"The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz published 2007

Tim Carrier is in his favorite bar, run by his friend, enjoying the simple bar chat. Known for "nursing" his beers he's there actually just to take up space and relax. he's approached by a man with a manila envelope. The man talks about how Tim is early and that he recently went skydiving with his dog. Tim seeing this as not your normal bar chat fare chats back with the man. The man then slips Tim the envelope and says there's $10,000 in the envelope, half now and half when she's gone. The man then makes a hasty retreat out of the bar.

Tim opens the envelope and finds a photo of a woman who is "easy on the eyes" and an address on back. Also, as stated $10,000 in wrapped hundred dollar bills. Tim realizes he's just been confused in a murder for hire. Another man then walks into the bar and sees the envelope and approaches Tim. The man tells Tim he's early and Tim tells the man he changed his mind. The man doesn't let this happen and Tim says I'll still pay you half and removes the photo from the envelope and passes the money along to the man.

Tim then leaves and gets set to call the police to tell what has happened. At this point he sees the man get into a car and place an emergency police beacon on the top of the unmarked police car and drive away. Realizing the stranger may be a cop, Tim then decides to take matters into his own hands.

Tim goes to the woman's house and explains how she is in danger. Then the action never lets go. Constantly running away from what turns out to be some sort of shadow government murder for hire Tim and the woman, Linda, begin running for their lives just to be a few steps ahead of this assassin. As the story progresses we find that Tim also has a secret and that secret is what helps him stay ahead of this psycho killer. But in something a little different from most of Dean Koontz's books this secret is not a dark secret but one that leads to a very heroic ending for the book.

Great action to be found and mysterious characters throughout the book keep you on the edge of your seat and constantly turning pages. I'm going to venture to say this is one of the best if not THE best Koontz book I've read.