Dean Koontz Velocity

Koontz at his absolute best in thriller writing. The simple and yet twisted plot is incredible, with genuinely disturbing moments throughout. The world he creates is a lonely one where the killer revels in his authority, constantly taunting the protagonist. Although the plot stalls once or twice towards the end, there can be no doubt about the genuine brilliance of this novel.

Dean Koontz, Velocity, what great book right from the start. A young barman called Billy goes out to his car after his shift and finds a note saying that if he goes to the police with this note a certain person will be killed, if he doesn't another type of person will be killed. Billy ignores the note and the story evolves from there.

Without spoiling the ending, I did guess who was doing the killings, but there is a bigger twist at the end, that catches you unawares.

It is a real pages turner, and just keeps on going. I would say to myself, well I get to the end of this chapter and go to put it down, but you are left with such a cliffhanger at the end of most of the chapters, that you can't help but read on, until you are forcing your eyes to stay open.

Great book, and sure to be another best-seller from the great Mr Koontz.

Velocity

Dean Koontz

Bantam, Jun2005, $27.00, 400 pp.

ISBN: 0553804154

Four years ago in Napa County Billy Wiles' fianc e Barbara fell into a botulism-induced coma. She has resided ever since at the Whispering Pines Convalescent Home.

Following a shift tending bar, Billy finds a note on his windshield that states "If you don't take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work.. You have four hours to decide. The choice is yours." Billy shows the note to his pal police officer Lanny Olsen, who tells him to forget it because it is just a sick joke. However, the note writer batters a lovely blond schoolteacher to death, chosen because Billy failed to officially go to the police. Other notes follow, offering deadly choices for Billy to select or not select. Billy ponders why him wondering if perhaps Barbara's twin sister Dardre could be the psychopath; she covets the $3 million that her sibling won in a legal suit. If he is right, could Barbara be the next target followed by Billy?

VELOCITY lives up to its title as the pace accelerates at rocket speed and the INTENSITY of the suspense grows with each moral decision that Billy using all his wiles makes or not makes. The exhilarating story line is a parable of modern society as the President with Congress for instance "chooses" in a sense who gets what type of healthcare and who does not indirectly impacting who lives. Dean Koontz is at his best combining his trademark suspense with a thought provoking issue on who will live and who will die and why.

Harriet Klausner