Husbands and Wives

Dean Koontz isn't expected to hit one out of the park every time at bat. That may be the problem with his latest book, The Husband.

It's starts off great with the protagonist, Mitch Rafferty, a landscaper, finding out his wife has been kidnapped and there is a $2 million ransom on it. Then, he watches an old roommate of his get gunned down in the middle of the street. The cops are on him and then...nothing.

The Husband is a short book, but it still seems to drag on at times as Mitch runs around southern California trying to get the ransom. He only has 60 hours and there's a lot of revealations. There is one chapter in which we meet Mitch's eccentric father, before he is killed. The mother is mentioned more, but really is just a plant.

Sometimes, books are for everyone and sometimes, they are written for devoted fans. The Husband is for Koontz's devoted fans. Some of his good work, Shattered or The Voice of the Night, has relied on simplicity and sometimes he's great at the absurd, Tick Tock and Demon Seed. However, The Husband good have been a nice companion piece to Intensity, but he should have made the kidnappers more developed. I like the part with the wife, Holly, but the title is The Husband, not The Husband and the Wife. Maybe Koontz felt like he would have been repeating himself with Intensity by focusing more on the wife.

Anyway, it's worth a good summer read.