The Bad Place

The Bad Place is a horror novel by the American writer Dean Koontz, published in 1990. It mixes horror, suspense and mystery, and it is presented partly as a version of the private eye story.

Frank Pollard wakes up in a motel with his hands covered in blood and strange objects in his pockets. He has no idea how he got there, and he is certain that he is not a killer, but the blackouts are getting worse and the evidence he is carrying says otherwise.

The private investigators Bobby and Julie Dakota are asked to keep an eye on him, and then to find out what is being done to him. Their inquiries lead into genetic experimentation, secrets inside a family and a force that has been arranging human lives from behind the scenes, and Frank and the others like him turn out to be pursued by figures who are only just recognisable as people. The book is partly a private eye story and partly a horror novel, and Frank's blackouts supply the engine for both halves.