Fear Nothing (novel)

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**Title** **Fear Nothing**
Cover of Fear Nothing
Author	Dean Koontz
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Moonlight Bay Trilogy
Genre(s)	Suspense, Mystery novel
Publisher	Bantam Publishing
Released	1998
Media type	Paperback
Pages	448 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-553-57975-4
Followed by	Seize the Night

Fear Nothing is a book released in 1998 by the best-selling author Dean Koontz. The book is the first installment in what is reported to be a three part series of books, known as the Moonlight Bay Trilogy, featuring Christopher Snow, who suffers from the rare (but real) disease called XP (xeroderma pigmentosum). The second of the three is Seize the Night. No release date has yet been set for the release of the third book titled Ride the Storm.

[edit] Plot summary

The book opens with Christopher Snow going to visit his dying father at the hospital. As Snow enters the lights are thoughtfully dimmed on his entry. As Christopher’s father is near to death he manages to say a few words, “fear nothing”. Shortly after his father dies Snow discovers before leaving the hospital his father’s body has been switched with that of a “drifter”. Following the people taking the body to the funeral home, Christopher is nearly found out and a wild manhunt begins. Christopher is chased through to the outskirts of town and only his knowledge of the landscape of night keeps him ahead of his pursuers. When he reaches a dead-end in a deserted hollow, he encounters Mungo Jerry an extremely intelligent and very precocious cat. As Christopher follows a drain channel to the part of town near to his home he is surprised to find a gathering of Rhesus monkeys with golden eyes. But these monkeys are nastier than normal monkeys and much smarter. He begins to suspect that the strangeness and change around him has something to do with an ex-government research center Fort Wyvern, where his mother worked as a genetic scientist before she died. His findings make him wonder if her death was really an accident and touch upon the problems that can be caused by genetic research.

Later Christopher finds a gun on his bed with an urgent message on his answering machine to call Angela, a nurse and life-long family friend, while his dog, Orson, is busy digging holes in the garden. His next stop is to see Angela who reveals some of the town’s deep secrets, but before he can find out more, Angela is killed and Chris barely escapes when unknown assailants set the house on fire. Christopher sets off on his bicycle, with Orson following to the home of his best friend Bobby, a gnarly and wholly righteous surfer dude, who lives in a cottage on the edge of town, near to the sea. Upon hearing Chris’s story bobby urges Christopher to leave it alone. With Sasha (a night DJ at the local radio station) sending out some tunes for her man, the friends share some food and a few beers (including the dog). Soon a phone-call from with a message for Chris to meet another friend, sends him off on a race into the mist of the night where they are followed by the Rhesus monkeys being led by a shadowy figure of a half-man, half-beast.

As Christopher meets with his ex-football player friend, turned animal physiologist, and owner of the cat Mungo Jerry, Christopher is again warned off his investigation yet feels compelled to unravel this mystery. People who first appeared to be upstanding citizens are becoming engulfed by primal desires and exhibiting odd if not strange behavior. Most of the night is spent with Chris and Orson going from one Moonlight Bay citizen to another, talking to each to piece together the puzzle

As morning comes Christopher arrives at Sasha’s house to rest but with time running short, they have to meet with Bobby to face the monkey troop. Armed with guns, Ammunition and fire extinguishers, they are about to join Bobby, when Chris recalls the urgency of Orson the previous night. Going back briefly to Chris’s home, Orson digs up a jar with a manuscript inside, written by his father, it promises an end to the secrecy.