The Key to Midnight
 First edition | |
| Author | Dean Koontz (as Leigh Nichols) |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Suspense, Horror novel |
| Publisher | Pocket Books |
Publication date | 1979 (1995 in paperback) |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 392 |
| ISBN | 0-671-80915-6 |
| OCLC | 32377348 |
| Preceded by | The Vision |
| Followed by | The Funhouse |
The Key to Midnight is a novel by the best-selling author Dean Koontz, released in 1979 under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols. It is considered Koontz's first success.[1]
Overview
In the 1995 paperback edition, Koontz states that The Key to Midnight "is not like anything else I have done"; he also explained that he revised the novel for that year's edition, cutting 30,000 words and adding 5,000.[2] In August 2010, Koontz released a "better" version in Paperback.
Plot synopsis
Lisa Chelgrin is a US Senator's daughter. She has had her entire life erased and true past blocked. Her imposed and new fake identity is named Joanna Rand. A detective, Alex Hunter, is hired to track Lisa down, but finds nothing. Years later he goes on a vacation and out of the blue finds himself in Kyoto, Japan. He walks into a lounge act and on stage discovers Lisa Chelgrin. Her name is different and she is older, now working as the nightclub owner and singer. Nevertheless the detective knows it is definitely her. He sends for his dead-case file, and his private employed messenger is almost killed delivering it. Someone is watching him and Lisa.
At the same time, a person known as The Doctor (Inamura) is trying to find a way around Lisa's memory block, and he assumes there is a "password" or "pass-phrase" which will remove it and allow access to Lisa's true memories. Under hypnosis, however, Lisa can only repeat the phrase "tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun" instead of answering the questions about her true past. After the first series of events, both of the main characters try to deal with their pasts in order to survive for their future.
Characters
- Lisa Chelgrin/Joanna Rand
- Alex Hunter
- The Doctor/ Omi Inamura
- Mariko
- Franz Rotenhausen/ The Hand
- Tom Chelgrin/ Ilya Lyshenko
- Wayne Kennedy
- Ursula Zaitsev
- Anson Peterson/ Anton Broskov
- Antonio Paz
- Ignacio Carrera
- Marlowe