THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS
Dean Koontz (deankoontz.com)
Thomas & Mercer (amazonpublishing.amazon.com)
£19.99
Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop
Orphaned at the age of five, Vida was taken in and raised by her Uncle Ogden, in a remote cabin in the woods just outside the town of Kettleton. Not quite a hermit, Ogden taught Vida to live with the land, rather than on it and, following his death, she remains in his five-room house, listening to the music that he taught her to love and reading – and often re-reading – books from his well-stocked library. Somehow, she meets and falls in love with José Nochelobo, the principal of Kettleton’s school and a vocal environmentalist. When José dies in a tragic accident, Vida is bereft, but a visit from the coroner’s daughter gives her the truth about his death. It’s a truth that gives her a new purpose: vengeance. New World Technology and the gangsters with whom the company associate will soon learn that Vida is not as helpless as her situation might suggest, because she has nature – and a pack of wolves – on her side.
Dean Koontz’s latest novel mixes crime with the supernatural in what feels like a lush fantasy setting. At the centre is Vida, a young woman who has been raised to love her own space, her own company, and the land around her, who feels at ease with animals, going so far as to leave the window open to allow “Lupo” to visit – Lupo, it turns out, is the leader of a pack of wolves that she has befriended. There is something otherworldly about Vida, but it isn’t long before we realise that she is perfectly capable of defending herself and her land. Following the death of her almost-fiance, José Nochelobo, she finds herself fending off the unwanted advances of suitors who work for the local crime family; she has something they want, but she is willing to protect it, even if she has to kill to do so.
It quickly becomes clear that there is a shadowy megacorporation at the bottom of all of Vida’s troubles. They are moving into Kettleton for reasons that aren’t made clear to us until late in the day, except to hint that what they are planning could spell environmental disaster for the area. José’s untimely death would seem to be very convenient for them, and their harassment of Vida following José’s death would suggest that they fear what she might know. Given the young woman’s close relationship with nature – the forest, the animals – it quickly becomes clear that she is more interested in protecting the world around her than protecting herself, and during the climactic chase through the forest and eventual standoff, her only aim is to defeat the bad guys and save Kettleton and surrounding areas, no matter the cost to her.
Other characters come and go organically as the story progresses, ranging from good to evil. Koontz keeps us on our toes by sometimes introducing a character as one thing, only for them to turn out to be something completely different. What marks those characters who belong more on the side of good is their selflessness and willingness to go out of their way to help someone else. Besides Vida, there are two central characters that could be considered “good guys”, and both are in the game for someone – or something – other than themselves, even if it’s not always obvious. Koontz is careful to point out that the good guys don’t always wear the white hats and that, sometimes, all it takes is a kind word, or a friendly action, to divert someone from the path of evil that seems to be their lot, onto a brighter path towards a much brighter future.
The central characters are all linked through a mysterious fortune teller, who tells their future in exchange for whatever they value least. This character – about whom we learn very little until the story’s climax – speaks in riddles but gives the characters she meets a sense of purpose, ultimately guiding them to each other so that they might save Kettleton. It adds a touch of the supernatural to the proceedings – she appears and disappears on a whim, and knows more than a carnival trickster ought to. While the story is grounded firmly in reality, it has a fantastical feel in the forest setting, and the animals that inhabit it; there’s a real sense of enchantment here, and in how Vida develops over the course of the story. She is a character that will stay with the reader long after the plot has faded from memory.
It has been a while since I’ve read so many of Koontz’s novels in such close proximity to each other, but each novel makes me wonder why I drifted away from him in the early nineties. The Forest of Lost Souls shows an author that is comfortable in breaking genre boundaries, blurring the lines between crime and horror and fantasy, and still producing something that resonates with the reader. In Vida, he has created a wonderfully engaging central character who is mysterious – and deadly – enough to keep us reading. This is Koontz’s “climate crisis” novel, and it’s as strong as you would expect from an author who has been writing for six decades. Unlike many, The Forest of Lost Souls avoids a preachy approach and settles for telling its story, trusting that its readers are intelligent enough to understand the subtext.
The Forest of Lost Souls is a fast-paced thriller that will grip you tight and keep you reading long past bedtime. It’s filled with characters who burrow under the reader’s skin and set up home; it puts them in situations that test the limits of their humanity and examines what might happen to ordinary people in extraordinary situations. It’s a novel full of heart and humour, violence and intrigue and a soupçon of romance – in other words, there’s something here for everyone – that should be on everybody’s reading list. Dean Koontz continues to produce hit after hit and, from here, as long as he keeps writing them, I’ll keep reading them. I suggest you give them a chance.
