Strange Highways (story collection)

Strange Highways is a collection of 12 short stories and two novels by best-selling American suspense author Dean Koontz, released in May 1995. Four of the stories are revised from their originals. A British edition of the book [identical contents; lacking only the novel <Chase>] was previously issued by Headline in April 1995.

Cemetery Dance Publications printed a limited edition hardcover of the book (ISBN 1-881475-15-8). It was slipcased and limited to 750 signed and numbered copies.

Featured stories

• "Strange Highways" (novel): a failed author returns to his hometown after many years to attend his father's funeral, only to find himself suddenly and inexplicably thrust back through time to relive a traumatic event from his past. In the introduction, Koontz lists the Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire as an inspiration for this story.
• "The Black Pumpkin": a twelve year old boy tries to stop his cruel brother from buying a black pumpkin from a creepy pumpkin carver. He buys the pumpkin anyway, and later that night gets what he deserves.
• "Miss Attila the Hun"
• "Down in the Darkness": after a couple buys a new house, the husband discovers a mysterious door that leads to a dark cellar.
• "Ollie's Hands": a young man with extraordinary psychic abilities and his tragic attempt to pursue a relationship with a woman whose life he saves. [Revised version]
• "Snatcher": a purse snatcher steals a purse from a strange old woman, only to find that he's made a terrible mistake.
• "Trapped": a woman and her son trying to fend off an attack by giant, mutated rats.
• "Bruno": a private eye and a "probability cop" from another dimension hunt down a dangerous alien. [Revised version]
• "We Three": three siblings with special powers eliminate the rest of mankind, thinking that they're the "new race", but soon one of them is pregnant with a creature even more powerful who just might eliminate them. [Revised version]
• "Hardshell": a wounded cop stalks a killer through an abandoned warehouse, but there's more to this seemingly stereotypical situation than meets the eye.
• "Kittens": the first short story Koontz ever sold. A girl learns the truth about God "taking her kittens to Heaven", and she decides to get even. [Revised version]
• "The Night of the Storm": a group of intelligent robots go on a hunting trip in the woods, where they learn that the myth of "human beings" may not be a myth after all.
• "Twilight of the Dawn": a devout atheist who finds his lack of faith challenged in the wake of his son's painful death from cancer.
• "Chase" (novella)

References

Link to limited version on Cemetery Dance Publication's webpage