Four years ago in Napa County Billy Wiles' fiancée Barbara fell into a botulism-induced coma. She has resided ever since at the Whispering Pines Convalescent Home.

Following a shift tending bar, Billy finds a note on his windshield that states "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 instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work.. You have four hours to decide. The choice is yours". Billy shows the note to his pal police officer Lanny Olsen, who tells him to forget it because it is just a sick joke. However, the note writer batters a lovely blond schoolteacher to death, chosen because Billy failed to officially go to the police. Other notes follow, offering deadly choices for Billy to select or not select. Billy ponders why him wondering if perhaps Barbara's twin sister Dardre could be the psychopath; she covets the $3 million that her sibling won in a legal suit. If he is right could Barbara be the next target followed by Billy.

VELOCITY lives up to its title as the pace accelerates at rocket speed and the INTENSITY of the suspense grows with each moral decision that Billy using all his wiles makes or not makes. The exhilarating story line is a parable of modern society as the President with Congress for instance "chooses" in a sense who gets what type of healthcare and who does not indirectly impacting who lives. Dean Koontz is at his best combining his trademark suspense with a thought provoking issue on who will live and who will die and why.

REVIEWED BY HARRIET KLAUSNER

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE REVIEWER, HARRIET KLAUSNER