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15th out of 63 books
—
513 voters
The Husband
by
Dean Koontz
With each and every new novel, Dean Koontz raises the stakes—and the pulse rate—higher than any other author. Now, in what may be his most suspenseful and heartfelt novel ever, he brings us the story of an ordinary man whose extraordinary commitment to his wife will take him on a harrowing journey of adventure, sacrifice, and redemption to the mystery of love itself—and to...more
Hardcover, 416 pages
Published
May 30th 2006
by Bantam
(first published 2006)
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Feb 12, 2008
Todd Greene
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
adults, teens
I've always thought of Dean Koontz as the master of psychological suspense. His novels are aways full of weird and over the top characters that he makes believable and then he puts them in situations which are weird and over the top and makes them believable.
This time around Dean changes things up a bit. He takes an average Joe and puts him in a seemingly no win situation. Mitch Rafferty, owner of a two man landscaping business gets the phone call no husband would want. Someone has his wife. Tha...more
This time around Dean changes things up a bit. He takes an average Joe and puts him in a seemingly no win situation. Mitch Rafferty, owner of a two man landscaping business gets the phone call no husband would want. Someone has his wife. Tha...more
I thought it started well... with a twist that surprised me and captured my interest. From there, it just got less and less believable. From a storytelling standpoint, it was marginal, but as a quality piece of writing it was much worse. It felt churned out, quickly crafted without much afterthought other than the meticulous use of landscaping vocabulary. I'll say this for it, though, there weren't a lot of words on the page so I didn't waste a lot of time getting to the end.
Aug 25, 2008
PhoenixHearse
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to PhoenixHearse by:
co-worker
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
this is an excellent story. this guy who makes more money than i do gets this call on his cell. some crazies have kidnapped his wife...his worker, iggy, is familiar...a boardhead who uses words like fully macking tubular stuff. okay, maybe he doesn't say 'tubular stuff' but you get the drift.
mitch isn't prepared..."his parents had raised him to be prey"....his folks are...sheesh, creepy and it doesn't stop there.
68 chapters of mayham. i read someone's review that disagreed w/mitch doing bad thi...more
mitch isn't prepared..."his parents had raised him to be prey"....his folks are...sheesh, creepy and it doesn't stop there.
68 chapters of mayham. i read someone's review that disagreed w/mitch doing bad thi...more
I finished reading another Dean Koontz novel. This one is titled The Husband. I believe it’s his second most recently published book.
Like The Good Guy this book doesn’t follow the ‘typical’ Koontz novel in that there was no supernatural thingies involved. Also like TGG, most of the action/plot/etc revolved around a solid character that is written so well you have to like him. I liked him because he and I share the same surname, which sometimes made the book a little creepy, to be honest. Anyway,...more
Like The Good Guy this book doesn’t follow the ‘typical’ Koontz novel in that there was no supernatural thingies involved. Also like TGG, most of the action/plot/etc revolved around a solid character that is written so well you have to like him. I liked him because he and I share the same surname, which sometimes made the book a little creepy, to be honest. Anyway,...more
Dean Koontz is my brother's favorite author. In desperate needs of reading anything, I was given this book, I had no choice but to read it. I must say I did enjoy this novel, it gripped me from start to finish.
Although Dean Koontz isn’t quite as successful as Stephen King, he’s certainly been writing for a long time now, almost as long as King himself. In the old days he used to do supernatural horrors but these days he seems to have re-branded himself as a thriller writer, and there’s no doubting that he’s extremely prolific – I see new books coming out from him all the time. The Husband was released a couple of years ago and it’s familiar territory for thriller fans: a seemingly innocuous man finds...more
Entertaining, but nothing to write home about
This book is fine, but Koontz has us used to getting better from him. The story is fast-paced and has a few interesting twists and turns, but I would have trouble to really point out anything that makes it special compared to run-of-the-mill suspense thrillers. The premise is interesting enough. Mitch, a blue collar working man that is happy with his gardening work and his wife, is shocked when he gets a call saying his wife has been kidnapped and the...more
This book is fine, but Koontz has us used to getting better from him. The story is fast-paced and has a few interesting twists and turns, but I would have trouble to really point out anything that makes it special compared to run-of-the-mill suspense thrillers. The premise is interesting enough. Mitch, a blue collar working man that is happy with his gardening work and his wife, is shocked when he gets a call saying his wife has been kidnapped and the...more
With each and every new novel, Dean Koontz raises the stakesand the pulse ratehigher than any other author. Now, in what may be his most suspenseful and heartfelt novel ever, he brings us the story of an ordinary man whose extraordinary commitment to his wife will take him on a harrowing journey of adventure, sacrifice, and redemption to the mystery of love itselfand to a showdown with the darkness that would destroy it forever. What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill? We have...more
Mitch is a landscaper with his own small business and a wife he loves. He is a content man until he receives a phone call that his wife has been kidnapped and he must come up with a $2 million ransom in three days or she’s dead. Mitch is at a loss and as the hours tick by it becomes clear that the kidnappers have set him up in case anything goes wrong. When Mitch approaches his older brother, Anson, things begin to get complicated and Mitch is scared for more than Holly’s life, he’s terrified fo...more
This book was a step outside of my usual genre, but quite enjoyable. I loved the real sense of danger that I felt from seemingly small things, but they were truly huge obstacles to Mitch. The story was simply compelling, even with the plot twist here or there. I felt like I could relate to Mitch, even though I have never been in any situation remotely close to this, which was good story telling.
On the negative side, I felt almost nothing for Holly until I saw from her perspective. She was never...more
On the negative side, I felt almost nothing for Holly until I saw from her perspective. She was never...more
Mitch Rafferty is a good man, not quite twenty-eight years old, a professional gardener with a small business consisting of his truck, an assistant and clientele satisfied with his landscaping work. Mitch has a wife who he dearly loves and they are hoping for children. Hardworking, without noticeable vices, Mitch is making ends meet. He even has several thousand dollars saved for the future. Mitch is a fine husband.
Then one Monday morning in May, shortly before noon, while Mitch is planting impa...more
Then one Monday morning in May, shortly before noon, while Mitch is planting impa...more
I found this book in the attic of a house i just moved into, after spending the day lugging around heavy boxes and sorting thru everything i thought why not take a break and read a few chapters, well turns out this is not one of those books you can read for a couple chapters at a time, as soon as i picked it up and started reading i found myself competely unable to stop! Before i knew it i had read the entire book anaware of how much time had passed!! It seems to me that the majority of the book...more
First Impressions:
What I liked about The Husband has to do with the husband's reactions to the news that his wife has been kidnapped and the kidnappers seem to have unlimited resources and can kill him at any time.
Plots (some spoilers):
His name is Mitch, and he lives a good life as a gardener. He knows he does not have the money. Later the criminals get him to get his brother Anson involved, who, it turns out, is a criminal himself. The kidnappers know this and want to pull one over on Anson....more
What I liked about The Husband has to do with the husband's reactions to the news that his wife has been kidnapped and the kidnappers seem to have unlimited resources and can kill him at any time.
Plots (some spoilers):
His name is Mitch, and he lives a good life as a gardener. He knows he does not have the money. Later the criminals get him to get his brother Anson involved, who, it turns out, is a criminal himself. The kidnappers know this and want to pull one over on Anson....more
This was a pretty good book. Moved a little slow at times and the ending was a little unbelievable. This was about Mitch Rafferty and his wife getting kidnapped. He was given 60 hours to come up with 2 million dollars to save his wife Holly. Mitch owned a landscaping business but nothing that earned that kind of money. The killers kill an innocent man to prove they mean business when they make that original phone call. Detective Taggart is the officer investigating the murder of the man. Detecti...more
Man, I really couldn't put this book down! I've read other book by Dean Koonz but this one will stick with me as a favorite. Here's the premise that sucked me in immediately:
Mitchell is an average guy who must suddenly deal with an impossible situation: the kidnapping of
his beloved wife. Worse, he hasn't got any possibility of paying the ransom of $2mil in any amount of time, let alone in the 48 hours demanded by the kidnappers. He's a gardener, for Heaven's sake!
One twist after another smacke...more
Mitchell is an average guy who must suddenly deal with an impossible situation: the kidnapping of
his beloved wife. Worse, he hasn't got any possibility of paying the ransom of $2mil in any amount of time, let alone in the 48 hours demanded by the kidnappers. He's a gardener, for Heaven's sake!
One twist after another smacke...more
I read this book in about a day, and I really enjoyed it. One of the things I love about reading a Dean Koontz book is that I can pretty much tell just by the fact that he wrote it that it will be a good read.
This book follows a man who is trying to ransom his kidnapped wife. It explores the elastic nature of human morality and is full of twists and turns. Mitch (the protagonist) is a simple gardener who finds his life turned upside down in the blink of an eye. He is forced to alter his entire p...more
This book follows a man who is trying to ransom his kidnapped wife. It explores the elastic nature of human morality and is full of twists and turns. Mitch (the protagonist) is a simple gardener who finds his life turned upside down in the blink of an eye. He is forced to alter his entire p...more
3 likes · like · see review
You’re name is Mitch Rafferty. You’re a gardener. You have no past as a cop, spy, or Navy SEAL–you’re just a plain old petunias and begonias guy. You’re working in someone’s yard when you get a call on your cell phone. You answer. And the guy on the other end has your wife.
He tells you that you will get him two million dollars or you’ll never see her again.
You’re lost. This has to be a sick prank. You’re just a gardener. You know peat moss and mulch. You don’t have two million. Heck, you have, a...more
He tells you that you will get him two million dollars or you’ll never see her again.
You’re lost. This has to be a sick prank. You’re just a gardener. You know peat moss and mulch. You don’t have two million. Heck, you have, a...more
It has been a while since I read a Koontz book; I had forgotten how creative and clever and engrossing they are. I brought this along with me on vacation in case I didn't like the other books I brought. I ended up reading all the material I had brought with me so I started this one on the plane ride home and couldn't put it down until I had finished. Reading a Koontz book never fails to make me wonder "where does he come up with this stuff?!". The story centers around a gardner, Mitch, whose wif...more
Mitchell Rafferty’s happy living a middle-class life. He owns his own landscaping company and is deeply in love with his wife Holly. Mitch is somewhat amazed everything seems so normal for him, considering the way he and his four siblings were raised by his nontraditional parents. But his world tilts off balance with one phone call, the man on the other end of the line telling him he has his wife and she will be killed unless Mitch can raise two million dollars within 70 hours. Mitch knows he ca...more
This is the first Koontz book I have read, and second time I have tried to read this particular book - the first time I only got a few chapters in before something else caught my attention, and now a few years later I was ready to try again.
I'm so undecided about how I feel now I have finished this novel. I liked the story line and the pace of the book with its plot twists and turns, I think it was Koontz's writing style that has confused me. He was very detailed with his descriptions, but I fe...more
I'm so undecided about how I feel now I have finished this novel. I liked the story line and the pace of the book with its plot twists and turns, I think it was Koontz's writing style that has confused me. He was very detailed with his descriptions, but I fe...more
My first novel by Koontz and it might've been my last had I not made it my life's mission to figure out why the guy was popular.
Characters: There are a generous handful of them. Mitch, the gardener protagonist. His brother. His parents. The Detective Taggart. The kidnappers. None of them are really developed, save for Mitch: his developmental arc centers around his realization that evil exists....except he already seemed to know it existed already. For all Koontz rantings about the fact that ev...more
Characters: There are a generous handful of them. Mitch, the gardener protagonist. His brother. His parents. The Detective Taggart. The kidnappers. None of them are really developed, save for Mitch: his developmental arc centers around his realization that evil exists....except he already seemed to know it existed already. For all Koontz rantings about the fact that ev...more
Mitchell (Mitch) Rafferty is the husband. He is the owner of a 2-man, landscaping/gardening business, "Big Green."
Mitch is working at one of his client's front yard when he gets the call. The call comes from Holly's (Mitch's wife) kidnappers with their ransom demand of $2 million. It sounds insane that a landscaper would be able to come up with $2 million in 60 hours.
+++++++++++++++++++ may contain spoilers +++++++++++++++++++
It was only 'okay' for me in the beginning. Things seemed too unreal...more
Mitch is working at one of his client's front yard when he gets the call. The call comes from Holly's (Mitch's wife) kidnappers with their ransom demand of $2 million. It sounds insane that a landscaper would be able to come up with $2 million in 60 hours.
+++++++++++++++++++ may contain spoilers +++++++++++++++++++
It was only 'okay' for me in the beginning. Things seemed too unreal...more
Some people kidnap Mitch's wife and tell him he can have her back for $2 million. Mitch is a gardener who doesn't make much money. To drive the point home, the kidnappers snipe a pedestrian out walking his dog a few yards from where Mitch is standing. This book really gets moving at a great pace that keeps you reading long after you should have put it down. I really enjoyed it, but gave it 3 stars because the ending is as weak as any I've seen. It's like Koontz didn't know how to finish the book...more
Holy suspense! For about three-quarters of the book. I hadn't read Dean Koontz for a couple years before this because I'd gotten burnt out of some of the similarities and patterns — golden retriever? Check. Newport, Calif.? Check. But I am so glad I was in the mood for Newport and suspense and awesome, detail imagery, picked this one up and glad I did.
I couldn't put it down — and that's rare for me. The twists were so unexpected and exciting and pretty crazy. I found that I had to put effort in...more
I couldn't put it down — and that's rare for me. The twists were so unexpected and exciting and pretty crazy. I found that I had to put effort in...more
Hook: What will you do for your wifes sake and your baby?
Review: For Mitch Rafferty, that phone call comes on a typical workday, and he soon finds himself embroiled in a terrifying beat-the-clock game to find the money and get his wife back in one piece. These kidnappers prove right out of the box that they mean business, killing a man walking his dog as an example of their ruthlessness.Mitch knows he can’t go to the police, so he turns to his older brother, Anson, for some help. He soon discove...more
Review: For Mitch Rafferty, that phone call comes on a typical workday, and he soon finds himself embroiled in a terrifying beat-the-clock game to find the money and get his wife back in one piece. These kidnappers prove right out of the box that they mean business, killing a man walking his dog as an example of their ruthlessness.Mitch knows he can’t go to the police, so he turns to his older brother, Anson, for some help. He soon discove...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I read quite a few Koontz novels in High School and really enjoyed them. I've been reading some of his older stuff over the last couple years and I don't enjoy them as much as I used to. Some are very good, and some are difficult to get through. The Husband was different than his typical supernatural/horror novels that I've always known him for. I know that he didn't want to get stuck in one genre, so I'm sure that this novel was written to prove that he can write suspensful thrillers in additio...more
Jan 22, 2010
Mark Dewey
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Mark by:
Aaron
Shelves:
non-genre-fiction,
audio
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Escapism is one thing - and all good stories often ask us to suspend belief for a while - but Dean Koontz has really missed the target on this one. As someone else has commented, the first few pages are gripping but then it all collapses fast
I am coming to the realisation that I don't much like formulaic glamour thriller novels unless they are exceptionally well written. This book really was the prime example of a badly written one. It reminds me of a violent, 3rd rate South American TV soap ope...more
I am coming to the realisation that I don't much like formulaic glamour thriller novels unless they are exceptionally well written. This book really was the prime example of a badly written one. It reminds me of a violent, 3rd rate South American TV soap ope...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koontzland - Dean...: The Husband (Group Read - February 2013) | 68 | 72 | May 07, 2013 02:43am | |
| The Husband | 23 | 117 | Apr 29, 2013 04:25am |
Acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.
Dean R. Koontz has also published under the na...more
More about Dean Koontz...
Dean R. Koontz has also published under the na...more
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“A man begins dying at the moment of his birth. Most People live in denial of Death's patient courtship until, late in life and deep in sickness, they become aware of him sitting bedside.”
—
23 people liked it
“She can put her life in Mitch's strong hands and fall at once into a dreamless sleep. In a sense, that is what marriage is about-a good marriage-a total trusting with your heart, your mind, your life.”
—
1 person liked it
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