Listened to: "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz

Listened to: The Good Guy by Dean Koontz, downloaded from Overdrive.com.

Koontz is a good writer but I don't like his characters very much. They always engage in snappy patter and witty comebacks. I read that 2-3 book series with the guy who has a light sensitivity disorder (Fear Nothing, etc.) and I had the same dislike for those characters. The Fear books read like extended episodes of Friends with violence and mystery included.

Koontz's characters also seem to have all sorts secret skills and backgrounds. For instance, the main character in Good is Tim. Tim is presented as a regular dude who works as a mason during the day and hangs out in his friend's bar in the evening. But, Tim has all sorts of skills and bravery a normal guy doesn't.

One evening Tim strikes up a conversation with a fellow bar goer and gets handed an envelope with $10k and a woman's photo. The other guy wants Linda, the woman in the photo, dead and has mistook Tim for a hired killer. The first guy leaves and a second guy comes in the bar and talks to Tim. The second guy is the real hired killer and assumes Tim is the buyer. Tim tells the killer to forget the job and then Tim goes to tell Linda she is in danger.

Linda and Tim flee the seemingly psychic killer who finds them most anywhere. Of course, the reader knows the killer - a man with multiple aliases - is using some high tech methods and the assistance of a support team to guide him along. Tim and Linda have close calls. Masonry love ensues. Tim calls on a cop friend for help. Killer is part of a dark conspiracy. Tim uses mysterious yet amazing skills and methods to avoid the killer. Kahr love ensues. Linda gets hot for Tim, Tim gets hot for Linda. Tim kills killer and conspiracy people warn him off. Tim tells the President about the conspiracy and the conspiracy is taken down while Tim and Linda enjoy their life together.

A big annoyance is how Tim turns out to be a super-duper war hero. Not just any war hero though, he is a Medal of Honor winner who saved his fellow Marines and a few hundred civilians who were about to be slaughtered. Yeah, right. Of course, he uses the connection of having met the President's mom to parlay a private meeting with the President to present some evidence on the evil conspiracy. Yeah, sure.

My not liking the two main characters is usually a real deal breaker for me. But, Koontz created a real nasty villain and knows how to drive the plot and story along.