The Good Guy

Mason Timothy Carrier is a simple man, a guy who just wants to do his job, do it well and maybe enjoy a quiet beer after work. One day while having that beer in his friend's bar someone talks to him for a bit, then leaves him an envelope stuffed with money and a picture of a woman. It doesn't take Tim long to figure out that he's been mistaken for a hit man. Then the real hit man comes into the bar. Tim tries to tell him that he's the guy who hired him and that the deal's off. Tim is trying to be the good guy. However, as I'm sure you've guessed, the real hit man doesn't go for the story and it's not long before Tim and the woman he'd tried to save are on the run. This is a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat as you rapidly pour through the pages. I couldn't put it down and I don't think you will be able to either.

Stone mason, bachelor Tim Carrier is sitting in a pal's bar having a beer when a man approaches him and gives him an envelope. Tim looks inside, finds ten grand and a photo. Not an idiot Tim, he figures out he's been mistaken for a hit man. That's bad enough, but shortly after the real hit man arrives. Tim, wanting to do the right thing, to be the good guy, takes out the intended victim's info, pretends to be the first guy, gives the bad guy the ten large and tells him the deal's off. Of course, Kraut, the bad guy, doesn't buy it and now Tim, continuing to be the good guy, seeks out Laguna Beach writer Linda Paquette, the intended victim. After all, it's a good guy's job to save the beautiful girl from the bad guy. But saving her isn't going to be a piece of cake, because now the bad guy is hot on their trail. There you have it, the setup for this book. It's not a horror story, but it's stuffed full of suspense, twists and turns and I liked it a lot. The characters were great, though I gotta admit I liked the bad guy the best. Dean Koontz just keeps churning out fast-paced, well thought out tales of suspense.

Tim Carrier sits down in his favorite bar to relax and enjoy the familiarity. A stranger sits down beside him, strikes up a weird conversation, and hands him an envelope. As the the stranger is leaving he says, "Half of it's there. Ten thousand. The rest when she's gone." Curiously, Tim opens the envelope and finds a picture of a woman he has never seen before. Suddenly, it dawns on Tim that he has been mistaken for a hit man. Tim is now faced with a difficult choice. He can forget he was ever there and go about his normal routine life. Or he can choose to help this woman he knows nothing about. Tim knows the real killer will show up soon for the scheduled meet and he may be the only one who can stop him. I didn't expect too much from Koontz this time around. I figured it would be good. I mean come on....this is Dean Koontz we are talking about. But for some reason this story idea didn't demand my attention. In my mind I felt like we were getting just another version of The Husband or Velocity. Good ole' Dean was going to once again prove how he can take a man in normal circumstances and turn his world upside down in the first 4 pages. While I admit that my observations were mostly correct, I must say that this one was a pleasant surprise for me. Indeed, this story is very much like The Husband and Velocity but I actually enjoyed it more. Koontz consistently hooks his readers with effortless prose, crisp dialogue, and memorable characters. Here the Good Guy himself steals the show with his relentless commitment to doing the right thing no matter what. Tim Carrier is the kind of character we love to root for and even want to be like. Krait, the real hit man, is also a great addition to the story and may just be one of the creepiest Koontz villains yet. Koontz takes us so deeply into his world that we can't wait to get out. Usually Koontz gives us solid background for each character as the narrative unfolds, but not so here. It's not until the end that we truly begin to see who these characters are and what drives them. This is a clever story device that separates The Good Guy from other Koontz suspense titles and makes this novel that much more interesting and enjoyable. Another great read from the Master.

Tim Carrier is just a nice guy with a big head. When he enters a bar, no one notices. When he saddles up to the counter and orders a drink, only his friend the bartender really pays attention to him. Well, the bartender, and the nervous man who followed Tim into the bar--the guy who thinks Tim is a contract killer. Confused, Tim watches as the man leaves...only to be replaced, minutes later, by the REAL hitman. This guy is cool, collected, with dark eyes that convey all manners of evil. It won't be long before this man realizes Tim is not his employer; and soon Tim and the target, a beautiful woman named Linda, will be running for their lives from the ultimate human evil. "The Good Guy" starts out like Koontz's last few novels; i.e., rivetting and suspenseful, but not entirely unique (Koontz has created a new genre: the too-good-to-be-true hero with a mysterious past, running from a sociopathic human evil). However, "The Good Guy" soon branches into territory Koontz hasn't explored since the eighties, and is a wonderful return to a darker suspense form. It's a shame Koontz has been branded a horror novelist (ironically enough, the sole novel that earned him that monicker was in fact a science fiction tale), because he is truly a master of suspense. Nobody writes like he does; his imagery is breathtaking, his knack for banter un-paralleled. True, I'd like to see more grit in his writing (starting in the late nineties, with the exception of "Odd Thomas," his novels have been almost happy-go-lucky), but when it comes to analyzing happiness and love and everything that makes us human, few do it better than Koontz.

The Good Guy is the third book in a row (The Husband, Velocity, could be called a series) to be released in May, to have a simple plot, and captivating characters. In the Good Guy, we meet Timothy Carrier, a big man who has no luck with the ladies, a bricklayer by trade, a man with a mysterious past. We also follow Krait, a hitman with unlimited resources, an obsession with cleanliness, and a deranged sense of immortality. Finally, there is Linda, the target of the hit. Someone wants her dead and she doesn't know why. All she does is write depressing novels. Instead of a TV in her living room, she has a picture of one. She also combined her kitchen and her garage and has a 37 chevy parked next to her refrigerator. This is a simple book with a simple plot, when compared to a book like The Face (also by Koontz). It starts off with a bang. Tim Carrier is minding his own business when he is mistaken for a hitman in a bar. When the real hitman comes, Tim tries to convince him to not kill the target (Linda). When he says he will carry out his contract, Tim rushes to save Linda. The entire novel consists of Tim and Linda staying away from the killer, Krait. Meanwhile, Koontz peppers the novel with hints of the background of Carrier and Linda, and also follows Krait along his obsessive journey to find the two. This is a great book by Koontz. It its simpleness, he creates a hero in Carrier that is defined by his actions. These actions make me wonder about his past, and Koontz slowly reveals it. The book builds to a great action climax. Sometimes, the action gets in the way of a good suspense novel, but the action in this book is top notch. Koontz writes the action in a way that it also defines the characters. Getting to the end, Koontz manages to throw in a little political/social commentary that adds even more to the quality of the novel. One downside, Koontz at times is too descriptive of the scenery and I found myself skipping over his short bursts of eloquent prose. The Good Guy is a great thriller. Koontz doesn't mix in the supernatural in this book. This is a novel you can truly sit back, read and enjoy. I hope Koontz continues to write novels in this style.