Elsewhere A novel

Jeffy Coltrane's wife vanished seven years ago, walking away from her husband and their four-year-old daughter. Over the years, Jeffy and young Amity have forged a great father-daughter relationship; they're more like friends than parent and child. When something happens that threatens to catastrophically alter their world (in a quite literal sense), it is the bond between them that keeps the pair one step ahead of danger. This is a gutsy novel, a blend of high-concept SF (parallel worlds are involved in some ingenious ways) with a touching family drama in which a father and daughter, against all probability, have, just maybe, found a way to return to a time when their family was complete. Koontz's first novel was published in 1968; he's had a lot of time, over a lot of books (more than 100 of them), to hone his craft, and lately he's been turning out one great book after another, from the brilliant Jane Hawk series to Devoted (2020) to this spectacular, action-packed, character-driven adventure. In less experienced hands the book might have crashed, but instead it soars.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Writing across genres, Koontz remains white hot with another certain best-seller.

California man Jeffy Coltrane and his 11-year-old daughter, Amity, discover the wonders and horrors of multiverse travel after an inventor entrusts them with a special device. The inventor, on the run from dark government forces, instructs Coltrane to put this $76 billion "key to everything" into safekeeping and never use it. But when Amity's pet mouse strolls across its controls, the device activates, whisking father and daughter--and mouse--off to an alternate Earth. Danger greets them in the form of a nasty creature that is half boy and half chimp, and there are other threats. But Amity is in no rush to return to normalcy after Googling her long-missing mother and determining she is alive and well on Earth 1.13. However, re-connecting with Mom, who walked out on her family seven years ago, saying she felt "empty," proves problematic: In this parallel world, Jeffy and Amity were both run over by a car--seven years ago. For all the other scary things there are across the multiverse, including genocidal robots marching up the Pacific Coast Highway, none is more frightening than the neo-fascist enforcers now operating back home on "Earth Prime." As heavy-handed as Koontz is in nailing down this timely theme, it's disappointing to see him pull back from its broader implications and invest his villainy in a rather predictable sociopathic bad guy who will do anything to lay his hands on the special device. And it is not always easy to keep all the multiple Earths and versions of people straight. But otherwise, this is a colorful, imaginative spin into SF by the prolific, wide-ranging writer. A lively, offbeat novel. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.