Dean Koontz New Thriller (The Good Guy)
Starred Review. Bestseller Koontz (The Husband) delivers a thriller so compelling many readers will race through the book in one sitting. In the Hitchcockian opening, which resembles that of the cult noir film Red Rock West (1992), Timothy Carrier, a quiet stone mason having a beer in a California bar, meets a stranger who mistakes him for a hit man. The stranger slips Tim a manila envelope containing $10,000 in cash and a photo of the intended victim, Linda Paquette, a writer in Laguna Beach, then leaves. A moment later, Krait, the real killer, shows up and assumes Tim is his client. Tim manages to distract Krait from immediately carrying out the hit by saying he's had a change of heart and offering Krait the $10,000 he just received. This ploy gives the stone mason enough time to warn Linda before they begin a frantic flight for their lives. While it may be a stretch that the first man wouldn't do a better job of confirming Tim's identity, the novel's breathless pacing, clever twists and adroit characterizations all add up to superior entertainment

Have a great time reading the articles in the current issue of Readers Digest July 2007!

TIME Magazine December 11, 2006 Vol. 168 No. 24
Articles:
· Can Bush Find An Exit? - Calls for a staged withdrawal from Iraq
· Iraq: The War Without Honors - U.S. troops are fighting and dying with valor
· What I Did On My Travels - Two weeks of globetrotting gives the President a chance to see the world
· What are all those Russians up to? - The poisoning of an ex-spy sows doubt about the city's mysterious émigré élite
· Losing Lebanon - The U.S. once saw it as a hope for democracy in the Middle East. Now the country is veering toward civil war
· The Hospital Wars - Surgery and imaging centers owned by doctors are swiping patients from traditional hospitals
· Extra: Newspapers Aren't Dead - Some predict their imminent demise, but the dailies remain profitable, popular and powerful
· What's Toxic In Toyland - San Francisco's ban on toys like these has sparked a sharp debate about the dangers of plastic contaminants
· The Next Crime Wave - Violent offenses are rising in midsize U.S. cities for the first time in 10 years
· Bring Back the T. Rex - Michael Crichton's 15th novel - scientific nightmare full ofout-of-control geneticists and their mutant creations · The Maya Are Us - Mel Gibson's latest film has a lot on its mind
· Yeah, I'm Talkin' To You - Robert De Niro on spies, acting and Matt Damon

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)
A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him.