New to Dean Koontz books?
The first thing you need to know is that Koontz writes a lot.
2, 3, sometimes 4 books a year. Whew! Hard to keep up, let alone catch up!
I propose the following reading order.
Proposed Reading Order For Dean Koontz Books
- The Frankenstein Series
- then, The Odd Thomas Series
- then, The Jane Hawk Series
- then, work your way forward through his stand-alone novels starting at From the Corner of His Eye (2000) (feel free to skip the novella’s)
- then, if you are truly addicted, you can read his older stuff: stand-alone books, early series and novella’s
DEAN KOONTZ’S Frankenstein Series
- Prodigal Son (2005) [Amazon]
- City of Night (2005) [Amazon]
- Dead and Alive (2009) [Amazon]
- Lost Souls (2010) [Amazon]
- The Dead Town (2011) [Amazon]
DEAN KOONTZ’S Odd Thomas Series
- Odd Thomas (2003) [Amazon]
- Forever Odd (2005) [Amazon]
- Brother Odd (2006) [Amazon]
- Odd Hours (2008) [Amazon]
- Odd Interlude (2012) novella [Amazon]
- A three-part ebook. Published as a paperback in 2013
- Odd Apocalypse (2012) [Amazon]
- Deeply Odd (2013) [Amazon]
- Odd Thomas: You Are Destined to Be Together Forever (2014) novella [Amazon]
- Saint Odd (2015) [Amazon]
Dean Koontz’s Jane Hawk Series
- The Silent Corner (2017) [Amazon]
- The Whispering Room (2017) [Amazon]
- The Crooked Staircase (2018) [Amazon]
- The Forbidden Door (2018) [Amazon]
- The Night Window (2019) [Amazon]
- Devoted (2020) [Amazon]
- Elsewhere (2020) [Amazon]
DEAN KOONTZ’S Standalone Novels
- Star Quest (1968) [Amazon]
- Fear That Man (1969) [Amazon]
- The Fall of the Dream Machine (1969) [Amazon]
- The Dark Symphony (1969) [Amazon]
- Hell’s Gate (1970) [Amazon]
- Soft Come the Dragons (1970) [Amazon]
- collection
- Dark of the Woods (1970) [Amazon]
- Beastchild (1970) [Amazon]
- Anti-Man (1970) [Amazon]
- Demon Child (1971) [Amazon]
- The Crimson Witch (1971) [Amazon]
- Legacy of Terror (1971) [Amazon]
- as “Deanna Dwyer”
- Warlock (1972) [Amazon]
- Time Thieves (1972) [Amazon]
- Starblood (1972) [Amazon]
- The Flesh in the Furnace (1972) [Amazon]
- A Darkness in My Soul (1972) [Amazon]
- Chase (1972) [Amazon]
- as “K. R. Dwyer”
- Children of the Storm (1972) [Amazon]
- as “Deanna Dwyer”
- Dance with the Devil (1972) [Amazon]
- as “Deanna Dwyer”
- The Dark of Summer (1972) [Amazon]
- as “Deanna Dwyer”
- The Haunted Earth (1973) [Amazon]
- Demon Seed (1973) [Amazon]
- A Werewolf Among Us (1973) [Amazon]
- Shattered (1973) [Amazon]
- as “K. R. Dwyer”
- Hanging On (1973) [Amazon]
- Strike Deep (1974) [Amazon]
- as “Anthony North”
- After The Last Race (1974) [Amazon]
- Nightmare Journey (1975) [Amazon]
- The Long Sleep (1975) [Amazon]
- as “John Hill”
- Dragonfly (1975) [Amazon]
- as “K. R. Dwyer”
- Invasion (1975) [Amazon]
- as “Aaron Wolfe”
- Prison of Ice (1976) [Amazon]
- as “David Axton”
- Night Chills (1976) [Amazon]
- The Face of Fear (1977) [Amazon]
- as “Brian Coffey” and as “K. R. Dwyer”
- The Vision (1977) [Amazon]
- The Key to Midnight (1979) [Amazon]
- as “Leigh Nichols”
- The Funhouse (1980) [Amazon]
- as “Owen West”
- Whispers (1980) [Amazon]
- The Voice of the Night (1980) [Amazon]
- as “Brian Coffey”
- The Eyes of Darkness (1981) [Amazon]
- as “Leigh Nichols”
- The Mask (1981) [Amazon]
- as “Owen West”
- The House of Thunder (1982) [Amazon]
- as “Leigh Nichols”
- Phantoms (1983) [Amazon]
- Darkfall (1984) [Amazon]
- Twilight (1984) [Amazon]
- as “Leigh Nichols”
- Twilight Eyes (1985) [Amazon]
- The Door to December (1985) [Amazon]
- as “Richard Paige” also as by “Leigh Nichols”
- Strangers (1986) [Amazon]
- Watchers (1987) [Amazon]
- Shadow Fires (1987) [Amazon]
- as “Leigh Nichols”
- Lightning (1988) [Amazon]
- Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages (1988) [Amazon]
- Midnight (1989) [Amazon]
- The Bad Place (1991) [Amazon]
- Cold Fire (1992) [Amazon]
- Hideaway (1992) [Amazon]
- Dragon Tears (1993) [Amazon]
- Mr. Murder (1993) [Amazon]
- Winter Moon (1994) [Amazon]
- Dark Rivers of the Heart (1994) [Amazon]
- Icebound (1995) [Amazon]
- Strange Highways (1995) [Amazon]
- short stories
- Intensity (1995) [Amazon]
- Ticktock (1996) [Amazon]
- Sole Survivor (1997) [Amazon]
- False Memory (1999) [Amazon]
- From the Corner of His Eye (2000) [Amazon]
- One Door Away from Heaven (2001) [Amazon]
- By the Light of the Moon (2002) [Amazon]
- The Face (2003) [Amazon]
- The Taking (2004) [Amazon]
- Life Expectancy (2004) [Amazon]
- Velocity (2005) [Amazon]
- The Husband (2006) [Amazon]
- The Good Guy (2007) [Amazon]
- The Darkest Evening of the Year (2007) [Amazon]
- Your Heart Belongs to Me (2008) [Amazon]
- Relentless (2009) [Amazon]
- Breathless (2009) [Amazon]
- Darkness Under the Sun (2010) [Amazon]
- novella
- What the Night Knows (2010) [Amazon]
- The Moonlit Mind (2011) [Amazon]
- novella
- 77 Shadow Street (2011) [Amazon]
- Wilderness (2013) [Amazon]
- novella
- Innocence (2013) [Amazon]
- The Neighbor (2014) [Amazon]
- novella
- The City (2014) [Amazon]
- Last Light (2015) [Amazon]
- novella
- Final Hour (2015) [Amazon]
- novella
- Ashley Bell (2015) [Amazon]
- Ricochet Joe (2018) [Amazon]
- novella. a Kindle motion book which contains moving pictures and interactive parts
With DK books being a bit hit and miss over the last few years i would recommend all new readers to start with the ones that are recognised as his best. I certainly wouldn’t recommend a series such as Odd Thomas just yet.
Therefore i would suggest stand alones first,then,if you enjoy those,delve deeper into a series.
Stand Alone recs:
1.Watchers
2.Phantoms
3.Lightning
4.Midnight
5.Twilight Eyes
6.The Bad Place
7.Intensity
8.Night Chills
9.Strangers
10. From The Corner Of His Eye
11.The Face of Fear
12. Darkness Comes( aka Darkfall)
13.The Funhouse
14. Dragon Tears
15.Demon Seed
16. The Servants of Twilight
17.Shadowfires
18.Whispers
19. Mr.Murder
20.Tik Tok.
After all of these dip into whatever you like.
bonus suggestions
1. Odd Thomas series
2. Ashley Bell series
3. Winter Moon
4.Icebound
5.The Bad Place
Thanks for the input Steve!