The Good Guy - Dark Publications

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Product Description
Timothy Carrier, having a beer after work at his friend’s tavern, enjoys drawing eccentric 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.

“Ten thousand now. You get the rest when she’s gone.”

The stranger walks out, leaving a photo of the pretty woman marked for death, and her address. But things are about to get worse. In minutes another stranger sits next to Tim. This one is a cold-blooded killer who believes Tim is the man who has hired him.

Thinking fast, Tim says, “I’ve had a change of heart. You get ten thousand—for doing nothing. Call it a no-kill fee.” He keeps the photo and gives the money to the hired killer. And when Tim secretly follows the man out of the tavern, he gets a further shock: the hired killer is a cop.

Suddenly, Tim Carrier, an ordinary guy, is at the center of a mystery of extraordinary proportions, the one man who can save an innocent life and stop a killer far more powerful than any cop…and as relentless as evil incarnate. But first Tim must discover within himself the capacity for selflessness, endurance, and courage that can turn even an ordinary man into a hero, inner resources that will transform his idea of who he is and what it takes to be The Good Guy.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews: Read 179 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Koontz just gets better and better June 11, 2007
45 out of 52 found this review helpful

First off, there is nothing supernatural in this book. That deserves to said up front, as some people prefer Koontz when he is writing in a different vein.
This was one of the most riveting suspense novels I've read lately. The basic dilemna? A guy walks into a bar and is mistaken for a hired killer. He tries to pay off the REAL killer and, for a time, it seems as if this will work. But the killer catches on and the chase is on, as "the good guy" tries to save a beautiful woman from death.
To add to the intrigue, she has no idea why anyone would want her killed. Neither does he, of course. So they have to keep running from a guy who seems to be almost psychic, a man with connections that run deeper than could ever be expected.
I loved the way each character practically jumped off the page, the interaction between them and more. The subtle details Koontz adds are what separates him from other, less skilled writers. His writing is also tight, tense and neither stereotypical or too dense. Take this one with you this summer or have it on hand for times when you want a good read. You won't be disappointed!
Other Koontz books worth checking out:

The Husband

Brother Odd (Odd Thomas Novels)

5 out of 5 stars

A Thriller Clinic June 6, 2007
29 out of 35 found this review helpful

"Good Guy" Tim Carrier, a mason by trade with a body (and head) like John Wayne, finds his low-key lifestyle interrupted by a bizarre barroom encounter, during which he's handed an envelope full of money and kill instructions intended for a contract killer. Forced to make the first of what will be many quick life-or-death decisions, Tim removes the target's photograph and address from the envelope and attempts to call off the kill minutes later, when the real assassin arrives at the bar, by posing as the buyer and offering up the $10,000 as a no-kill fee in consideration for his change of heart. As Tim suspects, however, this ruse buys him only limited time, which he uses to alert the intended victim, the physically lovely but psychologically fractured Linda Paquette, of the murder plot. In short, an opening hook that I found every bit as irresistable as the one that kicked off last year's "The Husband."

What ensues is a classic cat-and-mouse thriller, in which Tim and Linda must draw upon all of their physical and mental reserves to stay a step ahead of an assassin for whom the term psychopath doesn't begin to do justice. What's worse, he seems to almost magically anticipate Tim and Linda's every move, giving the impression that he's acting under the direction of a group with law enforcement connections and daunting technological capabilities. As always, Dean Koontz finds clever ways to build suspense, telling the story from several points of view and propelling the story line forward in bite-sized chapters that could easily be visualized as scenes in a blockbuster movie.

Koontz uses another interesting technique to build suspense that I found particularly effective. While we gradually learn, through Tim's incredible skill in evading the killer and his unflappable grace under pressure, that he must harbor a past profession in which he cut things other than stone, Koontz withholds this secret from the reader until the final pages of the book. He does the same with Linda and her past, contributing not only to the suspense but also to the extended first-date-type-thrill of romance that blossoms amidst the carnage.

Other than one creaky floorboard in the plot structure (the explanation behind the contract on Linda's life), "The Good Guy" is, cover to cover, one of the finest thrillers I've ever read. Some professional critics have faulted the ending, something that Koontz has struggled with in some of his books, but I thought he nailed this one perfectly. In Tim Carrier, he also has created a humble hero for our times, and perhaps kept the door open for a sequel.

5 out of 5 stars

A rivetting thriller by a modern suspense master June 12, 2007
19 out of 23 found this review helpful

Tim Carrier is just a nice guy with a big head. When he enters a bar, no one notices. When he saddles up to the counter and orders a drink, only his friend the bartender really pays attention to him. Well, the bartender, and the nervous man who followed Tim into the bar--the guy who thinks Tim is a contract killer.

Confused, Tim watches as the man leaves...only to be replaced, minutes later, by the REAL hitman. This guy is cool, collected, with dark eyes that convey all manners of evil. It won't be long before this man realizes Tim is not his employer; and soon Tim and the target, a beautiful woman named Linda, will be running for their lives from the ultimate human evil.

"The Good Guy" starts out like Koontz's last few novels; i.e., rivetting and suspenseful, but not entirely unique (Koontz has created a new genre: the too-good-to-be-true hero with a mysterious past, running from a sociopathic human evil). However, "The Good Guy" soon branches into territory Koontz hasn't explored since the eighties, and is a wonderful return to a darker suspense form. It's a shame Koontz has been branded a horror novelist (ironically enough, the sole novel that earned him that monicker was in fact a science fiction tale), because he is truly a master of suspense. Nobody writes like he does; his imagery is breathtaking, his knack for banter un-paralleled. True, I'd like to see more grit in his writing (starting in the late nineties, with the exception of "Odd Thomas," his novels have been almost happy-go-lucky), but when it comes to analyzing happiness and love and everything that makes us human, few do it better than Koontz.

1 out of 5 stars

From a fan of Koontz, this is not 'Good' at all October 6, 2007
14 out of 20 found this review helpful

Almost every Koontz book that you pick up will have a few saving graces. Primarily for myself, I enjoy the first half of just about every one of his books. I have been thinking for a while that it would be nice to take his stories, rip out the last half of all of them, and end up with a collection of entertaining 'Twilight Zone' style stories. The reason I say this is because Koontz really knows how to start a story in a manner that grabs the reader and brings them into a world that is startlingly fresh and interesting concept wise. However he always, and I mean always wraps his stories up in exactly the same fashion. His bad guy is foiled by the good guy who gets the girl that he probably has found during whatever book it is you picked up.

With that aside, the reason 'The Good Guy' rates a whole lot lower on my Koontz scale than most of his stories is that this time he pretty much races into what is normally the middle of most of his novels. The plot races towards Koontz usual cat and mouse play within the first twenty or so pages and you miss out on the enjoyable build up. So what you are left with is a long drawn out chase scene and a mushy ending.

I suppose that most of you will not agree with me. Alas, I wish that this were a better book. The writing is at times perhaps the very most contrived that I have ever come across in Koontz's books. for example...

"Is there something I should know? Have you been in trouble sometime?"

She blinked "Not me. Im as straight as a new nail that never met a hammer."

"Why does that sound to me like there was a hammer, maybe a lot of hammers, but you didn't bend?"

"I dont know. I dont know why it sounds that way to you. Maybe you're always inferring hidden meaning when none is implied."

"Im just a bricklayer."

Ah... at times it is painfully bad. I wish Koontz would write a true 'horror' book and not have the quality of his writing end up creating most of the terror.

1 out of 5 stars

UNDERWHELMED June 30, 2007
13 out of 18 found this review helpful

I must say Mr. Koontz has provided a massive heap of dissapointment lately and his current novel The Good Guy only adds a few pounds to the ever growing heap. It seems as though his characters in each book are one and the same. Each one is a socially awkward person....some have some physical or mental handicap...and the jovial and, quite often, off-the-wall conversation between characters is resounding again and again and again and again. *yawn* Too much of Mr. Koontz's own personality, thoughts, actions, and ideas are incorporated into his characters lately...in my opinion. Too often, his characters reflect the same ideas about society and television amongst other things. It just seems as though Mr. Koontz is bringing too much of a comical light-hearted tone to a genre where it doesn't belong. I'm having withdrawals from his earlier and more darker works. Honestly, I picture him typing away at these stories with a smile on his face and, for a thriller, it just doesn't work. I wish Mr. Koontz would challenge himself and create some charcters who are nothing like the neo-hippy characters that he's been creating,and introduce a main character who thinks nothing like him, who acts nothing like him..............just, basically, write a novel that stands out from the recent rest or, at least, change genres. Eagerly awaiting some change.

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