The Bad Weather Friend (2024) by Dean Koontz

A soup kitchen for monsters in the best of all possible worlds

Readers unfamiliar with The Bad Weather Friend may prefer to read these notes only after reading the novel.

The colonel smiled and nodded. “I am already fond of you, Benjamin, even though we’ve never met. You have suffered as I suffered. And like me, you didn’t let the pain and misery corrupt you. You have remained nice, just as I have remained nice. This I’ve been told about you by an irrefutable source. I love you for being so nice, dear nephew.” He nodded and smiled and pressed a hand over his heart. Then in the kindest, nicest way, he whispered, “Now, whatever happens, no matter what—be not afraid. There is no reason to be afraid, though there may seem to be. There may very much seem to be. But there is not. In my experience, at least, there is not. Trust me.”

The Bad Weather Friend (2024) by Dean Koontz overtops itself with humor, happiness, and jouissance. It dramatizes and extols comradery and the meet-weird preceding marriage. All the deaths are -- perhaps -- by natural causes. …