The Husband - A Novel

Zusatztext “A pulse-pounding thriller with echoes of Hitchcock.”— Publishers Weekly    “Moves like a roller coaster without brakes . . . Koontz is America’s No. 1 author of thrillers [and] The Husband is one of his finest novels.”— The Denver Post   “Breakneck speed and complexities . . . Koontz is a master of the edge-of-your-seat! paranoid thriller—and perhaps the leading American practitioner of the form.”— The Star-Ledger   “[A] hair-raising thriller . . . Nothing should be given away about this sinuous nail-biter’s developments . . . all help ratchet up the suspense.”— Booklist (starred review) Informationen zum Autor Dean Koontz, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirits of their goldens, Trixie and Anna. Klappentext #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "Koontz is America's No. 1 author of thrillers [and] The Husband is one of his finest novels."-The Denver Post We have your wife. You get her back for two million cash. On an ordinary afternoon, an ordinary man, a gardener of modest means, gets a phone call out of his worst nightmare. The caller is dead serious. He doesn't care that Mitch can't raise that kind of money. If she's everything to you, then you'll find a way. Mitch loves his wife more than life itself. He's got sixty hours to prove it. He has to find the two million by then. But he'll pay a lot more. He'll pay anything. Praise for The Husband"Breakneck speed and complexities . . . Koontz is a master of the edge-of-your-seat, paranoid thriller-and perhaps the leading American practitioner of the form."-The Star-Ledger "A pulse-pounding thriller with echoes of Hitchcock."-Publishers Weekly "[A] hair-raising thriller . . . Nothing should be given away about this sinuous nail-biter's developments . . . all help ratchet up the suspense."-Booklist (starred review) Leseprobe Chapter One A man begins dying at the moment of his birth. Most people live in denial of Death’s patient courtship until, late in life and deep in sickness, they become aware of him sitting bedside. Eventually, Mitchell Rafferty would be able to cite the minute that he began to recognize the inevitability of his death: Monday, May 14, 11:43 in the morning–three weeks short of his twenty-eighth birthday. Until then, he had rarely thought of dying. A born optimist, charmed by nature’s beauty and amused by humanity, he had no cause or inclination to wonder when and how his mortality would be proven. When the call came, he was on his knees. Thirty flats of red and purple impatiens remained to be planted. The flowers produced no fragrance, but the fertile smell of the soil pleased him. His clients, these particular homeowners, liked saturated colors: red, purple, deep yellow, hot pink. They would not accept white blooms or pastels. Mitch understood them. Raised poor, they had built a successful business by working hard and taking risks. To them, life was intense, and saturated colors reflected the truth of nature’s vehemence. This apparently ordinary but in fact momentous morning, the California sun was a buttery ball. The sky had a basted sheen. Pleasantly warm, not searing, the day nevertheless left a greasy sweat on Ignatius Barnes. His brow glistened. His chin dripped. At work in the same bed of flowers, ten feet from Mitch, Iggy looked boiled. From May until July, his skin responded to the sun not with melanin but with a fierce blush. For one-sixth of the year, before he finally tanned, he appeared to be perpetually embarrassed. Iggy did not possess an understanding of symmetry and harmony in landscape design, and he couldn’t be trusted to trim roses properly. He was a hard worker, however, and good if not int...

Product details

• Authors: Dean Koontz, Dean R. Koontz
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 26.06.2012
• EAN: 9780345533333
• ISBN: 978-0-345-53333-3
• No. of pages: 464
• Dimensions: 108 mm x 188 mm x 25 mm
• Series: Random House Publishing Group
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense