Intensity

In the space of 24 hours, self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer" Edgar Foreman Vess sets out to murder everyone in the home of Chyna Shepherd. But a drive even stronger than survival spurs Chyna to unexpected heights of courage and daring, thrusting her into a deadly confrontation with a remorseless, relentless killing machine. HC: Alfred A. Knopf.

Dean Koontz was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensberg University) and won an <b>Atlantic Monthly</b> fiction competition while still a senior. Dean landed his first job after graduation with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where his assignment was to counsel and tutor underprivileged children on a one-to-one basis. On the first day of work, he discovered that his predecessor had been beaten up by the very children he had been trying to help and had landed in the hospital for several weeks.<br><br>The following year was filled with challenges, but Koontz never gave up on his desire to be a writer. He wrote at night and during weekends, a practice he continued after leaving the poverty program and becoming an English teacher in a suburban school district outsi