{{Short description|1979 novel by Dean Koontz}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject Books --> | name = The Key to Midnight | image = Image:The Key to Midnight.jpg | caption = First edition | author = Dean Koontz (as Leigh Nichols) | cover_artist = | country = United States | language = English | series = | genre = Suspense, horror | publisher = Pocket Books | release_date = 1979 (1995 in paperback) | media_type = print | pages = 392 | isbn = 0-671-80915-6 | oclc= 32377348 | preceded_by = The Vision | followed_by = The Funhouse }} '''''The Key to Midnight''''' is a suspense-horror novel by American writer Dean Koontz, released in 1979 under the pseudonym ''Leigh Nichols''. It is considered Koontz's first success.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/harpercollinscrime/story/0,17008,1687573,00.html|title = When crime does pay | Advertisement feature | guardian.co.uk Books}}</ref>
== Overview == In the 1995 paperback edition, Koontz states that ''The Key to Midnight'' "is not like anything else I have done"; he also explained that he revised the novel for that year's edition, cutting 30,000 words and adding 5,000.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://everettsaws.studioandrew.com/key-to-midnight-interview/ |title=Key to Midnight (Interview) | Everett Saws |access-date=2012-04-06 |archive-date=2012-07-09 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709185118/http://everettsaws.studioandrew.com/key-to-midnight-interview/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In August 2010, Koontz released a "better" version in Paperback.
== Plot synopsis == {{Expand section|date=June 2008}} Lisa Chelgrin is a US Senator's daughter. Her life has been erased and true past blocked. Her imposed, fake new identity is Joanna Rand. A detective, Alex Hunter, is hired to track Lisa down, but he finds nothing. Years later, during a vacation in Kyoto, Japan, he views a lounge act in which Lisa Chelgrin performs. Her name is different than it was before, and she is older, now working as the nightclub owner and singer. Nevertheless, the detective knows it is she. He sends for his dead-case file, and his privately employed messenger is almost killed delivering it. Someone is watching him and Lisa.
At the same time, a person known as The Doctor (Inamura) is trying to find a way around Lisa's memory block. He assumes that by removing a "password" or "pass-phrase," he can access Lisa's true memories. Under hypnosis, however, Lisa can only repeat the phrase "tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun," instead of answering the questions The Doctor asks her about her true past. After the first series of events, Lisa and Alex try to deal with their respective pasts so they can survive.
== Characters == * Lisa Chelgrin/Joanna Rand * Alex Hunter * The Doctor/ Omi Inamura * Mariko * Franz Rotenhausen/ The Hand * Tom Chelgrin/ Ilya Lyshenko * Wayne Kennedy * Ursula Zaitsev * Anson Peterson/ Anton Broskov * Antonio Paz * Ignacio Carrera * Marlowe
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://home.comcast.net/~acfrogg/servantkeyshadow.htm The Key to Midnight Book Review]
{{Dean Koontz}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Key To Midnight, The}} Category:1979 American novels Category:1979 English-language novels Category:1970s horror novels Category:American horror novels Category:Novels by Dean Koontz Category:Works published under a pseudonym Category:Novels set in Kyoto Prefecture
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