Synopses & Reviews
Dean Koontzs unique talent for writing terrifying thrillers with a heart and soul is nowhere more evident than in this latest suspense masterpiece that pits one man against the ultimate deadline. If there were speed limits for the sheer pulse-racing excitement allowed in one novel, Velocity would break them all. Get ready for the ride of your life.…
Bill Wile is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. But that is about to change. One evening, after his usual eight-hour bartending shift, he finds a typewritten note under the windshield wiper of his car. If you dont 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.
It seems like a sick joke, and Bills friend on the police force, Lanny Olson, thinks so too. His advice to Bill is to go home and forget about it. Besides, what could they do even if they took the note seriously? No crime has actually been committed. But less than twenty-four hours later, a young blond schoolteacher is found murdered, and its Bills fault: he didnt convince the police
to get involved. Now hes got another note, another deadline, another ultimatum…and two new lives hanging in the balance.
Suddenly Bills average, seemingly innocuous life takes on the dimensions and speed of an accelerating nightmare. Because the notes are coming faster, the deadlines growing tighter, and the killer becoming bolder and crueler with every communication—until Bill is isolated with the terrifying knowledge that he alone has the power of life and death over a psychopaths innocent victims. Until the struggle between good and evil is intensely personal. Until the most chilling words of all are: The choice is yours.
Review
"Not as moving as Odd Thomas, as creepy as The Taking, as darkly funny as Life Expectancy, or as thought-provoking as any of them, Velocity is, however, more suspenseful and more grueling genuinely terrific." Booklist
Review
"The velocity mounts and builds chapter by chapter to dazzling-devil thunderbolts." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Velocity might be read as a flat-out exercise in escapist depravity...were it not for the author's nonstop idiosyncrasies. Say this for Mr. Koontz: he is skillful in ways that make Velocity live up to its title, and nobody will ever accuse him of formulaic writing." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review
"Koontz, undeniably a master of the genre, delivers not only a classic example of his fast-moving, suspense-driven narratives but also a work that explores the power of language and its effect on decision making and, most important, on our actions. Strongly recommended." Library Journal
Review
"Matches the quality of his very best novels...in the areas of plot, character and writing....Koontz's latest is, essentially a good, old-fashioned, barn-burning, beat-the-clock thriller that pits an innocent man against the worst sort of evil....Velocity is a corker." Denver Post
Review
"Velocity is Koontz's most mysterious and frightening work....The ending brought tears to my eyes. But don't tell anyone. What you should tell everyone is that Velocity is the Koontz book that cannot be missed." BookReporter.com
Synopsis
Dean Koontz delivers the must-read thriller of the summer, with a tour de force of suspense squarely in the tradition of his classic #1 New York Times bestseller, Intensity. The typewritten note on Bill Wile's windshield seemed too fantastic to be anything but a sick prank. If you don't take this note to the police and get them involved, it reads, 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. After an informal chat with a police acquaintance, Bill puts the matter out of his mind. But the next evening, he learns that a blond schoolteacher has been murdered...and he finds a new note, outlining another terrible conundrum. Soon, a second person is dead, and Bill's solitary, low-profile life explodes into a confrontation with pure evil. There will be more communications from the killer, new choices, tighter deadlines, as Bill is drawn deeper into an accelerating nightmare that steadily becomes more personal, more confrontational, and more terrifying until he is isolated. Finally, he must risk everything in a race against time and a surpassing malevolence.
Synopsis
Koontz delivers the must-read thriller of the summer, with a tour de force of suspense squarely in the tradition of his classic #1 New York Times bestseller, Intensity.
Synopsis
Bill Wile is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. That changes when an anonymous note tells him to choose whether a schoolteacher or elderly woman is killed. The police agree it seems like a sick joke, but less than 24 hours later, the first murder is discovered. Then he gets another note, another deadline, another ultimatum, and two new lives hang in the balance.
Synopsis
Bill Wile is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. But that is about to change. One evening, after his usual eight-hour bartending shift, he finds a typewritten note under the windshield wiper of his car. "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."
It seems like a sick joke, and Bill's friend on the police force, Lanny Olson, thinks so too. His advice to Bill is to go home and forget about it. Besides, what could they do even if they took the note seriously? No crime has actually been committed. But less than twenty-four hours later, a young blond schoolteacher is found murdered, and it's Bill's fault: he didn't convince the police to get involved. Now he's got another note, another deadline, another ultimatum...and two new lives hanging in the balance.
Suddenly Bill's average, seemingly innocuous life takes on the dimensions and speed of an accelerating nightmare. Because the notes are coming faster, the deadlines growing tighter, and the killer becoming bolder and crueler with every communication until Bill is isolated with the terrifying knowledge that he alone has the power of life and death over a psychopath's innocent victims. Until the struggle between good and evil is intensely personal. Until the most chilling words of all are: The choice is yours.
About the Author
Dean Koontz is the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers. He lives with his wife, Gerda, and their dog, Trixie, in southern California.