"Breathless" by Dean Koontz

I really enjoy the audiobook selection at our library.  I travel to and from Abilene and Brownwood frequently and it takes the repetitiveness out of the drive. Hence I just completed Dean Koontz’s “Breathless.”  The story is one of man’s pain, his evil tendencies, his struggle for goodness and evolution: Grady Adams and his wolfhound Merlin spot two creatures in the meadow that are unlike anything seen before.  They are the size of large dogs, but very limber, like cats.  Grady enlists the help of his veterinarian friend, Camillia Rivers, to identify them and they end up running with the pair to protect them from becoming guinea pigs for lab experiments by the big, bad government.  Koontz does a good job of depicting the emotions and rich histories of the characters (a la Stephen King), but is lacking in his description of the creatures and tedious in his portrayal of the surroundings.  At times the story lags and you are thinking “just get on with it.”

There are several subplots that explore the dark past of other characters and have you wondering what they have to do with the story - but Koontz weaves them into the ending and wraps up most of the loose ends - but not all.  I was left wanting more about the strange creatures.  The story was entertaining, but not Koontz’s best work.