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This location presents Arizona Braille and Talking Book Readers
with book summaries and reviews suggested by our readers, staff, and volunteers.
Also provided will be recent library news.

 

Book Review:

THE HUSBAND
RC 61736
by Dean R. Koontz
400 pages on two cassettes
Published 2006
Narrated by Holter Graham

FROM THE BOOK JACKET

“With each and every new novel, Dean Koontz raises the stakes – and the pulse rate – higher than any other author. Now, in what may be his most suspenseful and heartfelt novel ever; he brings us the story of an ordinary man whose extraordinary commitment to his wife will take him on a harrowing journey of adventure, sacrifice, and redemption to the mystery of love itself – and to a showdown with the darkness that would destroy it forever.
What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill?

We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash. Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty thinks it must be some kind of joke. He was in the middle of planting impatiens in the yard of one of his clients when his cell phone rang. Now he’s standing in a normal suburban neighborhood on a bright summer day, having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare.

Whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. He has Mitch’s wife and he’s named the price for her safe return. The caller doesn’t care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. He’s confident that Mitch will find a way. If he loves his wife enough.

Mitch does love her enough. He loves her 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.

From its tense opening to its shattering climax, The Husband is a thriller that will hold you in its relentless grip for every twist, every shock, every revelation….until it lets you go, unmistakably changed. This is a Dean Koontz novel, after all. And there’s no other experience quite like it.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alongside Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz has become an icon of contemporary chillers and horror thrillers. He has written a host of best selling fiction and broke into the movie industry in the mid 1970s when his novel Demon Seed (RC 54208 on one cassette and narrated by Alec Volz), about a computer who not only wants to take control of the house it abides in but also wants to become human, was sold to MGM.

Koontz was born in 1945 in Everett, PA and attended Shippensburg State College. He worked for an anti-poverty program as a teacher and counselor in the mid to late 60s, writing in his spare time. With the support of his wife Gerda, he became a full-time writer during the 1970s. He first wrote novels in many different genres including romances and thrillers and gradually developed a following that today has made him one of the biggest best-selling authors of our time.

ABOUT THE NARRATOR

Holter Graham is a stage, television, and screen actor who has recorded a host of audio books. He hails Baltimore, Maryland as his hometown and graduated with a B.A. in English from Skidmore College in 1994 and an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College in 1999 in fiction and poetry. Holter had a major supporting role in the 1985 movie Maximum Overdrive directed by Stephen King and has had numerous supporting roles in such films as Six Way to Sunday (1998), Trifling With Fate (1999), Fly Away Home (1995), and Two Evil Eyes (1989). He also had major roles in the two TV series, Law and Order and New York Undercover.

Holter says he has a dog named Lugnut and a snake called Judas and currently lives in Manhattan. You may contact Holter Graham at his website http://www.lasgalen.net/holter/bio.htm.

READER CRITIQUE

You just got a phone call you will never forget. Someone you deeply love has been kidnapped and if you want them back, come up with two million dollars!! So begins another plot by the master of terror and suspense, Dean Koontz.

The Husband is a novel that will cause you to lose track of time, a page turner of the first degree. There is little doubt that Koontz possesses the descriptive word power to make the unbelievable real, to grab readers and pull them out of their lives and into a world where fright and mere survival make them forget everything else but The Husband.

So if you’re tired of the mundane, want character development of the first degree, twists and turns you can’t predict, and a plot that will keep you glued to the pages, this is your book!!!

NARRATOR REVIEW

If you’re like this listener, one of the ultimate experiences in life is a great book combined with a top narrator. The chemistry of mixing Koontz and Holter Graham provides an elixir of addiction that no one can turn off. This is a terrifying story that is matched with a voice that through intonation and diction makes the book sound like one of the classic old time scary radio shows. So celebrate the season of fright, turn off the lights, and let Koontz and Graham provide the sight. A sight of terror you’re guaranteed to like!!!

Library News

We have a fall season that might not trick you but is definitely a treat!! First, you can go trick-or-treating early and come to the Arizona State Braille and Talking Book Library’s Open House on Saturday, October 21st from 1 until 4 pm. No, we don’t have ghosts to provide the tours – although it is believed your library sits on an ancient Indian burial ground – but we do have your reader advisor and other staff members who will tour you, answer questions and provide information on all the great services we provide.

Next, how about celebrating Thanksgiving early as we give thanks to all the new technology available at the Tenth Annual Vision Rehabilitation and Technology Expo?

This event will be held on Friday, November 17th from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Glendale Civic Center. More than forty exhibitors will entertain you at the east end of the Crowne Ballroom, including companies, agencies, and advocacy organizations that provide services and technological innovations for the visually and physically challenged community. So don’t be misled, tricked, or left thankless: join the Arizona State Braille and Talking Book Library in making your fall season – no, not a turkey – but a real treat!!

(Comments and questions regarding “BookTalk” should be
directed to Reader Advisement Librarian Henry Hayden at hhayden@lib.az.us)

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Updated:10/06/2006

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