The Bad Weather Friend by Dean Koontz
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The Bad Weather Friend

by

Dean Koontz

(Author)

4.1

-

38,109 ratings


Benny is so nice they feel compelled to destroy him, but he has a friend who should scare the hell out of them in this breathtaking new kind of thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz.

Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée, and his favorite chair. He’s not paranoid. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why. Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. All will be well in time.

How strange―though it’s a blessing, his uncle promises. Stranger yet is what’s inside the crate. He’s a seven-foot-tall self-described “bad weather friend” named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world. Spike will take care of it. He’ll find Benny’s enemies. He’ll deal with them. This might be satisfying if Spike wasn’t such a menacing presence with terrifying techniques of intimidation.

In the company of Spike and a fascinated young waitress-cum-PI-in-training named Harper, Benny plunges into a perilous high-speed adventure, the likes of which never would have crossed the mind of a decent guy like him.

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ISBN-10

1662517777

ISBN-13

978-1662517778

Print length

382 pages

Language

English

Publisher

Thomas & Mercer

Publication date

July 15, 2024

Dimensions

6 x 1 x 9 inches

Item weight

1.15 pounds


Popular Highlights in this book

  • One thing common to all of us in this life, if we are wise enough to understand, is that we live always under one threat or another and must never let our guard all the way down.

    Highlighted by 469 Kindle readers

  • “When it comes to human behavior,” Mengistu said, “if you can imagine people doing something stupid or dangerous, then there are people somewhere who are doing it. Often highly educated people.”

    Highlighted by 451 Kindle readers

  • But remember me, Dooley Peebles. Remember me if ever the world goes so wrong that there seems no way to make it right again.

    Highlighted by 343 Kindle readers


Product details

ASIN :

B0C2VYV9KD

File size :

4342 KB

Text-to-speech :

Enabled

Screen reader :

Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

Enabled

X-Ray :

Enabled

Word wise :

Enabled


Editorial Reviews

Before I became his editor, I might have described Dean Koontz’s novels as terrifying. Thirteen-year-old me was scared and riveted by the sometimes-monstrous characters racing through the oft-action-packed pages. But Dean Koontz is also a very funny, thoughtful man.

With that in mind, I shouldn’t have been surprised that The Bad Weather Friend was more than a thrilling ride with some Koontzian villains and horrifying scenes so affecting you may not be able to turn out the lights. (I’ll never look at bugs in quite the same way.)

It’s also a funny, touching, and poignant novel (disguised as a buddy novel) about being a nice person with good intentions—something Dean and the very large and imposing character in his book (named Spike, of course) think deserves to be preserved and protected. “We are living in such dark and dangerous times that I believe readers need what this story offers,” he recently wrote to me. And I couldn’t agree more.

The Bad Weather Friend is an unexpected journey that combines the wit of The Princess Bride with the gothic and wry cross-genre appeal of Netflix’s Wednesday. But it’s that indelible thread of hope, something that touches every page of this thrilling ride, that will keep me coming back to Koontz for years to come.

—Jessica Tribble Wells, Editor


Sample

FLORIDA

Nine feet long, four feet wide, four feet deep, weighing well over a thousand pounds, the crate was a hateful thing, not simply because it was an awkward load that could cause a serious injury to those who had to move it, but also because, well, it gave off what Dooley Peebles called “weird vibes” and what his pal Rosco Moseley described as “bad mojo.”

Dooley and Rosco were employees of Mayweather Universal Air Freight. On a humid afternoon in October, in a box truck containing a long-tine forklift rated for four thousand pounds, they arrived at the colonel’s warehouse in Boca Raton, Florida.

A flock of red-crowned parrots were busy eating nuts that the colonel had scattered on the pavement for them. As the truck drew near, the birds flurried skyward, a flung Joseph’s coat of flashing colors.

Colonel Talmadge Clerkenwell looked older than Florida. His three-piece linen suit glowed as white as his hair, mustache, and goatee. If he hadn’t been rail thin and standing as straight as a plumb line, you might have thought he was the fabled founder of the KFC restaurant chain.

The crate, like the colonel, was waiting on the concrete apron outside the warehouse. Rosco Moseley hated the thing on sight and dubbed it “the Beast.” Colonel Clerkenwell was courteous, so affable and at ease that it seemed he must have spent his life loving and being loved through a long smoothness of days. He was also mysterious. No sign suggested what the warehouse might contain. The colonel responded to questions about the place and the shipment with such graceful elusion that it almost sounded as if he had answered them.

The pickup order said the customer was shipping books to one Benjamin Catspaw at an address in California, which made no sense. Not that people in California didn’t read books. They probably did. Or used to. But a thousand pounds of books would have been packed in several smaller, more easily handled containers.

The colonel had paid dearly to have his shipment picked up by appointment rather than during the course of Dooley and Rosco’s regular schedule. It was to be taken directly to a cargo jet then loading in Miami. Yet the colonel declined to pay extra for more insurance than the standard contract provided, which was two dollars per pound. Dooley was required to offer the enhanced coverage, but Clerkenwell just smiled and said, “Oh, they’re nothing but a few hundred old books. The value is purely sentimental.”

Although Dooley warmed to most people only after he got to know them well, he liked the colonel within a minute of meeting the old guy. Dooley did not like liars, because he’d come from a family of them who lived by deceit and were as likely to defraud relatives as they were to steal from anyone else. He felt sure that the colonel was lying about the crate being full of books, but Clerkenwell had a quality that suggested he never lied about anything important, neither to obtain an advantage nor to harm another person.

Dooley didn’t know what that quality was, couldn’t define it, at least not right then, with the gray sky lowering and rain coming soon and the crate needing to be forked into the truck. It was an intuitive perception, almost psychic.

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About the authors

Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz

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.


Reviews

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

38,109 global ratings

Edward

Edward

5

Finally!

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2024

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With very few exceptions, I’ve never been too impressed with the Amazon “First Reads” offerings. There have been so many duds in the past couple of years that I usually don’t even bother downloading the monthly free book anymore.

This was a very pleasant, and unexpected, surprise. To have such an established author as Dean Koontz offered as one of the free reads is unusual to say the least. Even then, I was somewhat skeptical, thinking this must be some throwaway book that wouldn’t garner much interest.

It turns out this is a very fun read in the Dean Koontz style of mixing horror, suspense, fantasy, tragedy, and even a few laughs. A thoroughly enjoyable book that is well worth checking out.

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3 people found this helpful

David Kloth

David Kloth

5

Benny Is a Nice Guy -- a Really Nice Guy

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2024

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I always enjoy Dean Koontz books. They're imaginative and entertaining. The Bad Weather Friend is a perfect example of a Dean Koontz book that presents a terrific story, well told.

Like a lot of stories, this one is told partially in flashbacks of our protagonist, Benny Catspaw. Benny starts this tale in his early twenties as a real estate sales agent (selling dirt, as Benny describes his trade) with a growing track record of success in the upper end of the Orange County, California market. Deep in his heart and mind, Benny is a nice guy. A very nice guy--that's important.

Then the wheels fall off of Benny's life--his career, his love interest, and almost everything else that he touches. What makes it worse is that Benny can't figure out why, and nobody will tell him. He as become persona non grata to most of the people he knows. Nobody will tell him why, and they won't even return his telephone calls or text messages. The only exception is an ex-policeman turned private investigator named Fat Bob, and a young lady who is a waitress by day and a budding PI working as an assistant to him.

Then, Benny receives an unexpected message and gift from an uncle Benny doesn't know he has. The gift isn't an object and it isn't money. It comes in a very unusual shape and size, and at its heart it is supernatural . . . and its name is Spike.

As the flashbacks begin, we look back on Benny's extraordinary life including family and education, and then return to Benny's unfortunate present. I won't go into any of the details, because I don't want to spoil your fun. Suffice it to say that as we bounce back and forth with Benny as he examines his present, considers his possible future, and looks at his past, the story is remarkable.

The story is absurd . . . but fun. Great fun. Trust me.

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21 people found this helpful

Bethany T.

Bethany T.

5

Kitschy sci-fi masterpiece

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2024

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I got the Kindle edition via Prime First Reads. Prior to this, I had read some of the Odd Thomas books, but so long ago that I don't remember much about them, other than they were better than expected.

Concurrently, I have a paperback copy of Gustav Meyrink's "Golem" which is written in German, and I have to force myself to read it. I was so intrigued by the description of "The Bad Weather Friend" because it sounded like it was going to be about a Golem. There are some indications that the Spike character might have somewhat of the role of a Golem...a few hints here and there, but really, it is its own type of entity. Frankly, when I started this book, I had to force myself to keep reading it, as it truly was more cumbersome to read this, which is written in English that I use everyday, than it is to read something in a language I was somewhat raised with, but no longer use everyday! There's a ton of very uncommon and unusual words in this book. I highly recommend getting the Kindle copy of this because you can highlight the word and get a definition--usually the definition included "(archaic)" or "(dated)". So its full of archaic and outdated words, but in a sense, that it refreshing and I appreciate it. Almost all of the pop culture references were Midcentury. There's tons of little references to old songs, art, and bizarre names that mean things in other languages, or almost mean something in another language. There's little jokes or Easter eggs that reinforce the true meaning of the name, but for a lot of the readers, even with the reinforcements, I think the joke/ reference will be missed. An example was a character named Theron who is described as "beast," with that name, or rather Therion meaning beast in Greek. Usually, when a foreign phrase is used in dialog, the translation is given later in the dialog; its just the names that go untranslated, but accompanied by hints, like they are insider's jokes for the initiated.

It reminds me of 1940s sci-fi in the way it is written. That was my earliest impression, even before much that could be considered sci-fi had happened. Very retro. Even has omniscient narrator sequences. By the end, there's a lot of really retro sci-fi stuff along with an undercurrent of politics (specifically anti-capitalism). Talk of secret societies that use algorithms to repress nice people. Really the closest thing I can compare this book to would be "Illuminatus! Trilogy" by Wilson and Shea. Bizarre, weird, highly intelligent, odd yet meaningful names, politicized, sci-fi, historically rooted, occult, eschatological. Bad Weather Friend is an easier read in comparison, and I did get into it by the final third of the book.

Despite the dated cultural references and vocabulary, there are some very current themes in this book, including individuals being targeted via algorithms, and the dangers and consequences of EVs. There are several other themes in this book, including home design and origami (of metals, money, and space-time) but I am not trying to write a book here in this review!

One little incident from the book nags at me, I will try to describe it in a way that doesn't spoil anything for a prospective reader, and in hopes that it will help inform at the time it is read. There's an incident where a character gives himself an antidote to a very specific toxin. Something we don't really work with much these days. Back when we did, if the rabbit died, the worker took the antidote. But suppose that the rabbit died of natural causes, not a toxic leak. If that happened, and the worker took the antidote, he would die unless exposed to the toxin. I assume the author is aware of all this, but was afraid to spell it out, or maybe the author had the correct intuition of what happens in these circumstances but didn't know as a matter of absolute fact. Either way, the characters were unaware and assumed incorrectly in regards to the means of a death.

Bottom line: this book is superbly well written, sometimes in the same way that TV commercials for big insurance companies are well written, but it was initially difficult for me to get interested in it. Its difficult in the way it is difficult to read some older sci-fi stuff. It is very clever and I loved it for what it is. A lot of smart humor. Many deep insights. Kitschy at times. One of those rare books that I found myself highlighting with various colors, and typing notes into. One of those rare books that I surely will reread in the future. One that will stick with me.

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136 people found this helpful

Traci Otte

Traci Otte

5

Unlike any book I’ve ever read.

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2024

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When I started this book, I was unsure about it. The language is somewhat florid and bloated with descriptions and explanations about characters I knew were only going to be in the first chapter.

I kept reading, and soon there were author asides along with more florid prose and weird experiences.

What on earth was I reading? I didn’t know, but I started enjoying it, especially the dry humor which is my favorite kind.

I mentioned it to a friend, and she said that Koontz is the type of author you have to sink into a little bit.

That’s the perfect way to describe it. Just sink into it and enjoy the ride. I did.

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charles greaves

charles greaves

5

Sad when this one ended.

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2024

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Witty and funny. This was the author breaking all the rules, crashing the wall and winking at the reader and flexing his vocabulary for fun. I thought my command of the language was pretty good, but I found myself going to the dictionary a few times. I won't spoil it, but just a great premise and a satisfying read. The good guys are very good and the bad guys are evil. The pets are there too, though I was half hoping for the dog to communicate with alphabet blocks. Sadly no. Mr. Kootz puts so much reality into his fiction, at one point a character explains how she only reads fiction, because only fiction writers are telling us the truth. Love this one, not sure it could be a series, but it would great to see what happens next. Enjoy!

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18 people found this helpful

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