I recently read a mystery novel called The Servants of Twilight by Dean R. Koontz. Joey Scavello, a six-year-old boy, is the main focus of the book. His mother, Christine Scavello, owns a gourmet shop in Newport Beach, California. Together, the two live in Costa Mesa, a city near Los Angeles. The Church of Twilight, headed by a supposedly psychic woman named Grace Spivey, is the main force against Joey Scavello. Charlie Harrison is a private detective who helps the Scavello family evade the clutches of the members of The Church of Twilight, who are called The Servants of Twilight.
It begins on a sunny afternoon in 1985 in the parking lot of a Costa Mesa mall. Christine Scavello and her son are walking to their car when an old woman appears and begins to shout, “He must die! ” toward Joey, and rants the phrase, “Don”t you know what he is? ” Later, they see the same woman outside a window at their house and then she calls them on the phone several times, again saying that Joey must die. It is then that they decide to hire a private investigator. They go to the office of Charlie Harrison and he immediately gives them two bodyguards and a man to keep watch on their house.
A while after they get home, two men come with guns, invade the house, and kill the bodyguards. Joey and Christine manage to escape, but know they must go to another city to be safe. After much research, they find that the people following them are from The Church of Twilight, lead by the old woman who confronted them at the mall, Grace Spivey. Eventually, they travel with Charlie all the way from Los Angeles to the mountains of Sacramento, trying to get rid of the “Twilighters”. However, every time they stop in a city to rest, the “Twilighters” show up, again attempting to kill Joey.
Grace Spivey uses her psychic powers to locate the boy. She believes that six-year old Joey is the antichrist and the son of the devil. She thinks he will rule the world for a thousand years if she does not kill him. The group ends up at Charlie”s cabin in the mountains near Sacramento and they believe they are safe from the ten members of the church following them. However, they are wrong, as Spivey and her followers show up for the final confrontation. It is snowing very heavily, but eventually, Christine and Charlie are able to kill all of the ten people following them, except one.
Grace Spivey”s closest follower, Kyle Barlowe, turns around to be on their side. Joey, Christine, and Charlie are all safe after their week- long trek to escape the demented Grace Spivey and her “Twilighters. ” I related to Charlie the most because I agreed with his opinions and feelings, which were expressed very deeply in the book. He did not take any pleasure in killing the members of the Church of Twilight who were following the group, but did it strictly in defense of Joey and Christine, who he both came to love. I think it is wrong to kill someone out of anything but self-defense and it is even worse to take pride or pleasure in it.
Also, he turned his life around after being brought up by abusive parents, and I believe it is very triumphant for someone to turn around and help others after such a horrible past. I would rate this novel as an eight and one-half because it was very suspenseful and had an intriguing plot. Although I do not think it is the best work of Dean Koontz, he clearly uses his rich writing skills and vivid imagination in this book. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys mystery novels which involve the supernatural.
