I'm a huge fan of Dean Koontz and even a book that doesn't quite make the mark I expect from him, still I will read it and add it to my library. At the risk of repeating myself from other reviews, I read a lot and often re-read favourite books every few years. I used to buy hardbacks, then my budget forced me into paperbacks and just lately I've been buying second hand. I'm fortunate here as I do get a lot bought for me and since I can easily read four books a week, as well as writing, then my daughter's contribution from London book-shops keeps me up to date with my favourite writers. I like Koontz as a writer and I fully understand his reasons for writing. I just wish .  Read the complete review

"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 kill an elderly woman active in charity work..." What a brilliant concept for a novel. As fast paced a thriller as you ca get, "Velocity" has you on the edge of your seat from the start as you sympathise with protaganist Billy Wiles's awful plight. You cannot help but think how would you react if put in the same situation and whether you would go through the same feelings of guilt and anguish. Koontz kept me hooked throughout this novel by keeping Billy's torementor a mystery. The ...  Read the complete review

Velocity is one of those books based on such a simple premise that it seems absurd that it has not already been written. A man - Billy Wiles - returns to his car to find a note on his windscreen. The note tells him that if he doesn't report the matter to the police, a lovely blonde schoolteacher will be killed; if he does report it to the police, an elderly lady involved in charity work will die instead. He has six hours to decide who lives and who dies... This simple idea instantly hooks you. It raises a lot of interesting moral questions (what would you do?) and quickly and brilliantly set up a plot which immediately puts the character (and the reader) on ...  Read the complete review

Billy Wiles is leading a life that's just on the radar, he's a bartender at The Tavern and his partner Barbara is in a coma in Whispering Pines care home. Billy used to be a writer but he hasn't written anything in years and just doesn't have the urge to even switch on the computer. His life is simple and understated until someone leaves a note on his windscreen. "If you don't take this note to the police and get them involved I will kill a lovely blonde 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." You'd think it must be a joke right?  Read the complete review

Billy Wiles, a sometimes writer and bartender, is going through the paces; listening to the bar talk from the regulars, visiting - and hoping beyond all hope - that his comatose fiancé will finally wake up. His simple life is soon shattered when a killer decides to play a brutal game of cat and mouse with him. Billy has to call in to question his own sense of morality as the killer asks him to make a choice between the killing of two people - the victim depends on whether Billy decides to go to the police or not, so either way, he is forced into making a choice whether he likes it or not. At first, Billy believes it may be a prank and chooses to ignore the ...  Read the complete review