Velocity

商家名称	信用等级	购买信息	订购本书
		Velocity
		Velocity

基本信息·出版社：Bantam Books
·页码：496 页
·出版日期：2006年04月
·ISBN：0553588257
·条形码：9780553588255
·版本：2006-04-01
·装帧：简装
·开本：32开 Pages Per Sheet
·外文书名：速度

内容简介 Book Description
Dean Koontz’s unique talent for writing terrifying thrillers with a heart and soul is nowhere more evident than in this latest suspense masterpiece that pits one man against the ultimate deadline. If there were speed limits for the sheer pulse-racing excitement allowed in one novel, Velocity would break them all. Get ready for the ride of your life.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A diabolic killer plays a harrowing game of cat and mouse with a reclusive bartender in Koontz's latest gripping suspense thriller. Billy Wiles, a 30-something bartender and former writer, is content with his solitary Napa County existence listening to "beer-based psychoanalysis" from tavern regulars; visiting his hospitalized, comatose fiancée, Barbara; and carving wood sculptures. But the simple life gets mighty complicated when he finds a note with a deadly, time-sensitive ultimatum: he must choose between the death of a young schoolteacher or an elderly humanitarian in six hours. Reluctant local sheriff Lanny Olsen dismisses it as a joke until a comely teacher is found strangled and another threatening note appears—offering even less time for Billy to decide the fate of two more people. Who would have guessed that one of those people would be Olsen? After his friend's murder, Billy finds that the cunning killer has gained access to every aspect of his life as the ultimatums grow increasingly more personal. Suppressing horrific childhood memories, Billy scrambles to bury grisly incriminating evidence the murderer has deviously planted. More gruesome deaths and shaky suspicions trap Billy right in the demented killer's lair for just the beginning of Koontz's serpentine showdown. Graphic, fast-paced action, well-developed characters and relentless, nail-biting scenes show Koontz at the top of his game. (May 24)

From Booklist
Billy Wiles tends bar in a tavern in his small California hometown, from which he has never moved despite the horrific night when he became an orphan at 14 and its equally horrific aftermath. Some 15 years later, he published a well-received book of stories and met Barbara. They were about to be married when botulism in canned vichyssoise put her in a coma, and Billy more or less on hold, living on the hope that she will revive some day. Some five years further on, Billy finds, under the windshield wiper of his car, a note offering him a hideous decision. If he doesn't go to the police, "a lovely blond schoolteacher" will be killed; if he does, "an elderly woman" will be murdered. Billy doesn't exactly go the police. He shows the note to a cop who is probably his only real friend and who seconds his conjecture that the note is just an exceedingly tasteless prank. Of course, it isn't, and for the rest of an exceedingly tightly wound thriller stubbornly focused on him, Billy struggles to discover the identity of the soon-serial killer, who plants evidence incriminating Billy on his (her? their?) victims. Eventually and all too soon, Barbara is threatened, and Billy's subsequent suicide predicted, in the murderer's ostensibly final note. Not as moving as Odd Thomas (2003), as creepy as The Taking(2004), as darkly funny as Life Expectancy (2004), or as thought-provoking as any of them, Velocity is, however, more suspenseful and more grueling--genuinely terrific.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Ray Olson

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Bartender Billy Wiles's life spirals out of control after he finds a note on his windshield telling him that he has a choice: involve the police, and a lovely blonde schoolteacher dies. Do nothing, and an elderly woman active in charity work dies. His options only become harder once the killer targets people whom Billy knows and plants circumstantial evidence tying him to the crimes. His greatest fear is for his comatose fiancée, and he works frantically to find the murderer before Barbara is hurt. Koontz keeps the plot moving at an accelerating pace, and there are enough twists and turns to keep the story from being predictable. Billy isn't a hero in the traditional sense, but he is a sympathetic protagonist, an average man pushed to his limits by an implacable foe. Although there is a great deal of violence and an impressive body count, the worst of it occurs off-screen. The themes aren't subtle, but they are worth considering--the importance of connection and community, the enduring power of love, and the validity of modern art. Velocity is a fast, entertaining read.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　–Susan Salpini, TASIS–The American School in England

From AudioFile
Billy Wiles has been forced into a game of moral jeopardy by a lurid serial killer who forces him to choose the next victim. The game accelerates, the deadlines grow tighter, the killer becomes bolder and crueler with every communication, the mutilations ever more grotesque, the decisions intensely personal . . . until they finally involve Barbara, Billy's fiancée, who is helpless in a botulism-induced coma. Michael Hayden is masterful at creating the vibrato of beer-based psychoanalysis, the garbled quality of talking around a toothbrush, and the exquisite timing of a winch line turning on a drum, a sound that pulls the listener further and further into this impossible-to-wake-up-from nightmare. Prepare yourself for a Machiavellian extravaganza. K.A.T.

About Author
When he was a senior in college, Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition. He has been writing ever since. His books are published in 38 languages; worldwide sales are over 300 million copies.

Ten of his novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list (The Husband, One Door Away From Heaven, From The Corner Of His Eye, Midnight, Cold Fire, Hideaway, Dragon Tears, The Bad Place, Intensity, and Sole Survivor). Thirteen of his books have risen to the number one position in paperback.

Several of his books have been adapted into feature films and TV miniseries, including the highly rated “Intensity” on the Fox Network. The Husband is currently in development as a major motion picture by Focus Features/Random House Films.

The New York Times has called his writing "psychologically complex, masterly and satisfying." The New Orleans Times-Picayune said Koontz is "lyrical without ever being naive or romantic. [He creates] a grotesque world, much like that of Flannery O'Connor or Walker Percy ... scary, worthwhile reading." The London Times called him "a literary juggler," and Publishers Weekly recently stated in a starred review that Koontz "gives readers bright hope in a dark world. He is a true original."

Dean Koontz was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University), and his first job after graduation was with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where he was expected to counsel and tutor underprivileged children on a one-to-one basis. His first day on the job, he discovered that the previous occupier of his position had been beaten up by the very kids he had been trying to help and had landed in the hospital for several weeks. The following year was filled with challenge but also tension, and Koontz was more highly motivated than ever to build a career as a writer. He wrote nights and weekends, which he continued to do after leaving the poverty program and going to work as an English teacher in a suburban school district outside Harrisburg. After he had been a year and a half in that position, his wife, Gerda, made him an offer he couldn't refuse: "I'll support you for five years," she said, "and if you can't make it as a writer in that time, you'll never make it." By the end of those five years, Gerda had quit her job to run the business end of her husband's writing career. Dean and Gerda Koontz live in southern California with their golden retriever, Trixie, who herself has written two successful books—Life Is Good and Christmas Is Good.

Book Dimension
Height (mm) 176 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Width (mm) 106
编辑推荐 "Graphic, fast-paced action, well-developed characters and relentless, nail-biting scenes show Koontz at the top of his game."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Genuinely terrific."--Booklist

“Just in time for summer, Dean Koontz again delivers a top-notch thriller full of well-drawn characters and anxiety-spiked sequences.”—Chicago Tribune

“Koontz keeps the focus of Velocity tight….Velocity will have readers turning the pages—and checking to make sure their doors are locked and bolted.” —Associated Press

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