Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1197 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
It must be tempting for writers such as Dean Koontz to rest on their laurels. After all, they've achieved more bestseller placings than most writers could shake a stick at, and acquired as dedicated following as their accountants could wish. But The Husband shows that Koontz still has several tricks up his sleeve, and that he can still do plotting more ingeniously than most of his contemporaries.

Mitchell Rafferty is a landscape gardener--not a rich man--who receives a phone call that he initially thinks is some kind of a hoax: he is told that for two million in cash, he can get his wife back from the people who have abducted her. But he is quickly given an object lesson in the seriousness of the people he is dealing with--while on the phone, trying to take in what he's been told, it's suggested to him that he looks at a man across the street. A rifle shot rings out, and the man falls, shot in the head. The terror and desperation that Rafferty feels are compounded by one simple fact: he has absolutely no way of acquiring such a massive sum. But his caller doesn't seem to be interested in such niceties--if Mitchell loves his wife enough, he'll find a way. And he has exactly 60 hours in which to do it.

With a premise like this, any halfway decent writer would be able to ratchet up the tension to ensure that the reader is comprehensively gripped. But Koontz isn't just interested in the execution of a precision-tooled plot (although, God knows, he's an old hand at handling such things). What we get along with the cleverly orchestrated tension is a series of killer twists--the kind that Koontz has always been adept at. It goes without saying that a setup such as this allows little room for nuances of characterisation, but that's never been Koontz's métier in any case. However, if you're looking for a thriller that is the purest escapism, look no further.

--Barry Forshaw

The Times
'Dean Koontz is not just a master of our darkest dreams, but also a
literary juggler.'

Synopsis
Mitch Rafferty has just sixty hours to save his wife. A suspense novel -- and love story -- from one of the most acclaimed and popular authors of modern times. What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill? Landscape gardener Mitchell Rafferty was busy planting beds of impatiens for one of his clients when his phone rang. It was a voice he didn't know. 'We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash.' Now he's standing in a normal suburban neighbourhood on a bright summer day having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare. Mitch thinks it must be some kind of a joke. But whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. 'See that guy across the street?' Rifle fire shatters the stilllness as the man goes down, shot in the head. 'An object lesson.' The caller doesn't care that Mitch has no way of raising such a vast sum. He's confident that Mitch will find a way. 'If he loves his wife enough.' Mitch does love her enough. He's got sixty hours to prove it. He'll pay anything. He'll pay a lot more than two million dollars.

A story of love, tenacity and courage with the pace of a runaway train, from its tense opening to its shattering climax, 'The Husband' is a thriller that holds the reader in its relentless grip.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book - but not his best
Firstly, let me make it clear that this book is EXCELLENT in it's own right. Any DK fan, or someone new to DK will enjoy this book. It is fast paced and well written. Now, the reason i have given it 4 stars not 5 is really because of how good Koontz's other books are. In comparison this falls very slightly short. But overall a decent read, definatly worth a look.
Finally - A 'criticsm' of DK:
He writes so many amazing books that i don't have the money to buy them all, and the time to read them all. I currently have about 20 DK books and I buy and read another one every week, but I can't keep up.
So - A warning - Read this book, but prepare to spend about £300 on DK's books as you will be hooked.

P.S Dean Koontz is definatly the best author in the world - EVER - his books never dissapoint - Just keep em coming DK!

Good book to pass time
I like Dean Koontz... My first book was False Memory... and what a great book that was... Being a Stephen King fan, Koontz appealled to me, and I've bought some of his books.. This is my fourth...

The plotline looked promising, and it is, but... when my suspicious come true to early, I get a bit disappointed.

Imagine that your significant other was kidnapped, and you get a call to pay a ranson of two million dollars, and the only amount you have on your bank account is eleven hundred dollars...

Your given proof, that this is no mistake, and you know that the kidnappers are very serious... You have no choice but to follow their orders.

Not the best book I've read, but still, a good book. If you want to have a time to get your head of everyday issues, this is good book for that.

Soon conforms to type
This would have been a four star review up until about a third of the way in as the premise was interesting and seemed to offer something new...then it all got a bit silly and implausible. Even allowing for a suspension of disbelief the main motivations of the characters were thinly painted, the plot devices start becoming even more coincidental and frankly absurd, and the final, oh so familiar, stand off between the main character and the Bad Guy was like some end of level Boss Battle on a Computer game. Then it just ended, all the loose ends were cleared up and that was that.
So that reduced the review to two stars.
But I'll average it out at 3 because it is an easy read, and in the end you know what you are getting with Koontz so he won't disappoint fans.