The Darkest Evening of the Year is a novel by the author Dean Koontz, released on November 27, 2007.

With money she inherited from a source she will never discuss, she founded and runs a group that rescues abandoned or abused golden retrievers.

She has a treasury of astonishing rescue stories—a friend tells her she'll be broke by the time she's 40 if she carries on funding the work.

Is it this reckless devotion to her work that prevents her making a commitment to the love of her life, Brian McCarthy?

Janet Maslin, writing for the New York Times gave a negative review, criticizing the plot, characters, and "tacked-on political or cultural commentary.