Friends, food and reading

I have to say that the last few days have been a bit hectic. I am trying to get a lot done before I start full time work again. It is not easy to try and have so much fun in only a week. So far this week I have managed to mix the necessary with the pleasant and have had coffees, lunch, a new haircut and my final physio session. Tomorrow I am off to have some fun in London and then Friday some more coffee and then a nice weekend relaxing.

Today has also seen the first time in a week or so that I have properly cooked. I kept not bothering and thinking that just a bit of toast or something simple would do Well, no more! I made the most lovely moussaka today and it has put me in the mood for more cooking. Just in time for when I get back to work.

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The Good Guy - Dean Koontz

The good thing about this book is that the main character, Tim Carrier is a really nice guy. The bad thing is that the situation that Koontz puts him in and the way the people around him react is just so far fetched that it is almost too much... no... it is too much. The story is told at a good pace, it is fun trying to see if Tim and Linda keep one step ahead of the hit man that is after her. In true Koontz style both main characters have a past they are hiding and they have been through a lot to be where they are. They have both experienced violence and loss and have dealt with it in different ways. Tim has fled the army to become a bricklayer and Linda has fled her past only to go and live in the past. Both of them also find that you cannot really hide form the past and you have to deal with it and embrace it or it will get you.

As for the story...... hands up all women who would let a guy, a stranger, come into your house have him tell you someone is out to kill you and then go on the run with this stranger, trust him with your life and end up marrying him. No... any takers???.. no, I did not think so. Well, that is exactly what Koontz is selling.... and I am not buying it. It is just too unlikely a story and not no matter how hard Koontz tries to make it normal by having an unflappable female main lead it is just not working for me. Okay so your neighbour says the stranger is a decent bricklayer but what kind of recommendation is that?! I would have slammed the door in his face and told him to take his medication. Of course in Koontz world that world have meant I would have ended up dead so naturally that does not happen. After Tim and Linda meet we are off with them on the run, trying to stay on step ahead of the man with the gun. This guy is a standard psycho who just kills whoever he gets told to kill. To my amazement there is actually some really funny stuff going on with this guy. He seems to think he is some kind of God selected by the higher authorities to kill and that nothing he can do is ever going to go wrong. He is a man special and beyond reproof, quoting obscure poetry at his handlers. One of the funniest scenes in the book is when he goes to find a place to hide out and here comes face to face the joys of having nosey neighbours. It's just like you cannot even get a good bit of killing in every now and again without getting bothered by mums and dads dropping round. Honestly...!!

So, they run, he tries to get them, they get some help from "the loyal fiend", the good guys win the bad guy gets killed and all ends well. Not without some interference of some shady government agency of course. You cannot have a Koontz novel without some of that.

It is a fun enough book, Koontz is good at dialogue and at making characters come to life but the whole thing is just to fat fetched it leaves you with a bit of a bitter after taste.

Title: The Good Guy

Author: Dean Koontz

438 pages

Harper

ISBN #978-0-00-722660-3

Books to be read: 144