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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780425208434
ISBN number: 0425208435
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 432
Printing Date: February 07, 2006
Publishing house: Berkley
Sale Popularity Level: 60300
Studio: Berkley
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Product Description:
Harry Lyon was a rational man, a cop who refused to let his job harden his soul. Then one fateful day, he was forced to shoot a man--and a homeless stranger with bloodshot eyes uttered the haunting words that challenged Harry Lyon's sanity:
'Ticktock, ticktock. You'll be dead in sixteen hours...Dead by dawn...Dead by dawn...Dead by dawn...'
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I read a lot of books, and I'm pretty charitable. This is the harshest review I've ever written, for the book I hate the most. This book starts out with mystery elements, and suspense; "How did the killer do that?" "How did he escape?" etc etc.
Spoiler alert: the bad guy IS A GOD. He is omnipotent and can control all time and space and matter. Well, that neatly explains how he managed all that mysterious stuff. Man, I bet Agatha Christie feels like a chump; look how much effort she put into her killer's plots, and the detective work required to solve them- wouldn't it have been simpler if ALL OF HER BAD GUYS WERE GODS? A locked room mystery? Easy- the killer is omnipotent! Missing murder weapon? Easy! The killer IS A GOD!
Worst plot ever.
Rated by buyers 
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I think I originally read "Dragon Tears" when it came out about a decade ago, and didn't think much of it. Recently I read the fantastic Koontz novel "Brother Odd", and the "creature" featured in "Brother Odd" reminded me of the "creature" in "Dragon Tears". (I don't want to give away spoilers for either novel so I'm trying to remain vague?).
Giving "Dragon Tears" a second shot, I have to say I enjoyed it. It's definately a dark novel, and coming off a light-hearted Odd Thomas book, it seemed even darker. The Dean Koontz sense of humour found in his Odd Thomas series it all but absent in "Dragon Tears". Two detectives are caught up in a restraunt shooting, and find themselves the target of a maniacal homeless man who has been threatening and killing other street denizens. The killer hobo gives the detectives until dawn to live, at which time he will murder them in a genuinely awful way. But there is something more to the hobo than meets the eye, it seems he can appear and disappear at will and bullets do not slow him down.
The basic story is decent, the real problem I had with "Dragon Tears" were the chapters written from the dog's point of view. It just seemed kind of silly, and I also didn't care for the very rushed ending. It seems the entire novel was building up to a massive showdown, and instead everything wraps up in about 2 pages at the end.
Still as a Koontz fan, I would recommend you give this one a shot, but if you aren't familiar with Koontz, only pick up "Dragon Tears" after you've read some of his better novels like "Watchers", "Strangers" or "Odd Thomas".
Rated by buyers 
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Hi. I do not happen to agree with those below that criticize this work. I thought it was very clever, and it held my attention the whole time. I also loved the parts of the story told through the dog Woofer's eyeview. Thank you, again, Mr. Koontz.
Rated by buyers -
Do not waste your time, while Koontz does have some ability this one is so cheesy and stupid it was torture to finish. When I start reading books in the perspective of I dog, I know I am reading something for a child.
Rated by buyers -
This story opens with a `bang' - actually, a series of them. Our two main heroes, police officers Harry and Connie, are eating lunch when a nut comes in and starts shooting up the place. After they finally kill the bad guy, they then get sucked into dealing with a psychopath who has telekinetic powers and a God complex. The opening parts were good, but the book quickly bogged down in the 2nd quarter, and didn't pick up through the third. A book like this which encompasses less than 24 hours of `realtime' just should NOT be as long as this. DRAGON TEARS might've been an excellent, tight, fast-paced 200 to 250-page thriller; instead, it's a rambling, bloated, 400-plus. A lot of time is wasted with the killer's clichéd inner monologue, and with tedious chapters told from a dog's point of view.
The characters did not impress me, either. I found Harry and Connie to be caricatures - he of an OCD neat-freak, she of a reckless slob. Neither seemed very real to me. And the villain was, beyond his superpowers, not much different personality-wise from any of the army of serial killers with delusions of grandeur that, thanks to Thomas Harris's success, stalk the page of dozens and dozens of novels. Unfortunately, in terms of being an engaging character, this novel's Bryan Drackman is no Francis Dolarhyde, let alone Hannibal Lecter.
Now a confession: I quit reading the book in the third quarter, with about 100 pages left to go. I no longer cared how it ended, and I was getting serious doubts about the ending being worth the effort, doubts which are confirmed by what some of the other reviewers have written. Reading DRAGON TEARS was starting to feel like work, like a chore, and that's coming from a lifelong bookworm. Good fiction is tough to put down, and makes you put aside other things in order to read - this book did the opposite, so I decided to move onto something else. Approach with caution.
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