Dean Koontz - Velocity

I love to read all the time but during the school year it is usually limited to textbooks and fast/easy chick lit novels. I read the textbooks at work and the chick lit at night before I fall asleep. Anything that doesn't fall into those two categories usually gets saved for my summer read-a-thons at the beach. I had a couple of three-day weekends this month, though, so I decided to polish off a few paperbacks that I had purchased during the summer.

I truly have no clue why I bought Velocity by Dean Koontz. I read another book by him several years ago (False Memory) and it was both scary and disturbing to me. I must have picked it up because I remembered the authors name and the price was just $5.

Back Cover Teaser
If you don't take this note to the police… I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher… If you do… I will kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have six hours to decide. The choice is yours.

The typewritten note under his windshield seems like just a sick joke. But in less than twenty-four hours, Billy Wiles, an ordinary, hardworking guy, is about to see his life take on the speed of a nightmare. Because a young blond schoolteacher is murdered—and now Billy has another note. And another deadline. This time he knows it's no joke. He's racing a killer faster than evil itself. And Billy must accept his terrifying challenge: The choice is yours.

The Story
The central character in Velocity is Billy Wiles—a man who tends bar during the day and cares for his comatose fiancee by night. One day, as he leaves work, he finds a disturbing note on the windshield of his truck. He has two choices: bring the note to the police or keep it to himself. The problem is that someone will die either way—the killer leaves the decision up to Billy. He chooses to believe that the whole thing is a joke and does not bring the note to the police which, of course, dooms the lovely schoolteacher.

The next day he receives another note with another set of choices: get the police involved and a young mother dies or keep the police out of it and an unmarried man who won't be missed by anyone will be killed. He is given five hours to make a decision.

As the story progresses Billy learns that the killer has been in and out of his house in the past couple of weeks and is still letting himself in when he has a mind to. The killer even murders a man in his bathroom as a clueless Billy sits in a rocking chair out on the porch. He also discovers that evidence linking Billy to each murder has been planted on the victims and also somewhere in his home—so he definitely can't go to the police and get them involved. He is on his own in this race to the killer's final performance.

My Opinion
This book was difficult for me to get through because it is just so sick and twisted. The letters and choices presented to Billy are just incredible. The fact that the killer is in and out of Billy's house while he is also inside is another element of creepiness that was unsettling for me. I spent a lot of time wondering exactly what kind of person could think up such evil and disturbing scenarios as I read this story. Many times I had to put the book down, particularly near bedtime, and then return to it at a later date just because I was so creeped out.

The story itself is decent and the writing is very fast-paced. If I had the stomach for the whole thing at once, it would have taken me only a couple of hours to finish. The ending was somewhat anti-climactic and disappointing to me, especially after such an incredible build up throughout the book. Billy knows who is coming and what he plans to do so there is very little "shock" for the final big scene. Still, every page contains tension and suspense and those who enjoy the sensation while sitting on the edge of your seat will not be disappointed by Velocity.

I, personally, did not enjoy this book very much because many of the scenarios were truly twisted to me. I probably won't read another novel by the author but that has more to do with ME than any failure in the novel.