One morning after work, Billy Wiles finds a note on his windshield giving him a choice. Take the note to the police and an elderly woman dies. Don't take the note to the police and a blond schoolteacher dies. It could have been a malign prank... but in truth it's the start of deadly game of cat and mouse.
Picking up Velocity broke two vows at once. The first was, as long time readers know, not to read another Dean Koontz novel. The second isn't as well known. See, I have a thing against serial killer thrillers. Don't like them. Their horrors are a bit too real for me and I don't enjoy them the way I do stories about Elder Horrors and Foul Monstrosities.
However, I was in the Half-Price Book Store, the book was priced at a buck, and there was a 20% off sale.
How could I go wrong?
In many, many ways, as a viewer and owner of such delightful "films" as Cathy's Curse and Pieces. I have caused myself such pain. Oh such pain.
In this case, I got lucky. Velocity was so good, I regretted not paying full price once I was finished.
Let's get the carping out of the way first. There's something about Koontz style that bugs me. I can't quantify it in the slightest, but it on occasion bumps into me as I read. Not enough to put me out of the story. Just enough to know it happened.
Secondly, at three (brief) points I was a step ahead of the protagonist, Billy Wiles. The last one was because I was a reader and he was living the story, and so can be discarded. But the other two were a bit frustrating. You want to believe that the protagonist are at least as smart as you.
Finally, there was an element of the story I found a bit too convenient. It's not like Wiles pulls a Star Wars Laser Satellite System out of his back pocket, but it does bother me. Still, its presence leads to one of the novel's best scenes.
These carps are, of course, Cullen carps; anyone else reading the novel might not even have these kinds of problem.
In its favor, Velocity races along as its name suggests. Outside the moments I mentioned above, Wiles proves resourceful and clever, while his foe defines nasty. The situation is brutal. I would like to go into further details, but I enjoyed this book so much that I'm loathe to spoil it. If I was to rewrite my Fantastic Author, I'd put this one on the list at the end.
2 comments:
I think the main thing I dislike about Koontz's prose is what is usually called literary diarrhea. (Sorry.) He'll just blather on endlessly about stuff that is unrelated to anything, yet it's obvious he's just learned something about it and wants to share.
He'll also go on and on about background details--the architecture in the neighborhood where someone happens to be walking. Steven King can do this because he can relate it to the character's state of mind, or the situation at hand. When Koontz tries it, it just seems like I know I can squeeze a couple hundred words out of this.
The thing that bothers me most are the endings. It honestly seems like he had no idea how to end many of his books but, getting bored, he had to wrap them up anyway. I'll never forget the massive let-down of Strangers, after the excellent build-up.
I can see that, and maybe that was what I was noticing.
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