The Husband

Book No: 6
Title: The Husband
Author: Dean Koontz
Genre: Suspense
Completed: 1/31/09
No. of Pages:
Rating: 4/5*****

The Husband of the title is Mitch Rafferty, his wife is Holly and they are a young married couple, blissfully in love and making plans for the future. While Mitch is working at one of his landscaping jobs he receives a phone call on his cell phone, one that plunges him into a nightmare that goes from bad, to worse and then to unbelievably terrifying. Holly has been kidnapped, the kidnapper’s want 2 million dollars, a sum that is completely out of Mitch’s range. While Mitch tries to reason with the voice on the phone they tell him to look across the street, and then an innocent bystander is shot to death. These guys mean business- no police and they will give Mitch instructions on what to do to save his wife’s life.

I’ve read some Dean Koontz before, but those books had some paranormal aspects to them. This book was a pulse pounding thriller, full of tricks, turns, betrayals and surprises. The story focuses on good versus evil as well as an examination of what it is to love unconditionally and to what lengths a person would go to protect and defend that love. This is one of those stay up all night reads, because every time you think the worst has happened Koontz ratchets it up another notch. Although the ending is a little anti-climatic this was overall a really good read.