Whispers
1980 Putnam. VVR.
"The last book I wrote in total obscurity and the last book I wrote on a typewriter".
There is a Berkley hardback that sometimes gets listed as a first edition on eBay.
Be very careful what you pay for this book.  The true first had only 444 pages.  If the seller states 469 pages, it is not the true first edition.  PROOF COPY  Yeah, I didn't know one existed either!
  PB 1st  Made it to the New York Times top-five bestseller list.  Thank you Berkley!
 
 
 

Phantoms
1983 Putnam.  VVR.
Roughly the same number of 1st editions as Whispers.  ISBN 0-399-12655-4 with "8303" date code.  Considering the fact that the publisher somewhat coerced him into writing a straight horror novel, he managed to produce one of the best I've ever read.  This book will scare the pants(or skirt) off you!
  PB 1st
 
 
 

Darkfall
1984 Berkley foil wrapped paperback. "Darkness Comes" in the UK.  Was originally to be released as Owen West.  In the book, he thanks OW for letting him use his own name.  There was a BCE hardback.
 
 
 

Twilight Eyes
1985 Land of Enchantment graphic novel.  Lots of $$$.
 
 
 
 

Strangers
"Strangers are utterly mystified until a pattern of puzzling clues and tentative contacts begins to surface.  What could these disparate individuals have shared that would make powerful and ruthless agents strive so hard to make them forget it?  Finding the answer, the Strangers stumble toward one another, leading to a stunning climax that will change their lives forever."
1986 Putnam.
ISBN 0-399-13143-4, $17.95
1-10 numberline=FE/FP
The last hardback to be released in relatively low numbers, Strangers was a leap of faith for DK.  Written without being under contract; scary without advance money, but he had the freedom to remain completey true to his craft.  The results speak for themselves!

 
 
 

Watchers
"Out of a government laboratory so sinister and secret that its very name cannot be whispered come two escaped creatures, one murderous and one benign, and both "changed".  To the people who encounter them they spell either doom or a touching new kind of love."
1987 Putnam.
ISBN 0-399-13263-5, $17.95
1-10 numberline=FE/FP
Fairly high priced due to being one of his most beloved novels.

"He wrote what many consider the most accomplished novel of this decade" - Ed Gorman
  PB 1st
 
 
 

Twilight Eyes
(reissue with sequal)
  1987 Berkley paperback.  Written in first person, which gives it a very different feel than many of his others.
 
 
 

Lightning
1988 Putnam.
From here on out, his first editions are fairly common.
The PB 1st came after the release of "Midnight" in hardback, which is mentioned on the "Lightning" paperback.
 
 
 

Oddkins
A Fable for All Ages
  1988 Warner Books.  Graphic novel.  This book always costs a bunch.  Forty + dollars every time.
 
 
 

Midnight
1989 Putnam.
Didn't anyone learn from Watchers, not to mess with Mother Nature!
Midnight became his first, and the first of five consecutive #1 hardback best sellers for Koontz.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

The Bad Place
1990 Putnam.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

Cold Fire
1991 Putnam.
PB1st
 
 

Hideaway
1992 Putnam.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

Dragon Tears
1993 Putnam.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

Mr. Murder
1993 Putnam.
The birth of Santa Claws.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

Dark Rivers
Of The Heart
  1994 Knopf.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

Strange Highways
1995 Warner Books.
Anthology of short stories and novellas.  The only place you will find the Title Story.
 
 
 

Intensity
1996 Knopf.
Some fans feel this was the last of an incredible run(10 years) of unbelievable novels, complaining he was too long-winded afterwords.
  PB 1st
  Mini-Series tie-in
 
 
 

Santa's Twin
1996 Harper Prism.  Picturebook story.  A bedtime story from Mr. Murder becomes a book.  Costs much less than Oddkins.
 
 
 

Sole Survivor
1997 Knopf.  A bunch of signed editions were released.  They sell for roughly 15 dollars on eBay.  Don't get ripped off!
  PB 1st
 
 
 

Tick Tock
1997 Ballantine paperback.
A shorter novel, that DK wanted released directly to paperback to save his fans some $$.
 
 
 

Fear Nothing
1998 Bantam.
The first novel of the Chris Snow trilogy.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

Seize The Night
1999 Bantam.
The second installment of the Snow trilogy.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

False Memory
1999 Bantam.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

From the Corner of His Eye
2000 Bantam.
The ARC is cool.
If chapter one of this book doesn't wake you up, you may want to see a mortician.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

The Book of Counted Sorrows
2001 ebook.
There is now a limited edition hardback.
 
 
 

One Door Away From Heaven
2001 Bantam.
  PB 1st
 
 
 

The Paper Doorway
Funny Verse and Nothing Worse
2001 Harpercollins.  Childrens poetry.
 
 
 

By the Light of the Moon
2002 Bantam.
 
 
 

The Face
2003 Bantam.
 
 
 

Every Day's A Holiday
Amusing Rhymes for Happy Times
Sept/Oct 2003 Harper-Collins hardback.
DK and Phil Parks are at it again.  Holiday rhymes for kids of all ages.
 
 
 

Odd Thomas
December 2003 Bantam hardback.
Written in a linear storyline, as an unreliable narrator; first person.  With a very unusual cast of characters.  A couple of big surprise plot twists.  The first book I've ever turned around and read a second time.  Thank you DK!
 
 
 

The Taking
  May 2004 Bantam
On the morning that will mark the end of the world they have known, Molly and Niel Sloan awaken to the drumbeat of rain. It has haunted their dreams through the night, and now they find an eerily luminous and golden downpour that drenches their small Californian mountain town. As hours pass they hear news of extreme weather phenomena across the globe. An obscuring fog turns once familiar streets into a ghostly labyrinth. By evening, the town has lost all communication with the outside world. First TV and radio go dead, then the Internet and phone lines. The young couple gathers together with some neighbours, sensing a threat they cannot identify or even imagine. The night brings strange noises, and mysterious lights drift among the trees. The rain diminishes with the dawn but a moody grey-purple twilight prevails. Within the misty gloom the small band will encounter something that reveals in a terrifying instant what is happening to the world -- something that is hunting them with ruthless efficiency. Epic in scope, searingly intimate and immediate in its perspective.
 
 
 

Robot Santa
The Further Adventures of Santa's Twin
October 2004 HarperCollins hardback.  Koontz and Parks team-up yet again.
 
 
 

Life Expectancy
  December 2004 Bantam
Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it. As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tock spends long hours walking the corridors between the expectant fathers' waiting room and his dying father's bedside. It's a strange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of the storm's fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the first and last time since his stroke.

What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson--five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face. The first is to occur in his twentieth year; the second in his twenty-third year; the third in his twenty-eighth; the fourth in his twenty-ninth; the fifth in his thirtieth.

Rudy is all too ready to discount his father's last words as a dying man's delusional rambling. But then he discovers that Josef also predicted the time of his grandson's birth to the minute, as well as his exact height and weight, and the fact that Jimmy would be born with syndactyly--the unexplained anomaly of fused digits--on his left foot. Suddenly the old man's predictions take on a chilling significance.

What terrifying events await Jimmy on these five dark days? What nightmares will he face? What challenges must he survive? As the novel unfolds, picking up Jimmy's story at each of these crisis points, the path he must follow will defy every expectation. And with each crisis he faces, he will move closer to a fate he could never have imagined. For who Jimmy Tock is and what he must accomplish on the five days when his world turns is a mystery as dangerous as it is wondrous--a struggle against an evil so dark and pervasive, only the most extraordinary of human spirits can shine through.
 
 

Note:
Many novels were released in limited, numbered and/or lettered editions.  For more information about identifying 1st editions or limited releases, refer to Stu Weaver's website(simply the best) link on my homepage.

     I plan on adding scans of all the 1st edition paperbacks as I acquire them.  If you have a scan I don't have, please let me know.  As with hardbacks, they will usually have a 1-10 numberline; and/or textured cover.  I will also add DJ descriptions to each.
 

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