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.)

The story was so light to listen to and the narrator did a fabulous job of all caricatures

I loved all the personalities in the story especially spike. The innocents and the simple message in this novel

Not As Scary As Past Readings

I really enjoyed this tale. It was humorous, contained Sci-Fi and fantastical elements all favorites of mine. Having lived in Orange County CA, it was fun to see this story play out against that backdrop. This was some easy, breezy Koontz that surprised and delighted me. This story fit my mood, and I was glad to hear how it all turned out! It left me with a smile.

Funny how being famous means you can publish anything.

I love Dean Koontz. Hands-down he is my favorite author. This book has interesting characters and typical Koontz humor... but it was a bit all over the place. I liked it. I just think if an unknown submitted this for publication, it would have gotten passed over. If you love Koontz, this is worth the read, but if you are just discovering him... skip this one for some of his other work and come back when you are a true fan so you can appreciate the nuances of this one!