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 enlarge | Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $0.01
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Avg. Customer Rating:  180 reviews
Sales Rank: 1764
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: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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| Customer Reviews:
page turner June 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good page turner. I bought this for a plane trip and it made the time fly by (no pun intended). I thought the ending was a bit weak/implausible but that didn't detract much from my enjoyment of the book.
Rip-roaring read May 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Though technically not a horror novel, nor Koontz's strongest effort, The Good Guy, nevertheless, doesn't disappoint, primarily in its ability to create a sense of looming danger that doesn't lag in its intensity for even one moment and it's all delivered at breakneck speed. Furthermore, Koontz gives us a set of primary characters that are appealing and three dimensional and to whom the reader will immediately respond. Even the antagonist is interesting and quirky, if wholly deranged and clinical in his savagery. There was nothing either superfluous or gratuitous in the story; everything and everyone has its purpose and it is blessedly free of contrivances and filler. It doesn't take itself too seriously, either. Koontz is merely offering his reader a rollercoaster ride and though some may quickly dismiss it as a reactionary story, the characters and how they respond to their predicament from a psychological perspective lends it a sense of purpose. I enjoyed it a great deal, so much so that I read it in 5 hours. I believe that if you enjoyed Intensity or Servants of Twilight or even Mr. Murder, you will enjoy The Good Guy.
 Riding the Fence With Koontz (Once Again) May 21, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is my second Koontz read, (right after "The Darkest Evening of the Year." There were certain things about each book that absolutely glued me to the pages. For "Darkest Evening" it was undoubtedly the supernatural suspense and horrific revelations. With "Good Guy" I almost got runners high during the intense cat and mouse scenes.
Unfortunately for both books, Koontz is a guy who repeats himself TIME AND AGAIN. Many times "The Good Guy" sounded almost identical to "Darkest Evening.." Not to mention that the female character are CONSTANTLY victims in Koontz' books. He seems to always leave his heroines in danger of rape and molestation... I thought this was better in "The Good Guy." I thought that, just maybe, we could get a story without it... Alas no. 300 or so pages into the book, Linda relates to Tim a horrific experience with a perverted psychiatrist when she was a small child. Now, mind you, Koontz shows considerable restrain in his descriptives nowadays... I wasn't exploited in any way because he's a very tasteful righter. On the other hand, however, this theme is just downright tired in Koontz's books and I think it's time he moved on to other things.
OK. All things considered, Koontz DOES rock to a certain extent. My gripes are legit, but not enough to merit the boycott of an otherwise extremely engaging novelist.
good, but not his best effort May 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dean Koontz's latest novel, The Good Guy, is a bumpy thriller that can't quite match the speed of previous novels such as Intensity.
Tim Carrier lives a low-key life in Northern California, using his masonry skills to build walls. His life takes an exciting turn when one day, while enjoying a beer in the local tavern, a man with a manila envelope mistakes Tim for a hired killer. When the real killer enters the bar moments after the mysterious man leaves, Tim makes a snap decision to offer the $10,000 as a no-kill fee, and to warn the woman, Linda Parquette, that someone is out to end her life. Tim and Linda have no idea that they are dealing with a tenacious killer who will stop at nothing to rid the world of Linda, Tim, and anyone else who gets in his way. Tim enlists the help of his police-buddy, Pete Santos, who then also becomes a target of the hit man, to find out as much as possible about who the killer is.
While the plot is fast-paced, there are numerous character flaws that Koontz ignores by creating a "mysterious" background for the killer. The readers are never given a name for him, as Santos discovers that he has several false identities, the only continuity of which is the initials RK. Even RK refers to himself with several different names including Rudyard Kipling and Romulus K. Koontz doesn't explain how RK became a hit man, first for the mob, and now for a mysterious organization RK refers to as The Gentleman's Club, a group of support people who help RK maintain his ability to complete his murderous tasks. Koontz paints RK as charming enough to fool most people, but as a person who is ignorant of his own background, being unable to remember anything prior to being 18 years old. RK is a socio/psychopath in the first degree, having no sympathy or empathy for other people including having the desire to kill everyone in the world. He is a homeless man who loves the coziness of a clean home, but has to break into homes every day in order to shower, eat, and enjoy the home life. The reader is teased with getting to the truth of who the killer and the mysterious organization he works for, but Koontz denies the reader a full understanding of RK. While the story is definitely about Tim and why he chooses to sacrifice his own life and family, if necessary, to protect a woman he had never previously met, the reader is left unsatisfied with the explanation of pure evil as exhibited by RK. The character has a quality of paranormal abilities without actually being drawn as a paranormal. It is as if Koontz is trying to write a thriller without supernatural elements, but is not completely successful.
Less of a problem, but still as frustrating, are the characters of Tim's mother, Mary, and of Linda Parquette. Linda lives a solitary writer's life, obsessed with the American depression era. Koontz has a disjointed explanation of her background, how her parents had been wrongly accused of molesting their day-care children, and both died in prison while Linda was sent to her evil great-uncle to live. Her strength of character is supposedly from enduring this terrible childhood, but her acceptance of her fate doesn't jibe with how she has chosen to react through writing her depressing novels. Koontz intimates that Mary's strength of character is inborn, and that is where Tim gets his from, but again, this isn't explored in a satisfactory manner.
As Tim and Linda struggle to keep one step ahead of the killer, Santos discovers the hit on Linda has something to do with The Cream & Sugar murders that happened the previous year. Santos and his Golden Retriever, Zoey, a staple in nearly any Koontz novel, join with Linda and Tim at the penultimate scene in order to defeat the killer and learn who The Club is and why they exist.
The conclusion is a bit too pat, the explanations a bit too thin, and the sometimes disjointed style with which Koontz writes this novel may leave readers unsatisfied.
 A Thriller You Can't Put Down May 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
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