The Husband by Dean Koontz Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Husband
Book Review: A Good Read
Summary: 4 Stars
I have been a Dean Koontz fan for a long time. This novel was a refreshing change of pace from his "weird creature" stories. It was a good, old fashioned thriller and I liked the new style that he showed in this book.Book Review: A Thrilling read - Hardcover edition review
Summary: 4 Stars
The Husband was a book I could not put down. It is about a man who suddenly is thrown into a world of strange circumstances. The man's wife is being held for a large amount of ransom...much larger than he has, since he is just a landscaper. The book almost reminds me at times of the movie "A History of Violence", but it is better than that, much more thought provoking. Why would these men who kidnapped his wife assume he even had money? Where are they keeping her? The scene on the road out of town late at night was very scary, but even after that the book still had a ton of action in it. I particularly liked the way Koontz was able to evoke a sweet, caring love between the main character and his wife. I would have liked to see a little more character development with the one thug who is in the story towards the end, but considering his role in this whole thing, I guess it does not matter. The "twist" of this story with some of the main character's family was very surreal, to say the least. Overall a nice thriller and it shows that Koontz can write a great story without adding any supernatural powered monsters or ghosts into the fray.Book Review: A True Thriller
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time. It has the real parts of a true thriller. It kept me in my seat, waiting to find out what happened. I loved how Dean Koontz used wording, and kept you wondering what is going to happen next. If you want a true thrill, you have to read this book now.Book Review: A Vortex of Action but Sophomoric Plot
Summary: 4 Stars
Koontz pulls off an entertaining, action filled novel despite its amateurish plot, quickness, and cumbersome shifts in style.
Readers will enjoy the thrill of the story line that takes off immediately and keeps up the pace until the conclusion. Koontz throws all types of characters into the vortex of action...including the usual evil suspects and naive innocent thrown in the midst.
Koontz' eloquent descriptive language and philosophic ponderings don't fit this novel and seem thrown in as window dressing. They serve to interupt the fast-paced plot, and I ended up skimming through many of them. In this short novel, readers have to take Koontz' word for the characters' good or evil natures. We get little background of the secondary players and just a little of the main characters'.
This seems like something Koontz wrote quickly without much effort. I think readers will enjoy the entertainment value but might be left wishing for more profundities and depth that often accompany Koontz' entertainment.
Book Review: A decent page turner, but missing Koontz' typical eerie overtones
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Husband" is best described as a straight-forward thriller. The plot starts out quite simple, a gardener's wife gets kidnapped and is being held for ransom for 2 million dollars. To prove the kidnapper's point a "random stranger" is immediately gunned down -- with a warning not to go to the police.
The questions are "Why was his wife abducted when this man has barely 2 nickels to rub together?" and "How can he possibly raise 2 million in a few days?"
Without going into a ton of plot spoilers, there is actually a reason that the gardener was picked -- having to do with his rather unusual family.
Also complicating the story is a Detective Taggart, who gets the sense that a cover up is going on, but isn;'t sure who is covering up what.
I found the detective character confusing and a bit of a sideline to the main story that never really developed.
Also, what I really like about Koontz is his semi-occult twists, which weren't a part of this book. Not that they have to be in everthing he writes, I just missed them.
Overall I enjoyed the book. It was a good page turner and kept my interest. A few flaws kept it from the 5 star rating though.