The Bad Weather Friend, set in Orange Country, California, is as far from removed from Nordic Noir atmosphere as possible, even though I found this sentence that quite rightly stopped me in my tracks: ‘The driver’s door opened, like a Norse god being born out of rock, Spike emerged from the Explorer.’ But who is the towering Spike, and why does he even drive a flash Ford car in the wide American streets in the warm October dark night? Why is he frightening and sweet in equal measures? He does have a presence of a powerful yet forgiving god after all.

Well, nobody had any idea of what this manifestation would entail, especially a super nice twenty-three-year-old man called Benjamin Catspaw whose sunny disposition and positive attitude to anything that world throws at him made him a truly unique individual. That was until something odd begins to unravel. One day he loses his job as a licensed real-estate agent, his promising career and glowing reputation, and his fiancé Jill Swift swiftly finishes their relationship. Even his favourite chair is destroyed while his ultra-modern spotless white decor house shows subtle signs of agitation. He is not paranoid but severely tested and begins to feel convinced that someone is really out to get him. To calm his nerves and trying to understand why bad things are in his path, Benny turns to cleaning. And more cleaning. Help and answers don’t come from his friends and acquittances. Then he receives a huge crate which apparently holds rare books from Talmadge Clerkenwell, an eccentric uncle he had never heard of. The accompanying video message says: All will be well in time. Alas, reading matter does not materialise. Instead a seven-foot-tall self-described ‘bad weather friend’ Spike appears and declares himself for ever in service to his new master. Menacing presence and terrifying intimidation techniques are his trademarks, as well as ‘shock and awe’. He is a craggle, ‘your bodyguard, lifeguard, paladin, defender.’

Dean Koontz’s latest novel is a mad enjoyable ride into bizarre and unknown, a gloriously weird mixture of hardcore thriller and fantastical adventure with touches of Harry Potter for grownups. Three Musketeers come to mind, too, as three main characters face the ruthlessness of the world which wants to destroy nice Benny. Well, Spike deals with the enemies of various calibre, while Benny deals with his memories of his peculiar childhood and teenage years to say the least, and many strange events that had shaped him. The fascinated silver-quick and lovely Harper, a waitress and a trainee Private Investigator, soaks in the mood of his-speed story and begins to fall for the human and for the craggle.

What starts with the trio visiting Benny’s ex-boss Hanson ‘Handy’ Duroc to get answers and then crashing a party at the slimy attorney’s reminded me so much about another revenge-seeking story, though motives are different. In my favourite movie, a black comedy In Order of Disappearance set in the snowy Norwegian cold whiteness, a father looks for those responsible for his son’s death, and eliminates the baddies one by one. Spike does a similar job.  

‘You remind me of John Wayne.’

‘That’s a high compliment, ma’am.’

‘Do you date?’ she asked.

‘Indeed. I date back eighteen hundred and fifty years.’

Harper frowned. ’What’s that mean?’

‘It means I’m eighteen hundred and fifty years old.’

‘Huh. You sure don’t look it.’

‘A craggle is what he always was. We always are how we came into the world. The year I came into the world was a bad year for nice people. They needed us.’

I enjoyed the in-jokes and the flowery language: ‘The situation in his kitchen was like one of those cockroach-pleasing disasters.’ Although the suspense and thriller elements are present throughout, I found it funny and touching, more like a tale about friendship, with the main theme of being kind and decent in the current times. I don’t know if The Bad Weather Friend is an antidote to the unrest in different parts of the globe as the year 2024 begins to roll. However, it will give you some surreal breathing space from the reality of upsetting news, and some laughs. And the hope that good must prevail. Just like in Koontz’s earlier novel After Death.

Dean Koontz‘s latest thriller The Bad Weather Friend – Bookshop.org / The Bad Weather Friend – amazon.co.uk is published by Thomas & Mercer on 1st February 2024. Thank you to Antara Patel of FMcM Associates for the invitation to join the blog tour.