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The Standard Reader

Dean Koontz meets Wesley Smith.

Apr 8, 2002, Vol. 7, No. 29
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ONE STEP FROM DEATH

The Weekly Standard doesn't review much mass-market genre fiction, figuring such books manage to find readers all by themselves. But you may want to check out Dean R. Koontz's latest. Koontz is the bestselling author of such black thrillers and horror stories as "The Servants of Twilight," "Darkfall," and "Phantoms"--to say nothing of "Ticktock," "Icebound," "Dark Rivers of the Heart," "Sole Survivor," and nearly 80 other books.

His new thriller, "One Door Away from Heaven" (Bantam, 608 pp., $26.95), interweaves two plots: one in which a woman tries to save a crippled girl from being euthanized by her wicked stepfather, and another in which an odd boy is hunted across America by both the FBI and a gang of murderers. Along the way, Koontz denounces bad medicine, assisted suicide, and believers in extraterrestrials. But it was the author's note that caught our eye:

"Utilitarian bioethics as portrayed in 'One Door Away from Heaven' is unfortunately not a figment of my imagination, but a real threat to you and to everyone you love. This philosophy embodies the antihuman essence of fascism, expresses the contempt for individuals' freedom and for the disabled and the frail that has in the past marked every form of totalitarianism. One day our great universities will be required to redeem themselves from the shame of having honored and promulgated ethicists who would excuse and facilitate the killing of the disabled, the weak, and the elderly."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves--and Koontz goes on to pay tribute to Wesley J. Smith, a frequent writer for The Weekly Standard:

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