The Husband

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

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Excellent book - but not his best - Rated
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 - Rated
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 - Rated
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.

thrilling - Rated
I have been reading Koontz's books for a while now and this was a real treat. A fast paced, hold on tight and dont breath till the end kind of book. Great twist's & turns that will make the hair prickle on the back of your neck. Amazing author!!

150 pages of wind descriptions, but quite an enjoyable page-turner none-the-less - Rated
Wind. What is this writer's obsession with wind? I think he describes it to be dramatic and moody, but it becomes a laughable exercise the more you read the book. He labours on about the wind over and over again. Sometimes multiple times per page, and towards the end of the book was mentioning it on every page. It became a distraction when reading the book, because you're just waiting for the next time he's going to try and bring wind into the narration in some ridiculous way. What will it be next... oh, will the wind sound like cougars eating the bones of babies? Or will it be as if God has blown down the chimney?

It sums up a lot of the writing quality in the book, that Koontz is good at breaking the mood with his over-the-top descriptions of people and their surroundings. The main characters are portrayed as so nauseatingly in love, so perfect in spirit, that one can almost get angry. When one of the characters notes that even vomiting is an "affirmation of life", I just wanted to reach into the book and hit her.

But then the whole book just defies belief. Some characters motivations' are so far-fetched, yet so necessary for the plot of the book, that you have to try and believe them or you'll just have to put the book down. In particular the main character's parents (and their upbringing of their children) are featured in the book as mis-guided when in fact they should be in jail. But their actions in the past are necessary for the house of cards that Koontz sets up in the present day.

That's not to say the book is all that bad though. For all its absurdity, it did draw me in. It's a perfect train read, due to the chapters being small. It also invites reading "just one more", and when Koontz starts laying in the plot twists the book does genuinely go in places that I hadn't predicted and offers some decent dilemmas for some of the characters. I was often trying to wonder how the main character would get out of various predicaments, and it was interesting watching him rise to the challenge. That's when I found I was finding it harder to put the book down.

If you can put up with absurd commentary about wind, and characters that border upon being cartoons, The Husband is a diverting read that won't last you long but will let you fill in some gaps in your schedule. Like an episode of 24, if you can suspend disbelief and get caught up in the action, you may find something of worth in it.