Velocity by Dean Koontz

[katekintailbc]

Velocity
by Dean Koontz
(Audio)

When starting this, I was prepared for another of Koontz's typical plots where something bad is chasing nice characters and they're forced to figure out what while figuring out how to stop it. And though that IS generally still the rough idea behind this story, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A bartender, Billy, is given a choice by some mysterious madman in the form of a note. One of two targeted people will die-- which one? A murderer is on the loose in the small town and instead of just killing people, he's playing with Billy. Billy is forced to make choice after choice-- even not choosing causes death. And all the while, this murderer is getting into Billy's life to destroy it and frame him. And then he gets another note saying that at a certain time, the murderer will make his last kill and shortly after that, Billy will commit suicide. Billy is shocked but can't go to the police... all Billy can do is to try and figure out who is doing this to him so he can stop it in time.

At times it reminded me a lot of Dexter, which I really like. And there are plenty of interesting twists and turns. Koontz actually had me fooled at one point, which impresses me. And I was on the edge of my seat at times, wanting to know what was going to happen next. The final scene was especially great, making it much more than a simple mystery/thriller, making it a great character piece.