Book on CD narrated by Rick Ferrone
4****

From the book jacket: Timothy Carrier, having a beer after work at his friend’s tavern, enjoys drawing customers into amusing conversations. But the jittery man who sits next to him tonight has mistaken Tim for someone very different – and passes to him a manila envelope full of cash, a photo of a pretty woman marked for death, and her address. Minutes later, another stranger sits next to Tim. This one is a cold-blooded killer who believes Tim is the man who has hired him. Tim tries to call off the deal, giving the man the money “to do nothing.” But when Tim secretly follows the killer out of the tavern, he gets a shock: the guy is a cop.

My Reactions
This thriller just grabbed me. I could not figure out why this woman was targeted, and why the killer was so relentless in his pursuit. Tim is the quintessential good guy. A gentleman, smart, determined, creative and principled. And I loved his mother! Several of the close calls stretch credulity (timelines just didn’t work), but Koontz kept me turning pages (or changing CDs) to see what would happen next.

This was written sixteen years ago, but the whole Deep State conspiracy at the end was so reminiscent of recent conspiracy theories floated by a certain former President and his minions that it made me uneasy. So far, # 45 and his crew aren’t anywhere near so smart as Koontz’s characters, so that’s some consolation.

Rick Ferrone does a great job of narrating the audiobook. He is a gifted voice artist and even does a reasonable job of bringing the women characters to life. ( )

Bailing at start of C8—gratuitously violent in its description of sexual assault, torture, and murder.

I was entranced by this book from page 1. IMHO, might be one of Mr. Koontz's best works. ( )

The Good Guy kept my interest with this fast paced story. But I found the plot tiring out around the 2/3rds mark of the book. I also found some of Koontz's use of similes a little jarring at times. But then he doesn't write to win literary awards. I found the quality of the writing toward the end of the book to decline somewhat. A little more editing might have helped. I also found the ending to be less than satisfying and a bit of a reach.



These are quibbles, of course. Koontz continues to be a solid story teller. ( )

Ending was confusing ( )