Dean Koontz The Husband

The Husband

Dean Koontz

Bantam, Jun 2006, $27.00

ISBN: 0553804790

Twenty-seven years old Southern California landscaper Mitchell Rafferty is on his knees working a client's garden when he receives the call on his cell-phone that enlightens him to the fact that a person is "dying at the moment of birth". The caller, a total stranger, demands that Mitch provide him with two million dollars within sixty hours or his beloved wife of three years Holly will die. The co-owner of Big Green insists he is a gardener with 11K in his accounts, but the kidnapper who already hurt his spouse, knows that and does not care at all. To insure that Rafferty understands this is no joke, he tells him to watch what happens to the guy walking his dog across the street; a moment later that innocent is dead with a bullet in his head. In sixty hours, two mill or expect a corpse.

Mitch now knows how serious these guys are, but must not tell the police investigating the homicide about his wife's abduction. Instead he must find a way to come up with the loot though he has no way of legally obtaining that sum of money. Still Mitch will do anything to save the life of his beloved wife including risking his life and that of others.

Dean Koontz is at his best with this suspense laden thriller mindful of Sutherland's The Phone Booth and Snipes' Liberty Stands Still. Mitchell is a terrific protagonist who believes his life is near perfect until he receives the phone call that shows him how precarious life and love are. The zillion fans of Mr. Koontz and those who appreciate a powerful thriller in which the tension grows from that terse opening scene to the climatic confrontation will want to read THE HUSBAND that answers how far an everyman will go for love.

Harriet Klausner