Already tapped for movie material, best-selling author Dean Koontz’s latest, “The Husband,” moves like a roller coaster without brakes. The basic plot is simple: Middle-class landscaper Mitch Rafferty gets a call on his cellphone telling him that his wife, Holly, has been kidnapped, that he must pay $2 million to save her life and that he is being watched so he can’t go to the authorities for help. Then the caller has one of his cohorts shoot a man who is walking a dog across the street – merely to prove he and his buddies are serious.
Koontz’s Alfred Hitchcock-style plot might sound simple, but things get complicated when the gunshot victim turns out to have known Mitch, calling unwanted attention his way in the form of a police detective. Worse, an unexpected run-in with one of the kidnappers while in his attic (they really do have him under surveillance) ends up with the criminal’s death.
With a savings account and other cash reserves amounting to less than $30,000, Mitch is in dire need of capital. His emotionally warped parents prove to be no help (they are the type who believe in tough love, and who used to prove it with abusive punishments doled out to Mitch and his siblings).
As things start to look desperate, Mitch turns to his older, single brother Anson, the most likable member of their family – and the most unambitious as well – or so Mitch thought. Turns out Anson has been making more money (stocks, or something) than he ever let on, and he might be the reason the kidnappers targeted Holly and Mitch. The two brothers decide to join forces to get Holly back. As always, Koontz throws in several unexpected plot curves, making this one of his finest thrillers yet.
Koontz seems to be able to write page-turners no matter what genre he taps into: horror (“Mr. Murder”), science fiction (“Seize the Night”) or his usual, dark fantasy (“Odd Thomas,” “Forever Odd”). His penchant for gravitating toward outsider-type heroes and playing on the paranoia of his audience especially suits this novel (the surveillance Mitch is under rings especially true with recent revelations of government phone-tapping).
Koontz’s facility with character is as strong as ever: Mitch morphs from a low-key, laid-back, happily married man into a basic-instinct, take-no-prisoners, flawed pseudo-hero, and one of the kidnappers turns out to be one of the novelist’s creepiest characters since “Intensity.
Without a doubt, Koontz is America’s No. 1 author of thrillers today, always following through on his dust-jacket promise to deliver more thrills and chills than any three writers on any given best-seller list. “The Husband” is one of his finest novels.
Dorman T. Shindler is a freelance writer from Missouri.
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The Husband
By Dean Koontz
Bantam, 401 pages, $27
