Dean Koontz virtually invented the cross-genre novel and in One Door Away from Heaven he mixes an action thriller with post-X Files alien paranoia to remarkable effect.
Micky Bellsong is a young woman at a crisis point in her life, unsure of where she should be heading and using a stay at her Aunt Geneva's to sort out her life. Then the precocious and deformed Leilani Kronk walks into her life telling stories of her stepfather Preston Maddoc and her drugged-up mother who both believe aliens will beam the girl into their mothership and heal her deformities before her 10th birthday. But tales of Preston's vicious past, including his hand in several murders, leave Micky believing that a far more terrible fate awaits her friend.
So, when the Maddocs head off taking Leilani with them, Micky heads off in pursuit.
Typically with a Koontz novel, nothing turns out to be what it seems and the author relishes playing with you, tugging you this way and that in a meticulously crafted plot that tightens like a noose with every turn of the page. His characters are exceptionally drawn, driving the novel forward with realism and warmth. Micky is one of his more attractive young heroines but the real star is Leilani, a mature young girl whose plucky nature and sparkling dialogue instantly make her Koontz's most memorable creation. She is the embodiment of the very moral core of every Koontz novel; despite her deformities and dreadful upbringing, her buoyant optimism is what drives Micky on to do good. Likewise, it is Koontz's firm belief that despite the violence, pain and suffering, there is always goodness to be found in every person and situation if you are prepared to look for it.
Once again, however, this latest offering is overpadded and could easily have been edited into a lean, mean (and much shorter) thriller. Not Koontz's best work, for sure, but still entertaining.
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