THE GOOD GUY - Dean Koontz

A nightly ritual turns into a nightmare.  That after work beer that Tim Carrier looks forward to at the end of a working day building houses has never had a kick like this.  A stranger in the bar, an oddly surreal conversation and Tim is left holding the fate of an unknown woman in his hands.  Left with an envelope stuffed with cash and a promise of more when the job is done, Tim rapidly has to make a choice to make.  Does he dive in to do what he can to save the life of a stranger or does he walk away with the cash?

Tim takes the choice of the good guy.    He finds the intended victim and delivers his warnings, but that is not enough.  He can't leave her, so now they are both on the run from a killer who has been crossed on what was to be a profitable deal, directed by powerful clients who ordered a hit on a young woman's life.

As with all Koontz novels, there is an underlying sweetness of faith that the good guys will (and should) prevail (no pun intended) with the implied promise that all will be rosy by novel's end.  There is a little preaching, but it's not of the pompous kind.  Koontz holds the reader's hand through all the horrors of his created world and assuredly puts the bad guys in their place.  Of late Koontz has put his hand to the action thriller and in THE GOOD GUY gives us our damaged hero, the mysterious romantic interest, the shadowy powerful organization of heavyweights pulling the puppet strings on the killer.  All of this would sound terribly familiar because it is, it has been done before, and thriller writers excel in churning it all out at a breakneck pace with the delightful skin crawling building of tension, accompanying our expectant wincing of comeuppance.

What has Koontz created here?  Koontz is always a delight, but a thriller doesn't seem to sit well with his style of writing.  Koontz readers can ordinarily afford to take a little time out to savour his prose and within the structure of an action thriller there isn't really a chance for that pause and reflection.  THE GOOD GUY hits the ground running though seems to peter out about a third in.  The inane conversations between two people on the run from a horrific killer serve more to irritate than charm.  Smart and sassy comebacks would have fit but they're thin on the ground in this read.  Koontz also usually writes well from both the male and the female perspective but the female character in Linda plays bad support here.  Koontz does wonderful everyman and throughout the read we expect more than what we get at conclusion - not disappointing necessarily, and probably a lot more realistic, but with no "aha" moments to be had.

At about 100 pages or so past its prime this novel will hold down the corner of your beach towel or serve as a one night dish if you are in the mood for such a thing but THE GOOD GUY does not deliver anything more than an okay thriller with some borderline syrup added in.  

A.T.