The Good Guy
by Dean Koontz
List Price:
Our Price: $1.60
You Save: $6.39 (80%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Dean KoontzEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-29
ISBN: 0553589113
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: Bantam
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780553589115
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Good Guy
Book Review: A ridiculous and boring rant with bits of action and suspense and plot thrown in.
Summary: 1 Stars
Beware...impossibly long review ahead. I'm assuming that you're already aware of the basic premise of this book. You are? Then good. Keep reading.
This story is bananas, and not in the way that previous Koontz books tend to be. Oh no, this book is totally normal. If you consider handing ten thousand dollars to random men in bars to kill someone without ever bothering to make sure that man was a contract killer and not just some random guy in a bar normal.
The inconsistencies are everywhere, ranging from silly to downright implausible. Silliest is the dialogue. What kind of person could be cruel enough to inject every single character with the same exact voice that just sounds like a lot of random, fake-intellectual sarcasm? Oh yeah, Dean Koontz. Because apparently he talks nonsense 24/7. His neighbors talk like this too. They're car mechanics by the way, but they're so intellectual! Just ask them what the weather is like and they'll spout some off the wall reference to some obscure 80's band with a jab at the president thrown in, all while changing your oil! It doesn't make sense, but boy does it sound smart!
Speaking of people who talk like Dean Koontz, practically 70% of the book is filled with his ("his", not his characters') neo-hippy ideas that just seems like a lot of angry ranting from a frustrated old man. The main character is a mason in his 30's, but he's always thinking about the excesses of America's materialism and how people only talk about American Idol and bla bla bla, basically stuff we think about in passing but never talk about because its boring. "Nobody wants to hear about the good old days again grandpa!" The book is filled to the brim with this garbage. If Dean Koontz wanted to whine about our crumbling society and the loss of decent human values, then he should have made this nonfiction, cut out the "plot" (there's not much anyway), and published it as is. Voila! He's a pundit.
It would have been somewhat bearable if it was written in decent prose, but alas...basically, every line feels flat, dry, and unnecessary, and its sad because they're actually trying to be imaginative. There's always some deep imagery being presented in every paragraph, but its so overblown, complicated, and boring that it doesn't really get its message across all that well. Its like poetry without meaning. I also "like" how he keeps interrupting the flow of (bad) dialogue by describing the surroundings, which are actually thinly veiled metaphors to enforce the current events of the plot. Yeah sure, you're about to kill the bad guy, so you cut off to a kid flying a dragon kite...get it? Danger? Dragon? Bad guy?! If you don't get this you're dumb. Its annoying and obtrusive, but there's really no better way to communicate what's going on without condescending narrative that actually makes you feel smart and dumb at the same time. Koontz is a genius. All this coupled with the "rants', and you've got the most soulless work of fiction ever.
The characters are also dirt flat. Apart from talking like Dean Koontz, they really don't have any other qualities to make that distinction any less terrifying. The two main characters also have the most anticlimactic "revelations" ever conceived. You'd think after bearing with their boring cynicism and their penchant for responding in questions over and over again for so many pages you'd be rewarded with a s*** storm of character depth...nah. We're all such greedy Americans, we don't deserve a cohesive and exciting ending, right Dean Koontz? The good guy is every bit the title character, nothing more and certainly nothing more. The girl is...was angry about stuff. Biggest downer still is the fact that the reason for the people wanting her dead - obviously the biggest mystery in the whole novel - is about as satisfying as kissing your own skin. It has nothing actually to do with her personally, which actually steals from her character and makes the whole thing dull and pointless. I wont get into that. You can get underwhelmed on your own. And you will, because the story is as short and predictable and formulaic as it can possibly get.
In my opinion, the biggest offender is the villain. He's the real killer, miffed about having his identity borrowed and his hit stolen, he goes to finish the job (or DO the job...whatever). He actually starts off interesting. He's a super germaphobic narcissist who thinks he's a prince superior to mankind and killing is fun (what? you've seen American Psycho too?). He's also homeless and "borrows" other people's homes when they're away (because he's a prince and entitled to it), sniffing their underwear and peeing on things he doesn't like and going through mirrors...okay everything pretty much falls apart after that. Lets not forget that he also doesn't have a past, like literally. Dean Koontz figured he could shave off some hours of work on this thing by conveniently leaving out any useful background on the MAIN VILLAIN that would have given us insight into how he ended up this way in the guise of AMNESIA that is never ever explained. But thats okay, because there are whole chapters (about a thousand) dedicated to him squatting in other people's houses. After every failed murder attempt, he likes to put his feet up and do the laundry and pretend that everything is alright because he's a god who urinate on other people's things and eats their pie. Rinse and repeat all of that for a few dozen more chapters (who needs background right?). He actually becomes boring. While you still know he is whacked out evil (because the fact is pounded into you every two chapters), he becomes nothing more than a passing sneeze by then, for it is easier to be annoyed by him than to actually hate him. You know that he dies too. Like...obviously. Its also not in the way you might expect because its completely without fanfare. There's no reevaluation of beliefs, no powerful revelation, no doubts, regrets, one final line, nothing. He dreams about mirrors for three paragraphs and dies. Pretty much all that focus on his creepy killer nomad lifestyle serves no purpose because he pretty much just gets popped like a bubble, and thats it. Done. One more pointless plotline excised without reason? Check.
Also, for such a top class hitman whose never once lost a target, he sure screws up a lot. Laughably so. Its not just him either, the good guys are also inconsistently stupid. For all their ingenuity, they are dumb enough to pay for a room with a CREDIT CARD. You can trick incompetent super killers to look for you in the wrong room (which happens a lot), but you somehow failed to remember that credit cards can be tracked? Good lord.
Going back to the setup, everything attached to it is also one huge WTF? Supposedly, (SPOILERZ!!!) the killer is in the employ of some shady organization that helps him out with butchering targets. They provide him with locations, vehicles, and even fresh clothes that they just deliver to whatever unoccupied abode that he happens to be residing in, all with a few coded text messages. The whole concept fails because this is also the same exact organization that demands his services...like, huh? They are his clients...but also his associates. Okay...I get the whole idea of having your own sociopathic puppet to kill for you (and I guess helping them out?), but then what the hell is the deal with meeting in the bar? If you can provide assistance, no matter what the time or place, ranging from cleaning up corpses to giving away expensive cars with relative ease (all of which should cost well over 10,000 dollars...), why would you need to meet in a bar with cash upfront if he was already your employee in the first place? In fact, why do you even need to have some bumbling psychopath to take out targets for you in the first place if you already know where everyone is at any given time and able to work in such efficiency? If this was supposed to make any sense, this whole thing would have never happened. And you know what, I really wish the universe could correct itself so easily. But alas, such stains can never be washed out.
This story is an incompetent, generic, whiny mess, and I really expected more from Dean Koontz. Sadly, his mind seems to he going in the way of Sidney Sheldon in his old age in that he's more than content to release half drafts of his books to release every year instead of writing something that's actually worth reading, or at least like the things he wrote before the ego and security kicked in. For someone who moans so much about the lack of productivity and industriousness in the American youth today (yes...he mentions that in this book too...), he sure writes like on of those youths.
Summary of The Good Guy
One man. One choice. Someone must die.From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz comes this pulse-pounding thriller that starts with a terrifying decision we all might face one day: Help?or run. Timothy Carrier is an ordinary guy. He enjoys a beer after work at his friend?s tavern, the eccentric customers and amusing conversations. But tonight is no ordinary night. The jittery man sitting beside him has mistaken Tim for someone else?and passes him an envelope stuffed with cash and the photo of a pretty woman. ?Ten thousand now. You get the rest when she?s gone.?
Tim Carrier always thought he knew the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. But tonight everything he thought he knew?even about himself?will be challenged. For Tim Carrier is at the center of a mystery of extraordinary proportions, the one man who can save an innocent life and stop a killer as relentless as evil incarnate. But first he must discover resources within himself of which he never dreamed, capacities that will transform his idea of who he is and what it takes to be . . .
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
From the Corner of His Eyeby Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2001-11-20; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Breathless: A Novel of Suspenseby Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2010-11-23; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.87
Price in other shops:
Odd Hours: A Novelby Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2009-04-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops:
Velocityby Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2006-04-25; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.64
Price in other shops:
Lightningby Dean Koontz
Berkley Trade; Published: 2010-03-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.72
Price in other shops:
Sole Survivorby Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2000-04-04; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.26
Price in other shops:
Intensityby Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2000-10-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops:
Phantomsby Dean Koontz
Berkley; Published: 2002-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.20
Price in other shops:
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2005-10-25; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.79
Price in other shops:
The Husbandby Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2007-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.11
Price in other shops: