Product Description

A stunning new thriller in the vein of Velocity and The Husband from one of the world's bestselling authors. After a day's work hefting brick and stone, Tim Carrier slakes his thirst at The Lamplighter Tavern. Nothing heavy happens there. It's a friendly workingman's bar run by his good friend Rooney, who enjoys gathering eccentric customers. Working his deadpan humour on strangers is, for Tim, all part of the entertainment. But how could Tim have imagined that the stranger who sits down next to him one evening is about to unmake his world and enmesh him in a web of murder and deceit? The man has come there to meet someone and he thinks it's Tim. Tim's wayward sense of humour lets the misconception stand for a moment and that's all it takes: the stranger hands Tim a fat manila envelope, saying, 'Half of it's there; the rest when she's gone,' and then he's out the door. In the envelope Tim finds the photograph of a woman, her name and address written on the back; and several thick packets of hundred-dollar bills. When an intense-looking man sits down where the first stranger sat and glances at the manila envelope, Tim knows he's the one who was supposed to get it.Shaken, thinking fast, Tim says he's had a change of heart. He removes the picture of the woman and then hands the envelope to the stranger. 'Half what we agreed,' he says. 'For doing nothing. Call it a no-kill fee.' Tim is left holding a photo of a pretty woman, but his sense of fun has led him into a very dangerous world from which there is no way back. The company of strangers has cost him his peace of mind, and possibly his life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99865 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'A terrific pursuit story ! clever, up-to-the-minute, and riveting' Guardian 'One of the great masters of suspense, Koontz has an undeniable gift for playing on the reader's innermost fears ... What we have come to expect from Koontz are exciting, fast-paced thrillers that make your flesh creep. Once again, he doesn't disappoint' Northern Echo Praise for Dean Koontz: 'There's surprise after surprise, including a killer finale ! a read-in-one-go novel' Independent on Sunday on Velocity 'Velocity hits its pace from the first page and races through to a suitably climactic ending' Sydney Sunday Telegraph 'Dean Koontz is not just a master of our darkest dreams, but also a literary juggler' The Times 'Psychologically complex, masterly and satisfying ' The New York Times 'A modern Swift ! a master satirist.' Entertainment Weekly 'If Stephen King is the Rolling Stones of novels, Koontz is the Beatles.' Playboy 'Dean Koontz writes page-turners, middle-of-the-night sneak-up-behind-you suspense thrillers. He touches our hearts and tingles our spines.' Washington Post Book World 'Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose. Serious writers might do well to study his technique.' New York Times Book Review 'Fast-paced and dark ! Koontz knows we live in a world where evil delights in justifying itself ! Classic literature that deserves a place on the bookshelf beside Orwell's 1984 and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.' California Literary Review 'Koontz is writing right where popular culture swells into something larger, just as it did for Homer, Shakespeare, and Dickens. He's got the gift.' Australian 'Koontz is a superb plotter and wordsmith. He chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition.' USA Today 'Inspires both chills and serious thought ! has the power to scare the daylights out of us.' People 'The poet laureate of paranoid pop fiction.' Denver Post 'Koontz achieves a literary miracle ! stunning physical description, unique turns of phrase.' Boston Globe 'Near Dickensian powers of description.' Los Angeles Times

Guardian
"A terrific pursuit story ... clever, up-to-the-minute, and riveting'

About the Author
Dean Koontz is an international household name whose hugely entertaining parables for our times have been bestsellers in many countries, selling seventeen million copies each year. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, he lives with his wife Gerda in southern California.

Customer Reviews

Not at Koontz's usual high standard
'The Good Guy' begins when stone mason Tim Carrier is sitting in a bar having his usual after-work beer when he is approached by a stranger who mistakes him for someone else - a contract killer. Not realising this at the time, Tim plays along with this but is then left with an envelope containing $10,000 and a photo and information about the intended target. Tim then meets the real hitman, pretends to be the first guy and gives him the cash but tells him that the job is off. This then puts Tim and the target, Linda Parquett in pursuit from the ruthless assassin, Krait.

The Good Guy is a fairly entertaining read and an original storyline but failed to really make me think that this was the excellent book that I was hoping for when reading the summary on the back cover. The characters were ok but there's way too much mystery in all of their backgrounds to make it so believeable to me. The character of Krait in particular was extremely over-the-top with his facsination with mirrors, home-made food and cleanliness and seemed too far fetched to pass as realistic in the slightest, taking away a lot of the fear I may have felt for Tim and Linda if he had been more mysterious. His lost memories from before he was 18 years old and about his family was also completely unexplained at the end considering it was talked about a lot in his chapters, which just felt to me like it was just page filling to make the book a bit fatter.

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the book, it just didn't match the high quality of what Koontz has been capable of in some of his more recent books such as Velocity, The Husband, Life Expectancy and The Face, especially as the theme is very silmilar to some of these. Overall it is an entertaining read while it lasts but the ending just felt way too rushed for me, with many questions left unanswered and I just felt it could have been much better. There's a lot of panic and excitement but not a great deal of twists or shocks to make it a real classic thriller.

But for the ending would have been 5 stars!
Dean seems to churn his books out fairly regualrly and maybe he should slow down and get some new plots.So many of his recent books Richochet,The Husband and this share similarities:normal people thrown into action against unseen adversaries.Where a friend/lover/relative is in peril.Law agencies,tracing technology etc.
This book rattles along nicely and is engaging;the characters appealing,but soon it becomes repetitive with the excellent creepy villain Krait(who reminded me of "Red Dragon"'s psycho)killing people just for plot shock value.He would have made a great main character in his own right.
It was engrossing towards the end as Krait lures his prey(I won't say any more)with a brilliant bait!
But that is where it falls apart,the finale set piece is flat and the denoument just ridiculous when you think about it.
But an enjoyable read,but no more of these thirllers Dean! Go back to scaring the readers!!

Flatulence!
I totally agree with previous reviewers that this is a fairly good thriller (thin but fairly exciting) up until about page 400 and it is as if the author's publisher has called him up and said " I need the book finished by tomorrow" so the last 30 pages are just rushed to a conclusion and you are left with a tremendous feeling of anti-climax. Just like "The husband" really and also like "the husband" there are endless mentions of the wind and variations of it, eg "gentle breeze" and "blowing a gale", indeed there is a section about half way through where there are 18 (I counted) pages where the wind gets at least one mention per page.

And by the way, there is the statutory first chapter of his next book at the end. And you can guess can't you, but YES on the third line there is a mention of the "breeze". Pass me my anemometer - if that's how you spell it.