There's so much wrong with Dean Koontz's The Good Guy that one might wonder how the universe did not implode on the day of its publication. However one might realize that books by Koontz published after this one are even worse, so the universe would have to implode several times.Or maybe the universe doesn't give a crap about Dean Koontz's latest turd. I wonder why I have read it. Maybe because he wrote books that entertained me in the past? Or maybe because I couldn't believe how lazy, idiotic and unsatysfying this book is. Koontz seems to have set a new goal for himself: release shit after shit and then see how long it will take people to notice that he's just laughing all the way to the bank.I assume most readers know the premise of this book. In case you don't, here it is: A stranger walks into a bar and mistakes an ordinary guy for his client, a killer hired to kill a woman. The stranger leaves a photo of the woman, her adress and some money.Then he cleans out (wish I did the same. stupid stupid stupid) . Moments later, the killer himself walks into the bar. Tim Carrier (that's the name of the good dude) tells the killer to call this off and gives him the money. The killer gets out of the bar, gets into a cop car and from then all hell breaks lose.Does this sound interesting? Of course it does. But that's when all interesting stuff stops existing. What, you came looking for relentless suspense, riveting storyline, sharp dialogue and overall a page-turning experience? You've got the wrong adress, pal. You'll find none of this in this Koontz book - but you'll find plenty of Koontz himself and of his other works.See, the book is one big, unshameful rehash. Did you really think I'll create new, original characters and story just for you, you dumb prick? No way! says Dean Koontz as he introduces a beautiful, well spoken lady, a hero with a tainted past who are on the run from, surprise surprise, one dimensional killer is coming right up to get them sir! Man, thinks Koontz, this works great. I've been doing that for decades and these idiots still hadn't caught up.The hero, Timothy carrier, is a mason with a haunted past (I told you not to play with bricks, Tim! Tim? Tim!). The woman who's chased is named Linda Paquette. Linda likes action movies (although she doesn't own a TV), cars and other manly stuff. Oh, and Tim. She says during their first meeting: "I don't interest me. You interest me." Within 24 hours of their meeting Tim and Linda are talking about moving in together.Speaking of talking, Koontz's dialogue is more idiotic than ever. Consider this little chit-chat our couple shares during the midst of being pursuit by a cold-blooded killer:"-Trim as you are, I was sure you'd order a salad."-Right. I'm going to graze on arugula so I'll feel good about myself when some terrorist vaporizes me tomorrow with a nuke.-Does a coffee shop like this have arugula? -These days, arugula is everywhere. It's even easier to get than a venereal disease"Isn't it just the conversation you'll have with a man you've met only hours before while being chased by a relentless killer? NO DEAN.IT'S NOT."Dating isn't easy anymore" Tim said. "Finding someone, I mean. Everybody wants to talk about American Idol and Pilates."She said: "And I don't want to listen to a guy talk about his designer socks and what he's thinking of doing about his hair""Guys talk about that?" He asked dubiously."I put this quotation here because it's double funny. Personally I don't care about people's hair, but since the author of this book had a hair transplant himself which made him look just weird should he really bitch about people talking about their hair? It's just silly.Oh, and not everybody watches American Idol. If Dean Koontz want to whine about the crumbling state of American society, why doesn't he f-ing move out of there and try to have a career elsewhere? Oh, I forgot: He wouldn't have one. So maybe try writing something that will contribute to American literature? Hahaha man you crazy! says Dean. I will cash on these pricks till my fake hair falls out...and then some.But I forgot about the villain. Krait he's called and he bears the title of the biggest non-entity in the whole manuscript of this monkey-typed wretchedness. He considers himself a prince, which basically means he goes into people's houses, masturbates into their underclothing and leaves them random notes about maybe washing the sheets because they stink a bit. He also dreams about going through mirrors, and here's where Koontz ran out of ideas. See, the bad killer doesn't have a past, and I mean it literally. Koontz usually loves to conjure up some wicked shit about how the bad guy was ass-raped as a kid by his sister with a strap on made out of his plush bear, but here he doesn't even try and decides to use the excuse of AMNESIA. Yup, that's right. But don't worry, he will make it up to you in about a thousand chapters of the killer breaking into people's houses and raping their bougainvilleas. Rewind and repeat approximately fifty thousand times, so the greedy and stupid American reader will get how truly bad and vile the killer is. It's not that Koontz is setting some sort of grand build up to an explosive finale; no no, nasty Americans don't deserve a cohesive ending. The killer gets shot and evaporates in about three sentences, he dreams about mirrors or something and that's it. As a hitman who supposedly always delivered, he sure screws up a lot along the way. Not that the good guys are awesomely smart. They check in into a motel using a CREDIT CARD.The biggest fallacy in the book is the actual setup. See, the killer is employed by a big and shady organization (controlled by the Government, of course, how could it not be a governmental affair?) that supports him with cars, credit cards, weapons and all sort of killer stuff. The whole concept falls like a statue of Lenin because the exact same organization demands his services. They are his clients...and also his employers. If the mentioned organization is able to support the killer with basically everything he wants, why would it set up a meeting in a bar if he was their employee in the first place? And not even check if the person is their killer? Why would they offer him only 10 000$ if they are going to supply him with services that will cost them much, much more? Also, why would you need to employ some moronic psychopath when everyone in the organization works with efficiency far surpassing the one of the masturbating weirdo? This is stupidity of such awesome proportions that I'm sure somewhere in the outer space galaxies are exploding just at the mention of it.The whole thing is written with some of the most forced and dull prose I've read in years. And it's sad, because Koontz is actually trying to be imaginative; his imagination seems to end at everything that doesn't include jerking off into underpants though. Every line is so overblown, flat and sad at the same time because he really tries hard to get his message and metaphor across, but it's all so complicated, out of place and boring that it simply fails to deliver. Consider this:"She won't get far without you," the killer said."Maybe she will. She's tough. Do we have a deal?"Out beyond the trees, a boy and his dad were flying a tubular kite. The kite was a raging dragon. The dragon undulated in the sky, its roar as silent as the silence on the phone line."Get it dumb reader? Raging Dragon? Danger? Bad guy? It's intrusive and annoying and tries too hard to be smart. Compile such deep moments with dumb dialogue and endless rants and you have the most souless works of fiction ever. Sold for $23 in hardcover. Koontz is a genius for milking out America.And if you made it here, do you wonder by any chance how it ends? Let me spoil it for you. Tim is a war hero, calls the President of the United States who then tells the organization to back off...which it does. Since Dean already had the Hand of God come up and kill the bad guy, next time maybe he'll open the earth itself to just conveniently swallow the cardboard nemesis. DOH!Overall, The Good Guy is pure, unsalvageable crap. For someone who bitches so much about the current state of America's youth Dean Koontz surely doesn't contribute anything by releasing these abominations. Robert McCammon took ten years off from writing because he was disappointed by the publishing industry. Dean Koontz pretends to be disappointed, but he likes meeting with the dead too much: old George, Abe and Ben are too good of a company. I can't believe the same man wrote Intensity and this; but then I look at the back photos and wonder.
It is no secret how much I adore Dean Koontz. My love affair with his books started when I was in college and since I am your typical dork, I frequently visited our university library which, fortunately for me, housed Dean Koontz novels. Since I began earning, I started buying my own copies of Dean Koontz’s books, from Booksale, of course, and decided that I should strive to complete my collection. I haven’t accomplished that, though, and for a reason. Quite recently, I have discovered that my taste for the typical Dean Koontz fare – ultimate bad guys chasing after ultimate good guys, lovable dog characters, heart-pounding suspense, intertwined with beautiful prose – has dwindled down.The disinterest started with The Darkest Evening of the Year (which, for some reason, I was not able to finish) and since I’ve been seeing copies of Koontz novels scattered in Booksale, I was in no hurry to buy all of his books at once. Maybe I have reached my saturation level for suspense novels. Maybe I have acquired a familiarity with his writing styles. Or maybe I have discovered other authors to love. Whatever the reason, I have decided that I will not struggle to complete my collection of Dean Koontz novels anytime soon. This does not mean, though, that I have fallen out of love with everything that is Koontz. I only feel that I need to take a break from reading suspense novels and try to up my ante by reading other books of other authors. If I feel like reading something more comfortable, I know that I can always go back to Dean Koontz.The feeling that I can always go back to Koontz whenever I want a comfort read was the feeling I had when I started reading The Good Guy. I kind of missed Dean Koontz after reading a lot of non-Koontz novels and I haven’t forgiven myself for not finishing The Darkest Evening of the Year. With The Good Guy, the premise is typical Koontz and a few pages since I started I thought, Yes, this is the Dean Koontz I’ve been looking for! This is a story of a mistaken identity where the good guy, Tim Carrier, who is exactly your idea of who a good guy is (non-philandering, single, honest worker), was approached by a stranger in a bar and thought him to be the killer he hired. Tim was given ten thousand bucks and the photograph of the woman he has to kill. Before Tim can even figure out what to do, and after the stranger left, another stranger approached him and thought Tim was the man who hired him to kill the woman on the photograph. Who is this woman? Why does she have to be killed? What will Tim, the good guy, do? What follows is a race against time as the real killer pursues the real target, with the good guy, Tim, also on the run.Continue reading.
What do You think about The Good Guy (2007)?
This one started off phenomenally well -- a chance encounter at a bar involving mistaken identities and a contract "hit" on an unknown woman.Unfortunately, while well written and peopled with interesting characters, the novel didn't sustain the type of suspense I usually expect from Koontz. Unlike his recent "The Husband" which was a non-stop thriller ride, this one seemed to drag on. It got a bit interesting again in the final quarter of the book, but too many important details were kept away from the reader throughout the tale, with too many hints that there was more going on that meets the eye. There were also some scenes in the novel involving dialogue between the two main characters that came off as either pedestrian or pedantic. This was frustrating, because other scenes of dialogue involving the antagonist and his victims were really well crafted and intriguing.In all, a pretty decent story, but not one of Koontz's best.
—Mark
Dean Koontz has a distinctive style in the thriller genre, and I have always liked it. I haven’t read a book by him in a while, and realized that it’s been long enough that a good half-dozen new ones are available. Of them all, this one sounded the most intriguing, so I tried it first, and I am very glad I did. This is trademark Dean Koontz — a page-turner from the very first paragraph. I could not put this book down, and read the whole thing in three days despite being on vacation and visiting relatives.The book’s strength, as with many of Koontz’s, resides in a tight, twisty-turny plot, and in very well drawn characters. The villain is suitably threatening, and the two main characters — Linda and Tim — are wonderfully drawn. Koontz will have you caring about them both from the get-go, and you will be hard-pressed to put this book down without making sure they are both safe.If you have never tried a Dean Koontz book, this is as good as it gets, and a reasonable one to get you started. If you have read Koontz and you like his style, you will love this one. It is up there with False Memory, Watchers, and Lightning as one of my all-time favorites.
—Steven
Oddly, this has pretty much the same basic plot as the last Koontz book I read, TICKTOCK. A young man and a young woman meet and get chased around by a viscious assassin who seems to be virtually unstoppable and who is easily able to track them down wherever they go. But, where the villian of TICKTOCK was magical in nature, the killer in THE GOOD GUY relies on technology to stay two steps ahead of his quarry. People die, secrets are revealed, and true love blossoms. Also, where TICKTOCK was an annoying mess due to its awkward blend of horror and slapstick, THE GOOD GUY actually delivers some very solid suspense. The good guys in THE GOOD GUY are interesting and likable, but the real show-stealer is the character of the psychotic killer--the frightening and nuanced depiction of whom is easily the best part of the story. The plot is disappointingly thin, but Koontz's writing is crisp and keeps the action moving forward at breakneck speed. All in all, a good read, but not very memorable in the long run.
—John
