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 enlarge | Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $0.68
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Avg. Customer Rating:  164 reviews
Sales Rank: 1565
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0553589113
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553589115
ASIN: 0553589113
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ** Possible marking on cover. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases.
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| Customer Reviews:
 PLEASE, PEOPLE, TELL ME YOU ARE JOKING!!! July 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have no idea why this book or many of Koontz' novels get so good reviews. Are you all good friends of his, grew up with him, are on his payroll or live in the same neighbourhood? Or do you secretly dislike his stories? - because a long time ago you had put Koontz on a pedestal and now you just don't want to admit you're wrong. 4 Stars, 5 stars. Tell me you're joking, please, 5 stars is like a TEN. Get real. Buyers want to read serious reviews, grounded criticism.
Okay then.
Pageturning excitement, sharp dialogues, riveting storylines - none of this you'll experience in Koontz' latest injection of trash. This thriller story gets off the ground, like all his stories, with a small inventive idea that promises a wide range of possibilities. Beyond lies the unknown, the danger, excitement. We start anticipating. Our blood rushes. This could be so so good. The hero of the story is mistaken for the wrong man - a contract killer - left with money and a job to do. We can see it all, instantly. His dangerous moblike enemy. The damsel in distress he's supposed to save. How is he going to defeat his pursuer? How is he going to save the love-interest? - because, surely, that is what she will be in this story, she just has to be!! How is Koontz going to make our heart race till it blows in our chest?
He isn't. Koontz sidetracks us into an overly familiar territory to the generic extreme - a chase, a beautiful well-spoken lady, a hero with hidden talents but with faults, and, of COURSE sir, immediately sir, one one-dimensional psycho-killer coming up! In the end we're not even suprised that yet another climax has bombed. Let's not shame Koontz further by discussing the implausibility of the story development.
Koontz doesn't stop with using only the antagonist's selfcentered sadistic profile he used two dozen times before, no no, his other main characters are only too happy to lend him aid by jumping from his other novels. He doesn't think of creating completely original characters, no, says Koontz challegingly, you think I don't dare using the same profiles again and again and again? - no? - watch me. Here we go... ah, Intensity... mm, antagonist Edgler Vess (the sociopath from Koontz' Intensity)... let me see, yeah, that profile worked in many of my novels, great, let's call him... Krait. Then Koontz smiles proudly: man, I can do this for another two decades AT LEAST.
Sure, mr Koontz, we'll turn a blind eye, we pretend we don't notice. Perhaps the story and dialogue will make us forget this unsulting plagiarism of your own work (surely you can make us forget THAT, how else could you be selling 300 million copies worldwide, right?). Wrong, we don't forget, we can't because there goes Koontz again, the obviously obligatory cocky-funny getting-to-know-the-love-interest dialogue, almost completely ripped from his previous novels, with the exception of it being even less funny, and even more forced, as if he's still experimenting in the hope he gets it right one day. Sure, mr Koontz, I'll play the guinea pig once more, even though I can almost figure out what the next line in the dialogue is gonna be before I read it (you know, like the next lyric in an average country song).
Seriously though, let's stop pretending, Koontz' books have not changed for the last twenty years. Sure, his stories vary on occasion, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack looking for an original plotline. With approx. three novels a year, you think he'd catch on. Problem is, he probably has, he knows, but he's not going to change it, or quit. When a writer produces three novels a year, there must be something wrong with him. Does he only write first drafts and let the editor take it from there? I dare wager that 80% of his books wouldn't have been published if it was offered a publishing house by a new writer longing to debut. Pity for this new writer, who might really be much better than the established Koontz who doesn't have to defend his crap anymore.
I'm not a Koontz hater, I actually read, with a few exceptions, every single one of his books. I only immensely enjoyed "Watchers", "Strangers" and "Lightning" with which he proved to be a very good writer. He is still a good writer, but unfortunately one that now only writes lousy generic stories which we all read, saw and heard before. After almost twenty years of mediocrity, as far as I'm concerned, he needs to prove himself all over again. Start from scratch, mr Koontz, and like for any new writer, with enough passion, you'll get there.
 LOOK OUT! HE'S BACK AND MAD AS HELL! June 23, 2008
Everyone including me has been waiting for Dean to get back to what he does best: thrillers that are long chase scenes. Well, he's back in form, amen!
I don't think he has hit the bull's eye since Intensity with this kind of suspense and a sadistic killer that shocks you with every chapter, and were we get deep into his sick twisted brain.
But most of all, MR.KOONTZ thanks for going back to the Screw Ball Comedy.
You nailed it in TICK TOCK and once again here. I just wish once you could make the male lead more of a sophisticated Cary Grant type, rather than your typical take on the everyman: mason, cook, gardener, and painter who is caught up in the chase and running to save the girl.
You even threw in the classic Hitchcock happenstance mistaken identity gambit,wonderful. Why couldn't he be an ad man or a prof or a salesman for a change.
Loved the heroine,too. And the garage as part of the kitchen was the icing on the cake. You tell us up front. LOOK OUT screw ball insanity abounds.
If you like Dean's work you have to read this one!
Not so good June 22, 2008
It's a quick enough read, but the reasons for the murder-for-hire turn out to be so ridiculously over the top, I ended up laughing out loud at Dean Koontz's novel. This was the first book I read by this author (whose popularity baffles me) and it will likely be the last.
Lots of spooks, but no ghosts, and GR8! June 22, 2008
I have read most of Koontz' books, liked "The Husband," but this one beats it. No supernatural stuff, just a plain old thriller that really is funny, intriguing and a fast read. The underlying spook-FBI conspiracy premise may not be new, but... as in other Koontz works, the characters make the book. The good guys (and girls) are blends of those we have met in the past, lovable AND believable, once you figure out the whole story, battling one of the most eccentric neurotic/psychotic villains in fiction. For animal lovers though, no dog hero (sorry). As for the ending, had me guessing all the way through. Koontz is definitely on track with this book and hope to see more like them, with or with out the ghosts. Take it to the beach!
 The Good Guy, The Good Girl, and The Bad Guy June 19, 2008
Yes, spoilers ahead!
+++
First, of the good, for The Good Guy. I liked Tim. I liked Linda. Their back and forth was one of my favorite things of the book. Pete and Zoey - gotta have a dog don't we? His mom. His pilot. His bartender. Everyone was likable. The chase was pretty good. One of the best cat and mice things I've read. Clipped along at a great pace. Very good!
And then there's The Bad Guy.
He was strange. And violent. And has no memory before the age of eighteen. Why? Don't ask. You'll never know. (Okay, he chose to lose his memory - moving along).
Yes, Dean Koontz is still one of my favorite authors. And yes, I couldn't put The Good Guy down. No red herrings - of the good! Definitely.
How'd The Bad Guy find them? Oh! Answered!
How'd The Good Guy and The Good Girl get away this time? Oh! Answered.
Nothing along those lines were left hanging. It was asked, answered, and even made sense.
Of the bad, the ending just killed me again! It suffers from The Darkest Evening of the Year syndrome. The closer the conclusion came the more I dreaded what was going to happen. And it happened! No!
But alas, yes.
It was a cop out to me. Too tidy. Again.
And I wanted to know more about the killer.
Linda and Tim's secrets were okay. Tim's far better than Linda's. What is it with the dogs? Dean's writing has changed since Trixie has gone on, and I get that, but jeepers. Abused kids. Euthanized dogs. Just Leave.It.Alone. Please.
It wasn't enough that Linda lost both of her parents and her dog. She had to be abused as well. Little much for me.
Personally, I was right there with Tim all the way until the ending, like I stated earlier. "Don't do it!" He did it. I wasn't happy.
So, that's why there's a three for this one. It kept me interested. I liked the characters. I liked the pacing.
The plot? Meh? The ending? Double meh.
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