DEAN KOONTZ - TICKTOCK This book is delightfully quirky and a quick read. Part screwball comedy and part horror story, it will make you laugh and it will make you want to keep the lights on. Filled with rapid, quick fire repartee and lots of non-stop action, I read it in one sitting, as I simply could not put it down, even though it was not at all what I expected. Tommy Phan is a successful novelist of detective stories. Unfortunately, his Vietnamese mother doesn't see quite it that way. She feels that he is turning his back on his Vietnamese roots, as he has Americanized his name from Tuong to Tommy. He did not wish to become a doctor or work in the family business, as did the rest of his brothers. Tommy is living the American dream, which his mother simply will not accept. One evening, shortly after returning home, his doorbell rings. When Tommy answers it, there is no one there. He does, however, find a homemade rag doll on his porch, which bewilders him, as he cannot imagine who would leave him such a thing. Taking the doll into his home, the doll's stitches start popping, and so the fun begins. It is a little more fun than Tommy bargained for, and he flees his home with something evil in pursuit. Ultimately, he runs into Deliverance Payne, a beautiful seemingly intuitive blonde waitress, who gives him a hand in evading his demonic pursuer. She is certainly more than a sum of her parts and is not what she initially seems. Let the games begin! Tommy's life will simply never again be the same.
