For many years Dean Koontz (and I still have paperbacks and hardbacks from the days when he was known as Dean R Koontz) has been among my top 5 favourite writers, one of those whose books I ritually buy as soon as the hardcover is released. I remember plenty of classics such as Strangers, Lightning, Phantoms, Twilight Eyes, Midnight, Intensity and one of my all time favourites, Whispers, among many others. I have been reading some reviews over the last few years that have berated Koontz latest offerings, and I can’t help but feel there are probably two schools of people in this – those who remember the old stuff, and those who are coming cold to the new stuff. In either case, it would be hard to put the “new stuff” up there with the best, and all I can suggest to those who read Koontz’s more recent offerings, is to go back and read Whispers or Strangers, because whatever he writes now, Koontz has written some of the best modern thriller fiction ever written.
Unfortunately, The Husband, although a good enough read, does not fit into the category of Koontz’s best. I know there are particular market forces that are driving even bestselling horror writers away from the spooky genre and into the more “mainstream thriller” but I cannot imagine why someone of Koontz’s reputation, wealth, and sheer publishing clout would need to depart quite so completely from the stuff that is his trademark. Even when they get bad, there are few Koontz books that I don’t thoroughly enjoy reading, because there is usually something to redeem it, whether it be pace, plot, or character; however in The Husband, I felt I had come across a book that hadn’t really been written by the Dean of suspense himself, but by a lesser mortal. That’s not to say it can’t be enjoyed on a flight or on the beach, or curled up on the sofa, but it certainly lacks the dynamite and that certain je ne sais quoi that permeates many of the better books. The book starts off with an interesting enough premise, a poor gardener is suddenly told his wife has been kidnapped and they want 2 million dollars from him, and to prove a point they shoot dead a complete stranger while he watches powerlessly. Although the guy has no money, he is told he will need to raise it or his wife dies, and from what we find out later, things that should pop into his head at that point simply don’t, and are kept parcelled up until the story finds it convenient to release them, which is one of its main flaws.
A lot of people have berated Koontz’s love of and trust in human nature, the “goody goodyness” of his heroes, but I have found on the main this to be a bearable trait, and have liked many of his good characters, especially the ones with flaws,and most of them have had at least some flaws to make them human. Unfortunately this fellow and his wife don’t appear to have any flaws, and they both love each other more than any couple have ever loved each other before, a fact which Koontz is at pains to keep reminding us of. It’s there that some of the realism is lost for me, as if you’re going through a divorce, having a rough time, are a lonely single, or in an unhappy marriage, it is hard to empathise with people who’s relationship is so perfect, so sweet, so sickly, that instead the opposite reaction might set in, and the reader could actually get a bit jealous and think, well, they got it soooo good, they need a little pain to join the rest of the human race! In any case, as I ploughed through the novel, for the first time in a Koontz offering (apart from, perhaps, the second half of The Taking), I found myself not particularly caring what happened, because the characters seemed so blessed, whatever bad things happened it was inevitable that there would be a happy ending.
In fact when the end does come, it comes rather quickly, and I felt some suspense could have been created and sustained, but even the final twist falls a bit flat. And certainly, Koontz has written mainstream books before (just plain old bad guy books), but they have usually contained bad guys with a twist, bad guys nobody else could have thought of – take the villain of Intensity, for example!
I didn’t know how this review was going to turn out when I started writing it, and I am a bit shocked at how negative it is. I think the problem is, if I had read The Husband and it had been by anyone else, I would have thought it an OK read, but I’ve probably been spoiled! Koontz is still one of my top 5 living authors, and I hope he writes to his full potential again, I have spent so many hundreds of happy hours on the edge of my bed reading Dean Koontz novels, and there are ones I will read again and again in years to come – One Door Away From Heaven, From the Corner of His Eye, Odd Thomas, Midnight, Whispers, Seize The Night (where the hell is the third book in that trilogy?!) and Watchers to name but a few. I am not sure what the rationale is behind producing stuff such as The Husband, but I do hope Koontz’s next offering will be more, well… more Koontz 
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Mayday review
I haven’t flown for over 20 years since I was a child, but am due to fly to Amsterdam in September, and was already feeling a bit nervous about flying when suddenly the terrorist plot to blow planes up is all over the news, hand luggage is banned, and innocent items such as drinks cans or perfume bottles could be bombs, planes are grounded and the airports are in chaos. So what better time to allay my fears by pulling an air disaster novel off the bookshelf
Mayday by Nelson DeMille and Thomas Block was originally written and published in 1979 but was updated and released again in the mid 90′s. I haven’t read the original version but this version of the airborne thriller certainly had me rocking and rolling in my armchair with every twist and turn of Flight 52.
The premise of the book is very simple – 12 miles above the Pacific Ocean, a military missile strikes Trans-United flight 52, a supersonic passenger jet bound for Japan. Rather than destroying the plane, the net result is the complete decompression of the craft at a very high altitude. Many are killed instantly, but the nature of the disaster means that the intrepid survivors must not only deal with the dying aircraft, but also with a mob of brain-damaged and violent survivors who were not so lucky. And the dying plane and their unpleasant fellow passengers are just the beginning of their problems.
I picked up this brick of a book and read it in three sittings; it’s one of those edge of the seat thrillers that picks you up and sweeps you along with its momentum. I remember actually gasping at points!
An all action thriller, Mayday is not going to win prizes for its in depth characterisation, but the characters are believable, with the protagonists truly heroic and the bad guys truly antagonistic (and perhaps the scariest part is that the bad guys are not who we would expect, in fact they’re supposed to be the good guys)
I really enjoyed reading this classic American bestseller, it’s plot revolving not only around the doomed aircraft, but also the conflicts of interest that arise in powerful factions. Mayday shows the terrifying lengths those without conscience will go to promote and protect their interests; but ultimately it celebrates the triumph of human heart and determination in the face of incredible adversity.
John Berry, from my armchair I salute you!
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It’s quite often that i’ll pick up a book and read it without at first realising that I’m actually delving into a series at the wrong point in time. So sometime last year I read Laurel K Hamilton’s Circus of the Damned and have only just got around to acquiring the two novels that come before it in the series, as well as several in the sequence after it, I might add!
And so it was with Michael Marshall’s Blood of Angels, a truly haunting thriller which I discovered was in fact the last of a three volume series! Although the novel is in fact self contained, I can’t help thinking it would have added relish to have read The Straw Men first. Sometimes an author can make it hard for readers who haven’t read the previous in a loose series, but Marshall manages to keep reliance on previous events to a minimum, even though they have a strong causal connection to the story. I will definitely pick up a copy of The Straw Men and The Lonely Dead soon.
As for Blood of Angels, what a powerful and evocative thriller this is, fuelled by the ever present tensions and dangers of the post 9/11 World, but mixing together a number of plot lines – part detective story, part political thriller, part kidnap and chase drama, part love story, Blood of Angels fuses these elements with some fine writing.
In terms of plot, we have the following premise: Notorious serial killer The Upright Man has escaped from a supermax prison. The FBI have no idea how it happened , or where to start looking. Ex-CIA agent Ward Hopkins suspects The Straw Men, a shadowy conspiracy of killers with a macabre agenda. But apart from Ward’s girlfriend Nina, the only person who believes the Straw Men even exist is John Zandt, a homicide detective obsessed with tracking down his daughter’s killers – and who is now wanted for murder himself! The thing is, Ward is right – his brother has broken out for a reason; the Straw Men are planning something big!
Perhaps what struck me the most about the story was what happens with the mysterious Jim, also known as James, for his is the story of being unable to escape, ultimately, one’s own nature, and of the inevitability of the past catching up. In all I really enjoyed reading this book, but would advise reading the series in sequence so you don’t make the same mistake I did
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I don’t know what can be said about Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code that hasn’t been said already. Since it’s the bestselling thriller of all time, or at least billed as such, chances are you’ve probably read it, or at least have a copy waiting to be read. If not, I suggest you buy it now, as like it’s predecessor Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code is a fast-paced page turner that keeps you hanging on the edge of your seat (or bed, or beach, or wherever you happen to read it!). A mixture of Art History, Detective Story, code breaking and religion, The Da Vinci Code once again features Robert Langdon in his unlikely role of Harvard Professor and unwilling James Bond! I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Da Vinci Code for a second time over the last few days.
Well, this is going to be one of my shorter reviews, since this book needs little introduction. However, I must say quickly how dismayed I am by the current court case, where the author Dan Brown has been taken to court by two other authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, claiming that Brown stole ideas from their book, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. Leigh and Baigent are suing Brown and publisher Random House for breach of copyright. I sincerely hope they don’t win, because if they do it will lead to authors spending more time in court than doing what they do best, writing novels. If these guys win, imagine how many scientific text authors may crawl from the woodwork and claim Michael Crichton stole their idea, or how about if someone does a new biography on Dickens – will previous biographers be able to sue because the same ground is being covered? Perhaps this is just a case of sour grapes – the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail are certain not to have made a fortune with their historical theories, and so perhaps resent the clever way in which Brown has turned The Da Vinci Code into a publishing phenomenon through the ingenuity of his imagination and skill of his writing. Who knows. I’m just glad they didn’t have copyright in Shakespeare’s day, since he based pretty much all of his works on stories and plays previously written by others – he just did them a lot better! Imagine a world without imagination, where authors must spend years making sure that nobody else has ever even thought about the ideas in their synopsis – it will be a world, I’m afraid, without great novels such as The Da Vinci Code, so I dearly hope Brown and Random House pull off a victory!
The judge was this week given some reading time to read both books, why not decide for yourself and purchase them both today for some great holiday or weekend reading!
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Angels and Demons, like it’s sequel The Da Vinci Code, would seem to be an unlikely bestseller. A mix of academic detective story, gory thriller, science fiction and religious epiphany would not appear to be the most likely of combinations, but Dan Brown pulls off a literary miracle by adding the secret ingredient of Robert Langdon – the James Bond of Academe! This Harvard Professor, an expert in his chosen field of religious symbology, exudes the charisma and machismo of any self respecting international man of mystery, grappling with Hassassins, dodging death at every turn, pulling off the miraculous superhero escapes we would expect from 007 himself. Angels and Demons, like its sequel, could easily be dismissed as 600 pages of pure hokum, but there is in the ingenuity of the plot and the mingling of elements a resonance that gives the book a certain originality. Those who dismiss religion itself would do well to recognise the power that religious symbology and iconography have over everyday life, and the more secular may find themselves siding with the Illuminati anti-heroes of the book!
As a thriller, Angels and Demons is fast-paced and cinematically written – from the first page there is rarely a still moment, and dialogue is often on the move as this novel, whose entire 600 pages cover a time period of only 24 hours. With enough action scenes to fill a Hollywood movie, even the deciphering of an ancient religious symbol takes on a definite edge as the tension mounts and gives non scholarly readers a vicarious taste of the thrill of academic research and discovery in extremis!
The action of The Da Vinci Code occurs not long after the end of Angels and Demons, and like many I read The Da Vinci Code first. Now, however, I have the opportunity to re-read The Da Vinci Code with further insights, and eagerly await the release of The Da Vinci Code movie in May 2006!
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