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Book Review: The Husband by Dean Koontz February 20, 2009

Book Review: The Husband by Dean Koontz

I had to add another category to my blog after reading The Husband. Most of the Koontz novels I’ve read (7 so far.) have been Science Fiction, Horror or both, but in The Husband, Koontz goes straight suspense.

The story begins with the protagonist, Mitch Rafferty, working with his buddy Iggy on a landscaping job. Mitch owns the company, so Iggy works for him, but it is obvious the two are friends as well. The initial conversation in this book was pretty funny and hooked me right away. I actually read the first 5 chapters after buying the book at a garage sale a few months back. The humor here is not the same as in an Odd Thomas novel, but Mitch and Iggy’s conversation about a crazed iguana on crystal meth biting off a man’s nose had a couple of laugh out loud moments.  I was hooked.

The light mood ends quickly when Mitch’s cell phone rings, and Mitch finds out his wife Holly has been kidnapped — and is being held for a 2 million dollar ransom. Mitch’s landscaping business is doing well on a small scale, so he has a few thousand dollars tucked away, but there is no way he’ll be able to raise 2 million dollars in 3 days as the kidnappers demand. The kidnappers don’t want to hear that. Their response is if you love your wife enough, you’ll find a way, and if you talk to the police, we’ll torture her and then kill her. As an exclamation point to the warning, the kidnappers then shoot a man who was walking his dog on the street where Iggy and Mitch are working.

The story takes several twists and turns after the kidnappers force Mitch to bring his brother Anson into their scheme, and there is a great deal of action as Mitch tries to stay alive long enough to save Holly.

This was an entertaining read from beginning to end, but it doesn’t compare to the first Odd Thomas novel — which is the best Koontz novel I’ve read so far. The thing is, Mitch is no Odd, so after the first conversation with Iggy, there isn’t any humor in the rest of the book, and I know Dean Koontz is capable of mixing humor with suspense, so I found the lack of humor disappointing. Odd Thomas has a way of charming the reader while he saves the day, but Mitch Rafferty has no time for that.

There is quite a bit of action in The Husband as Mitch finds out exactly what he’s willing to do to save his wife. The plot has several twists, and is without lulls, moving along with a pace quick enough to keep the reader interested, but not so fast as to destroy the suspense.

This was a worthwhile read, but I was a little disappointed that after the plot kicked into gear, we never heard from the nose biting iguana again. I hope they fix that in the movie version.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10