The Husband by Dean Koontz




Synopsis:

What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill?

We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash. Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty thinks it must be some kind of joke. He was in the middle of planting impatiens in the yard of one of his clients when his cell phone rang. Now he’s standing in a normal suburban neighbourhood on a bright summer day, having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare.

Whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. He has Mitch’s wife and he’s named the price for her safe return. The caller doesn’t care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. He’s confident that Mitch will find a way.

If he loves his wife enough. . . Mitch does love her enough. He loves her more than life itself. He’s got seventy-two hours to prove it. He has to find the two million by then. But he’ll pay a lot more. He’ll pay anything.


‘It’s been a while since I read Dean Koontz, this looks interesting’ I said to myself as I take a closer look at the synopsis on the back cover of the book. ‘Ok, give it a try’.

And with that, my future is sealed. I will not read another Dean Koontz again for a very long time. At least not his newer books which is thriller in nature but lack the supernatural or psychotic angle that he was so good at in his previous books. If I’m to recommend Dean Koontz to you, I would recommend his books from the early days.

The only element of Dean Koontz that I can see from this book is the twist on Mitchell’s brother. That was unexpected but everything else seems rather mellow and I just don’t get that ‘umph’ that I used do with Dean Koontz’s previous works. I mean, I used to read his book in one sitting that probably took me almost 24 hours! But that was like 20 years ago so I guess he has changed his style since then. 

If it’s the Dean Koontz of old, he might connect the rather supernatural elements that he hinted here and there, like the nails that Mitch found in the attic and the nails that Holly was working on to set free from the plank. Then, there’s the noise of a trunk being closed that Holly heard just as Mitch got into the trunk of the car to go on that journey that’s he’s not supposed to return from. Somehow, the Dean Koontz of old might find a way to make that work in an abnormally supernaturally thrilling way.

If you still haven’t got it, my overall verdict is ‘very disappointed’...

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