A 4.8 scale tremor gently rocks Los Angeles. A nameless man sleeps in his van, plagued by nightmares, comforted by waking alongside his knives and dreaming of killing the woman he is searching for. Hilary Thomas, up and coming screen writer, struggles with feelings of inferiority and self doubt as she waits to see if her newest creation has been accepted. Drinking in her success she begins to relax, to begin to believe that the world is not the bleak brutal one she had to learn to be tough to survive. Then she returns home and the man is waiting for her and he wants her dead.
Koontz always has had fascinating ideas, examining up close the worst that humans are capable of and asking the question what if, what if a child is raised in a certain way, what does brutality do to the psyche of a child and the adult they become. Whispers is fascinating for these ideas, but this is one of Kootz's early works and in places his writing doesn't quite work, in particular in the sex scenes which can be a little cringeworthy. However, the power of the ideas and the imagination that would go on to make Koontz such a prolific and successful writer are very much in evidence.
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