Dean Koontz, The Husband

'Love scrubs the worst stains clean. Anyway, there can be no retreat in the face of evil, only resistance. And commitment.' says Dean Koontz at the end of his story. This is a beautiful piece of wisdom that I did not expect to find in a thriller. And it's accuracy sustains not only as the novel goes on but on the face of the life itself.

I do not recall ever reading a Koontz's book, although I knew he is a very successful writer. I was not even curious about his work because, lately, on my spare time, I only red science fiction books. I picked up this book because someone left it on the check out counter while I was living the library in a hurry, with just kids books on my hands.

After I red the first chapter I wanted to give up on it.The first pages, full with dialogs, got me very bored. (My last piece of literature was 'The Metamorphosis' by Kafka) But I decided to give it one more chance. And so..I got to finish it.

The first pages tell us basic information about the main character, Mitch Rafferty. He is married, no kids, and manages a two men gardening business. He's just taking care of some-body's lawn when the phone rings and the next thing we know is that he has to produce 2 million dollars to save his wife. At the same time, a man waking a dog gets his brain blown by a shot gun. From now on, the plot slowly reveals unexpected scenes, twists of faith, the growth of an horrifying evil, the character's own changes of personality. We get to meet his dad and find out about his surreal childhood.

Finally, the story grabbed my attention with its tense developments. Then I started to actually pay attention to the entire writing. I mostly admired the author's use of nature; in between the dialogs and action scenes, he filled up the blanks with descriptions of the surroundings: the yard, the alleys, the subtle changes in a day as the hours passes, the smells of the plants, grounds, dust or blood. These small pieces of writing architecture give the story a very real perception. Koontz is smart, he does not overdue it, only gives you as much as you need to fill like you are there.

When I was done with the novel, I was still thinking about this poor Mitch, and how much he had to endure, only to have such a common halt, at the end of the book. I can not believe is possible to stand the evil alone and survive his fury.