The Bad Weather Friend

By: Dean Koontz

Narrated by: Ray Chase

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2024 The Koontz Living Trust. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Ray Chase performs an unusual story of good versus evil centered on the nicest man in the world.… Chase's portrayal suits the jaunty character well, shifting between humorous and ominous to great effect. Even during dramatic violence Chase's depictions keep the story engrossing. Often Koontz breaks the fourth wall, but Chase never breaks character. With a performance that careens from funny to horrifying and back again, Benny's story is engaging and a wonderful deviation from Koontz's usual style.”—AudioFile Magazine

Funny, Fearful, Fanciful Adventure

What can I say except, read it, or listen to it! Okay, there's a ton I can say. A preamble- I was a big Dean Koontz fan for many years then fell off. I always fall in love with the featured dog character that graces most of his stories, the honorable hero and faithful but tough love interest, and Dean's wry humor.

And I've fallen in love again. I'm SO glad I started with this book as my reintroduction to the worlds of Koontz. It's got everything! Laugh-out-loud humor was unexpected. Seriously, I found myself laughing out loud, this book is one of his most humorous. A chuckle maybe, an amused half-grin but I found myself riding along during my commute from work laughing. And believe me, after shepherding grown professionals all day I need the laughs.

It's got mystery, a coming-of-age side story, romance, fantasy, and edge-of-my-seat danger. I can tell Koontz enjoyed writing this tale as much as I did listening to it.

If your every day is filled with worries, swamped with frustrating situations or people (or both), if you just like a belly laugh then do yourself a favor. Buy this book, you'll want to revisit it in the future. Who can't do with a bad weather friend? 😉

Five stars!

Great story! The characters were very likeable . Couldn't stop listening and didn't want it to end. A sequel would be awesome!

Good book but I don’t like the commentary directed at the reader explaining plot devices 

The book was overall a great read. However, Dean Koontz has taken to writing pointless commentary, directed at the reader, explaining plot devices, etc. at least in this book. 

Weirdly delightful

I didn’t like it at first, but it grew on me. It’s worth your time. Stay hooked, give it a chance.

A wonderful book

It’s not often I use the word wonderful because it’s kind of old and takes you back to black-and-white movies… But it was really wonderful… Not just freaking great


The book takes you back to those uncomfortable times in your youth that were at times kind of great and exhilarating, but other times kind of bad. It is kind of a celebration of the good, but as the main character was at times, observing… Some of the bad people really were fantastically, humorously evil rolling out so many great insults, that I kind of wanted to write some of them down. In fact, I honestly at one point Checked the book description and cover to see if Dean Koontz wrote this by his self? As one of the reviewers said… At times, this was laugh out loud funny and it shocked me… I am a bachelor for two more days when my wife returns and so I’m in this big house And all I could hear was the refrigerator and my laughter multiple times last night. I started the book yesterday and finished today. I was going to do some work, but I think I’m just going to bask in the fun and excellence of deans effort. Thanks, Dean.

A fun read

The voice actor was terrific. The story is so different. You cannot put it down.

Caffeinated COVID19-cabin-fevered lampoon

I normally listen to audiobooks at 1.5x to 2x the recorded rate. Normally, this doesn't really make much difference in nonfiction and most fiction but, at such speeds, "Bad Weather Friend" sounds like something I would have spoken after consuming three triple espressos in a row and tried to incorporate every variation of adventure and minor fantasy component in a meandering and tangential cacophony of mini-plots and background information as a parody of the style of books based upon online-RPG games. Even after I slowed down the speaking to 1x, the stream of consciousness flow in the story still came across as the outpouring of a mind suffering COVID19-cabin-fever. Now don't get me wrong, because I am up for a tale that requires me to pay attention and be amazed while I'm commuting to and from work: it's just a bit of a surprise as compared to other books listened to a decade or prior ago by the same author. After all, I'm giving the audio-book pretty high ratings to show my appreciation but I also just want to observe that Koontz really went down a different path for this book (though to be honest, I haven't listened to any of his books of the past decade, the style of which may have been leading to this one.)

Wonderful

Loved everything about this book. The writing, the story, & the images created by my mind. I read the book, enjoyed it so much I decided to listen. What a great audio performance.

Awesome in true Kuntz form

all of it was wonderful and the narrator wonderful I like the more imaginative works😁

Koontz’s best in years

This is the Dean Koontz I like best.
Quirky characters, awkward budding romance and an a take no prisoners anti hero who fights for the good guys.
I really couldn’t put this one down.
Wish it was longer.