Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77947 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-02
• Original language: English
• 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

Review
'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

From the Publisher
Each Dean Koontz book is unique. He never repeats himself. No
other writer has his range or his power to move his readership.

Customer Reviews

Another Koontz Classic
Before we get started I have to confess that I am a bit of a Dean Koontz die hard. He has around 50 novels currently in print and I've read them all. As far as I'm concerned none of them are bad - just different levels of greatness! "The Husband" falls somewhere in the middle.

It's typical Koontz as the main character is a nice guy but with a very screwed up past. His wife is kidnapped with a $2 million price tag that the husband has 60 hours to gather. An impossible task perhaps for a gardener but as the hours tick by there's more to the ransom than meets the eye.

I read this book in one sitting. It gripped me from start to finish. Probably more so than some of his recent work.

It probably doesn't make it into my Koontz top 10 but it's a solid read with no real criticisms. There are twists along the way hat keep the story going. Perhaps the ending wasn't overly dramatic and perhaps the character/background of the wife could have been developed. However, these are minor quibbles.

Overall a strong Dean Koontz thriller. 9/10.

A Gripping Read
Fantastic! this book is gripping, it grabs the reader so hard you cant put it down. The people in the book are so well written you go through all the emotions with them.
its one of his best books as far as im concerned, with suberb twists it keeps you entertained untill the very last page!

another solid koontz performance
i started reading dean koontz about a year ago with life expectancy, which is a superb read, since then i have been hooked. i have read all of his new books since then and am quickly working my way through the back catalogue. the husband is a typical koontz thriller with the usual nice guy turns hero to save the day formula which is a bit of a koontz trademark, but why change a winning formula? what i like about these books is the way koontz sells the main character from the start in a way that as the story goes on you find your self really rooting for them to survive.
there are some good twists at the end of this one and if you like a suspensful thriller then it is highly recommended but not as good as velocity.