Velocity by Dean Koontz
'Our myths are rich with enchanters and enchantresses: sea nymps that sing sailors into rocks, Circe turning men into swine, pipers playing children to their doom. They are metaphors for the secret sinister urge to self-destruction that has been with us since the first bite of the first apple.'
rated: 3 out of 5
Bill Wile is a bartender who lives a pretty quiet life. He has no close friends, his gilfriend is in the hospital and has been in a coma for several years. One day after his shift is over, Bill finds a note stuck to his windshield:
'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.'
At first, Bill thinks it is a sick joke, so he talks to his cop friend Lanny, who agrees. But then, soon after a blond schoolteacher is found dead. From then on, Billy knows this is for real, he gets another note with another morbid ultimatum.
At times I cringed during reading. It was just plain gross. And I didn't really like this story that much, I didn't really feel any connection with any characters and I didn't really understand why the murderer chose Billy to send these notes to.
D.K. is one of my all time favorites but I really didn't enjoy this one too much.
And the main character does all these grisly things, then you think there is no way he can get out of it without going to prison, but yet, after it's all over, he finds the killer, then he goes back to his normal life. It's like 'Why just not go to the cops in the first place?' instead of pretty much becoming a psycho yourself?
http://deankoontz.com/
