In case you were wondering or possibly concerned, Robin is still alive (although you wouldn’t know it by the regularity of posts on this site).  I have personally seen him within the previous few days and I am happy to report that he appeared to be both healthy and alert.  Well, as healthy and alert as he has ever been anyway.  As for the prolonged absence, I can only speculate as to what is keeping him from his faithful readers.  After seeing him, my previous theory of his being sucked into whatever void his remotes, videogames, and movies keep disappearing into has to be discarded.  (If anyone has ever borrowed a game or movie from him and only received the empty case, you know exactly what I’m talking about.)  Perhaps he sprained his hand in his efforts of escaping the void and has been unable to type.  Perhaps not.  I suppose until we actually hear from Robin himself, we’ll just have to speculate.

Dean Koontz’s latest offering, The Good Guy, delves into familiar territory for anyone who’s read much of his work. Like Velocity and The Husband (or, for less recent fare, Dark Rivers of the Heart or Intensity), The Good Guy centers around a (sort-of) ordinary guy finding himself pulled into a conflict with a killer who seems almost unstoppable.

The titular “Good Guy” is Tim Carrier, a stone mason who tries to keep the lowest profile he possibly can. A regular at a local bar, Tim enjoys striking up conversations with some of the eccentrics that come in. A conversation with someone he’s never seen before leads to a case of mistaken identity, and before Tim has time to clear it up, the newcomer is gone, having left Tim with an envelope of money and the identity of the woman he’s supposed to kill to earn it. Following a run-in with the real killer, Tim finds himself unable to just sit back and do nothing, and his attempt to rescue the target drags him into a game of cat-and-mouse with a killer whose resources seem almost endless.

I’ve been reading Dean Koontz novels for many years now, and I can’t say that this is one of his best, but it’s certainly not one of his worst, either. Other than reading a few pages when I first bought it at the store, I finished this book in one sitting, and it never dragged. The ending did seem a bit rushed, as the secret Tim’s past is revealed just in time to act as a deus ex machina to save the pair from the hired gun’s employers, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere, and the explanation makes a reasonable amount of sense. Besides, the rest of the book was a fun enough ride to more than make up for a quick wrap-up to those issues.

All in all, if you’re already a fan of Koontz’s work (especially if, like me, you’ve enjoyed most of his recent works with the exceptions of The Taking and the Odd Thomas novels), you should enjoy this one. If you’re not already a fan, I’d recommend going back and starting with a different book. Velocity, Lightning, From the Corner of His Eye, Watchers or Tick Tock are all good choices, in my opinion, but just about anything you find with Koontz’s name on the cover is worth a read.

At the end of March, my Xbox 360 started locking up to an extent that made it essentially unplayable (in about 15 attempts, I got past the opening logo once, and even then, it didn’t last very long), so I shipped it off to the repair center and got it back in mid-April. The replacement they sent me made it until Monday of last week, when it decided to crash while I was watching a DVD. I got a checkerboard-esque green static pattern, and when I restarted it, three of the lights circling the power button came on, red colored instead of the normal green, and flashing.

So, just as I get my internet up and running again (it’s been completely down for the last week, but it’s been intermittent for much longer than that), I’m without an Xbox 360 to play online. On the plus side, I don’t actually have to pay for the repairs this time.