77 Shadow Street - Dean Koontz

77 Shadow Street  - Dean Koontz, published by Harper June 7 2012

'The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Gilded Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon's dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. For its fortunate residents--among them a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager--the Pendleton's magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, its dark past all but forgotten.
But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths. With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton's past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again. Soon, all those within its boundaries will be engulfed by a dark tide from which few have escaped.
Dean Koontz transcends all expectations as he takes readers on a gripping journey to a place where nightmare visions become real--and where a group of singular individuals hold the key to humanity's destiny. Welcome to 77 Shadow Street' - Goodreads

The first Koontz book I've read since Brother Odd (I think, in 2006)* and it feels like I've never had a break from his writing. Great story, anything 'spore'-like freaks me out because it's so possible but still he uses twenty words for something where the rest of us may only use five. It creeped me out sufficiently enough to remind me that once upon a time - when I was but a young girl - I found Mr Koontz scarier than Stephen King for some absurd reason. A classic haunted house story on a large scale with a somewhat unexpected twist, a considerable motley crew of characters ranging from the innocent children, the child-like innocents to the (probably) criminally insane and the elderly all of whom helped to make this an unexpectedly good tale.

* I may have read The Darkest Evening of the Year in 2007 but I can't remember!