Be careful who you talk to in bars (The Good Guy - Dean Koontz)

Member Name: MeganFF

Product:	The Good Guy - Dean Koontz
Date:	03/08/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: perfectly paced, very believable

Disadvantages: how can i go back to fluffy lit?

When I was much younger, I loved all things horror. Films, books, anything else that might scare me - I loved the lot.

Somewhere towards the end of that phase, I came across Dean Koontz. Horror to thriller, I guess, is a natural transition.

Now, after many years of fluffy 'chick lit' I came across Dean Koontz in a discount bookshop. The Good Guy sounded good from the back cover - like it would satisfy my sudden desire for more meaty novels, and as they'd priced it at £2.99 instead of the £6.99 RRP I deposited it in the pile I'd picked for my upcoming (and now sadly departed) holiday.

The Good Guy is about Tim Carrier, a mason, who suffers a case of mistaken identity and his life changes forever. Sitting in his friends bar one evening, he is mistaken for a killer and handed an envelope full of cash with the instructions that 'you'll get the rest when she's gone'. Before he can do anything, the real killer enters the bar, and mistakes him for his client. A split second decision and his life shoots of on a tangent he has no control over, and could cost him his life and all that he holds dear.

Each page leads us towards the encounter, but not quite as you expect it. And also reveals more about the man called Tim and the woman called Linda who he is intent on saving. It also brings us some insights to the killer who hunts them down.

The chapters are relatively short, which makes the reading fast, and the pages turn almost on their own.
Koontz is a master at character building so that you want to take this journey with them, whilst with-holding vital information to throw at you later.
The technology spoken of in the book is right up to minute, which makes in easier to roll the film in your head. You can actually imagine this happening in real life - which is seriously scary.

And that brings us to the brilliance of Koontz as a writer. You can believe his stories could actually be real.

I will definitely be revisiting this writer in the very near future

Summary: A Koontz masterpeice