Reviewed by Robert McCool
Dean Koontz devotes his latest to a remarkable boy/dog combination.

I never cared much for Dean Koontz as a horror book writer. I have found him to be tepidly spiritual, a weak Stephen King wannabe. But this latest, Devoted (ISBN 13: 978-1-4328-7662-3), grabbed me when I was looking for a quick read.

Kipp is a dog with a genetically modified human smart brain, lacking only thumbs and vocal chords in order to write or talk to humans, he communicates with a gift of telepathy to other dogs of his kind,in an organization called “the Mysterium”.

Todd Bookman is labeled as a high functioning-autistic, while he is really an autodidact, who has never spoken in his 11 years. He absorbs the information he wants like a sponge, being far smarter than others of his age.

He also broadcasts on the Mysterium, where Kipp finds him and begins a cross country journey to get to the boy. Kipp meets Ben Hogan, who understands that Kipp is not an ordinary dog, and he transports the dog to where Kipp wants to go.

Todd can understand Kipp, and the two blissfully communicate out from their years worth of loneliness. Todd speaks, shocking his mother Megan and brings tears of joy, instead of tears of pain.

Todd has spent years trying to figure out how and why his father died in a  questionable helicopter crash, even entering the dark web to do so. It turns out that his father worked for a totally immoral man named Dorian Purcell, who cared nothing for anything other his own ambition, the company “Parable”.

Unfortunately, Lee Shacet, The CEO of Parable, fills himself with the Parable lab's new product that  fuses human DNA with animal DNA, enhancing all his senses and augmenting his physical abilities.

He then sets fire to the lab, killing ninety-two employees before fleeing the scene and looking for a very old girlfriend, Megan Bookman. He turns ever more like an animal, killing for sport, killing for revenge against Megan as his sexual fantasy of her grow, obsessing with his every evil thought.

Megan thwarts his desires when he shows up to claim her as a sexual slave.

Meanwhile, Dorian Purcell senses Todd's presence on the dark web and sends a crew of killers to put an end to Todd and his mother.

This book's plot tightens toward an end so tight it squeaks, and resolves the story with a struggle that breathes in a frightening conclusion as the Mysterium helps Todd and Kipp resolve a defense that puts an end to the bad guys.

Dean Koontz has used a modified dog before, in the novel named “Watchers”, his most successful book to date, cementing his position as an official dog lover.

I far prefer this latest tome as a speculative horror novel, with Dean finally inventing a spine-tingling plot that keeps you turning pages to the very end of the story.