Velocity
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A guy walks out of a bar. There’s a piece of paper on the windshield of his car that reads: “If you don’t take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher somewhere in Napa County. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have six hours to decide. The choice is yours.” Hmm … decisions, decisions.
If that premise intrigues you – and admit it, it does – you’ve gotta read Dean Koontz’s newest novel, VELOCITY. The protagonist, Billy, thinks the first note is a joke, but evidence to the contrary soon arises. Then there’s another note, and another, and another – each time with the stakes raised higher, the choices more difficult. To say much more about the plot would ruin it.
True to its title, VELOCITY moves like lightning, propelling you through its pages with driving narrative force. Koontz (unfairly pegged as “just” a horror writer) is a master of suspense. It’s one thing to leave a reader guessing until the very end, and another thing to do that while moving at the speed of light, as Koontz does here, as does often.
[...] On May 30, 2006, Dean Koontz will release THE HUSBAND. Judging from this early cover (which has the unfortunate resemblance to something Danielle Steel might put her name on), it’s a fast-paced crime thriller in the style of the recent (and highly recommended) VELOCITY. [...]
[...] • Somehow I failed to mention Stephen White’s KILL ME last week. So sue me. This thriller boasts a terrific, Koontz-worthy high concept: A man told he has mere months to live hires assassins to kill him off, then has a change of heart and has to scramble to stay alive from those he hired to do away with him. D’oh! [...]
[...] “Oh, yeah, VELOCITY,” you say. “Those guys over at BOOKGASM really liked that one. I hear they’ll be reviewing THIEVES OF HEAVEN soon, too.” But she appears not to care. [...]
[...] “You bet,” she says. “Koontz has THE HUSBAND, which sounds every bit as fast-paced as last year’s VELOCITY. This one’s about a kidnapping. Deaver has THE COLD MOON, another entry in his quadraplegic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme series, and Preston and Child return to tie up the loose ends from last summer’s DANCE OF DEATH with THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.” [...]
[...] In accordance with the zero-to-60 style of Koontz’s recent VELOCITY, it begins with a jolt as a happily married, mild-mannered Everyman named Mitch Rafferty receives a call on his cell phone informing him that: a) his wife has been kidnapped, and b) he has 60 hours to pay a $2 million ransom in cold, hard cash. The demand seems excessive, given Rafferty is just a self-employed landscaper of a two-man operation with $11 grand in the bank, but to show they’re serious, a man walking his dog across the street is then assassinated by a sniper’s bullet. Those flowers can wait, Mitch. [...]
[...] From there, SAINT is off and running on a narrative sprint worthy of recent Dean Koontz thrillers like VELOCITY and THE HUSBAND, and with just as many surprises. Almost just as soon as you’ve begun reading and Carl sets out to complete his spur-of-the-moment hit, we learn much of what we’ve been told is utter B.S., and that Carl is actually a highly specialized and trained assassin – code name: Saint – working for a shadowy organization called The X Group. [...]
[...] Great American Novel. The proof is in THE GOOD GUY. It completes an unofficial trilogy started by VELOCITY and THE HUSBAND of righteous men thrust into wrong situations, all of which are terrific reads. And [...]