I think I’ve read almost all of Dean Koontz’s novels, but I always understood there might be one or two here or there that I missed. I bought Cold Fire because it was on sale, and figured I’d likely already read it, but had probably forgotten the plot. However, it turned out to be brand new to me.
Jim Ironheart is a recent lottery winner, who could be living his life in leisure. But occasionally he has a mystic experience, and utters the word, “Lifeline.” He then sets out blindly, following his intuition, in order to be in place just in the nick of time, to save somebody’s life.
Holly Thorne is a disillusioned news reporter for a small-town newspaper, But when she witnesses Jim Ironheart saving a kid’s life, she suddenly needs to learn more about him. She locates him, shoehorns herself into his life, and they fall in love. Now they’re a team, following his lifeline summonses together.
But that’s just the beginning. Jim is being drawn home, to the house where he grew up, where he first discovered his gift. There, with Holly’s help, he will begin learning the secrets of his forgotten past, of the personal trauma that put him on the road to his present life.
Cold Fire is one of the early books of Dean Koontz’s bestseller period. I found it episodic and rather less intriguing than his more mature work. But it was worth reading. I enjoyed it.
