when this series finally does wrap up, he does it in similarly impressive fashion.
My only real complaint? I need more of Jane's story, and less of the Techno Arcadian's. I need to feel more hope than feeling as though there is no light at the end of the tunnel. After book 3, I honestly thought about skipping this book. I'm glad I didn't because Jane's scenes bring us right back to the first two installments in the chapter. Does Jane makes mistakes? Of course she does, she's not a superhero with unlimited powers to destroy the villains with a blink of an eye. Plus, I love how much she does to protect Travis, even sending him away to keep him out of sight and therefore out of harm's way. You don't mess with mama bear folks.
As with all of his books, The Forbidden Door includes a sneak peak into the fifth installment called The Night Window.
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