Fan Sues Dean Koontz for Signed Editions

LAS VEGAS (CN) - It's not a book by Stephen King: It's a lawsuit from a fan of Dean Koontz, who says the best-selling author refuses to return signed works the fan values at $188,000.

Raymond Davis sued Koontz on Monday in Clark County Court, alleging fraud, conversion, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.

Davis says he acquired a large collection of Koontz's books, many of them signed, through a friend, John Paul Bodner. Bodner gave his Koontz collection to Davis in 2012, and died a year later.

Davis says the collection is valued at $188,336, and that he sent it to Koontz in early 2013, after the author agreed to sell them on consignment. Koontz sold some of them and shared the proceeds, but after several months of no sales, Davis says, he asked Koontz to return the unsold stock and charge him for the shipping. Koontz "refused to acquiesce and still retains possession of the literature," according to the complaint.

Davis seeks damages and punitive damages.

Contact information for Koontz or a publicist are not available, and Koontz did not respond to a social media request for comment Tuesday evening.

Davis is represented by P. Sterling Kerr, who was not available by telephone after business hours Tuesday.

Koontz is one of only a dozen authors to have 14 novels top the New York Times hardcover best-seller list, and 16 of his paperbacks also have topped the Times best-seller list for paperbacks.

While a senior at Shippensburg State College in his home state of Pennsylvania, Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction contest. Since then he has sold more than 450 million books in 38 languages. His wife, Gerda, offered to support him for five years, by the end of which Koontz had become a best-selling author, and Gerda quit her job to handle his business affairs.

Stephen King's novel "Misery" involved an author's bizarre relationship with a reader.

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