A review by jselliot
The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

A nice, quick read - in which it proves that dogs do make everything better. It deals with past and present trauma with the characters, and quickly involves a Golden Retriever in with the increasingly paranormal elements of the plot. A hyper-realistic pencil portrait of the dog in question sticks out in my memory, when the character who drew it had little artistic training.

Annoyingly, looking back on it, the author really leaned in on women's mental illness and "just for funsies" as the motive of one of the two antagonist's motives. The man of the antagonist pair is rolling off of his history with the protagonist.

(Spoiler: The Golden is the FMC's dead daughter.)