Anyone who likes thrillers, crime, detective stories must read this book, Velocity. There are no two ways about that.

Imagine waking up to this, the cover of the book that tells you how it all starts:

Well, what would YOU do? Would you just carry on as normal and assume it was a joke? Would you take it seriously but then just blunder into the Police Station ... then an elderly woman dies?

This is why I recommend this book so highly: it is founded on that simple but highly effective note and as a lover of the genre you can't turn away from it.

I won't say much about how the story unfolds except that Koontz treats it really well.

The main character is Billy and his is the most awful of dilemmas: he has to do what is right. Someone dies. Billy is attacked by someone seriously determined: someone who says things like, that was the first injury> This came as Billy nurses an injury sustained in the attack by the person whom Billy thinks must be the killer.

Other people die at the hands of the monster and Billy comes to learn that on or about every newly created corpse, there is a vital clue ... that links the death to Billy.

It just goes on like this. It's my first Koontz but I will definitely buy and read more and I suggest you do the same. Even the way that Billy deals with some of the evidence is a fascination. I have read a lot of good thrillers/crime novels but this one definitely takes the prize as the most satisfying yet.

There you are: I think this is my shortest review yet. I can't improve on the book that I am supposed to be reviewing. Buy, buy, buy!

Duncan Williamson
14 October 2005