Midnight (Koontz novel)
Midnight is a novel by American writer Dean Koontz. It was published in 1989. The book is a cross-genre novel. It includes aspects of suspense, science fiction, love story, and horror. Overview. As with many Koontz books, "Midnight" is divided into parts. "Part One: Along the Night Coast", contains chapters one through fifty-seven. "Part Two: Daybreak in Hades", contains thirty-seven chapters, but is similar to Part One in that it begins with its own 'Chapter One'. "Part Three: The Night Belongs To Them", follows suit, begins with its own Chapter One, and has forty -one chapters. "Midnight" was Dean Koontz's first No. 1 hardcover on the New York Times bestseller list. "Midnight" includes a mixture of two classic plots- the great 50's film Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the classic H.G. Wells tale, The Island of Dr. Moreau. And, indeed, Koontz mentions both of these later in the novel. Plot summary. Janice Capshaw, a nighttime jogger, is pursued and killed by a pack of mysterious, nightmarish beasts while she is jogging along the beach of her northern California home town, Moonlight Cove. Sam Booker, an undercover FBI agent, arrives in Moonlight  Cove to investigate the recent rash of suspicious deaths, including that of Janice Capshaw. Tessa Jane Lockland, sister of Janice Capshaw, also arrives in Moonlight Cove, to investigate her sister's unexplained death. Chrissie Foster, an eleven-year-old girl who lives on a farm north of town, accidentally witnesses her parents in a physically altered state - part human and part beast - and is forced to flee for her life. She heads towards town to seek help. Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie are all hunted, albeit separately, by the mysterious beasts. Sam and Tessa meet by chance in a laundromat where  they have both retreated after being stalked by the beasts. Mistrustful of one another at first, they realize that in order to survive they must work together. Sam discovers that Thomas Shaddack, a brilliant computer scientist, is "converting" the citizens of Moonlight Cove into something unexplained. Sam also learns that the local police are aiding Shaddack in the conversions and that their state-of-the-art computer system, given to them by Shaddack’s company, is unnecessarily sophisticated for the needs of a small town police force. Because of a letter sent to the FBI by Moonlight Cove resident, Harry  Talbot, offering information about the recent disturbing events, Sam and Tessa decide to go to Harry at his place of residence. Harry is a Vietnam vet, who was badly injured in the war and now uses a wheelchair. He has not yet been ‘converted’. Because he spends most of his time watching the people of Moonlight Cove through his telescope, Harry has learned a great deal about what is going on and also learns that the local police are involved. Chrissie also ends up at Harry Talbot’s, after her attempt to approach the local church ends with her having  to evade the beasts again, and she makes the reasoned guess that Harry may be a safe person to approach. Together, the four protagonists are able to piece together more fully the story behind the happenings of Moonlight Cove. Thomas Shaddack has created a means whereby a person can be converted into a super-human - no longer susceptible to illness, injury, fatigue, or emotion. But the conversion has an unforeseen side-effect. Stripped of the capacity to feel human emotion, life becomes intolerably meaningless, and most of the newly converted townspeople regress irresistibly into a beast state, concerned only with  hunting, killing and consuming their prey. As events unfold, Shaddack descends further into madness. He refuses to acknowledge that his plans have gone terribly wrong and that the conversions should be stopped. Seeing that nothing can stop the town's descent into chaos, the Chief of Police, Loman Watkins, vows to kill Shaddack, which will instantly kill every converted person in the community. As part of the 'conversions', Shaddack has placed a microchip inside each person that will kill them along with Shaddack if his heart ceases to beat. The final showdown takes place at the local high school, after  Sam heads there to use a school computer terminal to get a warning to the outside world and request assistance. Shaddack is killed in the confrontation, which kills most of the populace with him. Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie survive and the FBI arrive to clean up the mess.