The Good Guy Wasn't That Good

Dean Koontz seems to get further away from his horror/supernatural storylines with each new book he writes. In some instances he produces brilliant mystery/thriller novels. In others he appears to have trouble stretching the story past a short novelette length.

The Story...
The Good Guy opens with Timothy Carrier sitting in a bar owned by his friend, Liam. Approached by a nervous man he is given $10,000, a picture, and the address of the woman he is to kill. Tim is not a hired killer. Richard Kravet, who is, soon shows up and mistakes Tim for his contact. Tim gives Kravet the money and tries to end the murder for hire scheme. Realizing he hasn't stopped Linda Paquette's murder, only delayed it, Tim goes to her house and convinces her of someones deadly intentions. With a very experienced and well financed hitman determined to find them Tim and Linda struggle to stay one step ahead of him...until they turn the hunter into the hunted. What is in it for Tim? Nothing, he is just The Good Guy.

The Thoughts...
Koontz failed to pull me into this story. His use of descriptive narration appeared to be filler to lengthen the book. Whole paragraphs were given to telling me how it felt outside, looked in a room, or how one of the characters felt. It slowed the action and had me skipping past parts of the story.

The air of mystery around Tim didn't quite work either. I was able to figure out who/what he really was without much effort, even though the reason why wasn't given until late in the story. Linda was the typical emotionally strong woman that I find so often in Koontz books. She was neither original or more than moderately interesting. Richard Kravet as the bad guy was really annoying. How many times do I have to suffer him admiring himself in a mirror and/or thinking about how a perfect world includes the death of all? A lot.

The most interesting character was a secondary man, a police officer named Pete (Pedro). He had moments where he was mildly amusing with a sincere loyalty and fondness for his friend Tim. As a police officer he was able to gather information to help Tim and Linda, until he is shut down by his supervisor and has to go on the run, also.

The storyline is the saving grace of this book. It is an interesting look at how far a person will go to do the right thing. It looks at what builds the character of a Good Guy and his internal reasons for doing the right thing. By skipping the excessive narration, I was able to keep the plot moving at a medium pace. Overall it was an average book, with a good storyline, mediocre characters, and unnecessary filler.