Anyone who's ever seen an American movie will know that motels are scary places.

So why does our hero, artist Dylan O'Connor, leave the Arizona inter-state with his autistic brother in tow, and book into such a place?

Within an hour he's bound, gagged and being injected with who-knows-what by a lunatic "doctor". We could have told him it would end in tears.

Still, if people didn't do silly things, where would that leave ace thriller writers like Mr Koontz?

Kevin Nash