I got the Audible audiobook “Watchers” by Dean Koontz… here is the description of the book:

They escape from a secret government: two mutant creatures, both changed utterly from the animals they once were. And no one who encounters them will ever be the same again: A lonely widower; a ruthless assassin; a beautiful woman; a government agent. Drawn together in a deadly hunt, all four are inexorably propelled towards a confrontation with an evil beyond human imagining.

From the description above you would think that the premise is a little ludacris.. but it doesn’t come across that way at all when you listen to it. It actually sounds very normal, typical and then the story starts to sound more mysterious.. its actually a bit of a love story and it has a wonderful dog that is a major part of the plot. There are a few spoilers below so beware – but they aren’t deep into the story.

There is a character in the story named Arthur Streck, he is a totally ass, like next level douche bag.. I hate guys like him; for all my faults I would never want to make another person feel unsafe around me… don’t get by wrong – in my distant past I’ve been in my share of fights and physical confrontations, but I’m talking more about like a “creeper” style thing. I would never stalk or force myself on anyone. Some guys don’t care about consent – that’s just gross. You can feel the slime coming off that guy… sheesh.

Travis Cornell (the main character) sounds like a great guy, he is your typical strong silent type, that type of man will be lonely, when you’re more introspective – your mind becomes your world – that’s how it is for me. My dog and I had a special type of bond, so strong – he couldn’t talk but he didn’t need too when he wanted to check something out – we just ran after it, he was the best part of my childhood.

* Travis is a really cool guy, he explains to his dog why he has been depressed – his Mom died at childbirth and he eventually blames himself for her death, he also grew up playing in the woods – both of those are true for me as well… Travis is building a relationship with his dog, and gives him a name. There is also a character named Nora who is being harassed by this Streck loser, I hope she buys a firearm and deals with that prick… I love the way this book builds up the plot, carefully switching narratives between plot and subplots.

** Travis and Nora are falling for each other, Travis seems like the kind of guy who wouldn’t sleep around – he only sleeps with a woman if he was in love with her… and he does loves her – that is the single most important thing. Nora knows he isn’t pretending or just trying to use her.

*** I got 2 hours and 41 min left.. the NSA is trying to closing in on the dog… They are pretty much playing catch up. I know a fair amount about electronic security especially compared to a lay person. Good luck trying to hack into the NSA but there was a time when it would have been more simplistic. Currently the NSA employs ZT architecture, air gapped & guarded segmented data stores. Secure communication happens over Type 1 encryptors using classified hardware and algorithms – so in basic terms if they use INEs (inline network encryptors) the communication is scrambled from end to end – I’ve always loved encryption since I was a child – at 9 years old I was doing character replacement and Caesar shift ciphers, think of it like taking eggs, making scrambled eggs, and turning it back into the original eggs… 😁, the coolest thing is that I could take the most sensitive data; put it in an encrypted file, and drop it on a public server – and short of a nation state trying to crack it, you could never know what’s inside of it – its a type of magic. Anyway, the dog is sick and they bring it to a vet. There is also an assassin hot on the trail of the dog.. anything can happen could now… this is probably gonna be the most exciting part of the book 🙂 ***

The outsider is another aspect of the story, is the diametric counterpart to the dog – he is evil, murderous, and vile. Streck hasn’t reentered the story again as of yet, he got himself arrested which is perfect.**

Travis got a dog that cured his loneliness, gave him back his humanity, it’s funny that without saying anything, so much can still be conveyed. This has to be one of Dean Koontz best books, at least so far for me its very good, I’d say its better than Lightning was, it was also very easy to “get into” so I highly recommend it, if you like dogs and excitement then its a no-brainer.

Have a great weekend!

Jason