Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For context, I have read several books by Mr. Koontz and enjoyed them all without exception. This one, however, lost me from the start. The reason? I felt like the author was less interested in telling a suspenseful story and more interested in showing off his expansive and quite colorful vocabulary. Rather than keep the story flowing and the pacing tight, the author assaults the ready with convoluted, paragraph- long sentences that, after only a few chapters, had me rolling my eyes. Want an example? Here is but one of many that needlessly ground the action to a screeching halt: "In the early gleaming of the shrouded afternoon, a sudden brightness flashed apocalyptic, flaring across the park as if to incinerate all it touched and bespeak a world of ashes soon to come, so that all the shadows either leaped back into the things that cast them or quaked across the lawns and walks like spirits dispossessed and seeking new anchorage." Huh? This got old real fast, and caused me to give up 20% in. Sorry, just calling it like I see it.