The Good Guy in Pick-a-Shelf

Jan 07, 2010 Arlene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-50-book-challenge, borrowed, mystery, pick-a-shelf-challenge

I finished this book late the other night. I would give it 5*. You knew from the beginning "who dun it" or actually who the bad guy was and what he was trying to do, murder the heroine, but the plot of the book was a cat and mouse game with the hero trying to keep the heroine alive - classic story, good vs. evil; hero, girl, & bad guy! Dean Koontz kept me reading trying to figure out the "why did someone want this girl dead" and how he was getting his information. And maybe the best part was the ...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Lynai rated it liked it · review of another edition

It is no secret how much I adore Dean Koontz. My love affair with his books started when I was in college and since I am your typical dork, I frequently visited our university library which, fortunately for me, housed Dean Koontz novels. Since I began earning, I started buying my own copies of Dean Koontz’s books, from Booksale, of course, and decided that I should strive to complete my collection. I haven’t accomplished that, though, and for a reason. Quite recently, I have discovered that my t It is no secret how much I adore Dean Koontz. My love affair with his books started when I was in college and since I am your typical dork, I frequently visited our university library which, fortunately for me, housed Dean Koontz novels. Since I began earning, I started buying my own copies of Dean Koontz’s books, from Booksale, of course, and decided that I should strive to complete my collection. I haven’t accomplished that, though, and for a reason. Quite recently, I have discovered that my taste for the typical Dean Koontz fare – ultimate bad guys chasing after ultimate good guys, lovable dog characters, heart-pounding suspense, intertwined with beautiful prose – has dwindled down.

The disinterest started with The Darkest Evening of the Year (which, for some reason, I was not able to finish) and since I’ve been seeing copies of Koontz novels scattered in Booksale, I was in no hurry to buy all of his books at once. Maybe I have reached my saturation level for suspense novels. Maybe I have acquired a familiarity with his writing styles. Or maybe I have discovered other authors to love. Whatever the reason, I have decided that I will not struggle to complete my collection of Dean Koontz novels anytime soon. This does not mean, though, that I have fallen out of love with everything that is Koontz. I only feel that I need to take a break from reading suspense novels and try to up my ante by reading other books of other authors. If I feel like reading something more comfortable, I know that I can always go back to Dean Koontz.

The feeling that I can always go back to Koontz whenever I want a comfort read was the feeling I had when I started reading The Good Guy. I kind of missed Dean Koontz after reading a lot of non-Koontz novels and I haven’t forgiven myself for not finishing The Darkest Evening of the Year. With The Good Guy, the premise is typical Koontz and a few pages since I started I thought, Yes, this is the Dean Koontz I’ve been looking for! This is a story of a mistaken identity where the good guy, Tim Carrier, who is exactly your idea of who a good guy is (non-philandering, single, honest worker), was approached by a stranger in a bar and thought him to be the killer he hired. Tim was given ten thousand bucks and the photograph of the woman he has to kill. Before Tim can even figure out what to do, and after the stranger left, another stranger approached him and thought Tim was the man who hired him to kill the woman on the photograph. Who is this woman? Why does she have to be killed? What will Tim, the good guy, do? What follows is a race against time as the real killer pursues the real target, with the good guy, Tim, also on the run.

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