Benny Catspaw's perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée, and his favourite 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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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 Mosley described as 'bad mojo'.- ONE, THE MAN WHO WAS TOO NICE, FLORIDA
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(Thomas & Mercer, 1 February 2024, e-book, 374 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle via #AmazonFirstReads)
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I really enjoyed The Bad Weather Friend. I was delighted to find this included in the Amazon First Read's pick this month. I'm a fan of the author and have been since my teens. This is a typical Koontz read, dark, delightful and funny at times. This is an entertaining read. Benny isn't a great guy but he's not awful either, a regular guy I sympathised with.
