Since my job has longer commute now, Audiobooks have comeback into play. I load’em up on my iPod and “read” away.

My first in my return to audio bookage was Velocity by Deen Koontz.

I had read Koontz years before and sorta clocked him up to a poor man’s Stephen King. I decided to give him another go after my friend Jason said I should tread back into those waters.

Here is a brief synopsis from Amazon.com:

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. 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.

I tried to cut out any major plot points from the clip there. Overall, I thought it was good, but not great. Many reviews have proclaimed the suspense and intensity of the read. Maybe because I was “audio” it was not as suspenseful, at least at the very end, where you want that. For some reason, after the “Reveal” it was more obvious to me about other plot points to come. Also, Billy - the main character - was extremely resourceful; like MacGyver good.

The performance by Michael Hayden was very good and he deserves a great deal of credit for the enjoyment. He had a very pleasent reading voice along with very well done characterizations of the other characters with well done voices.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 14th, 2006 at 9:00 am and is filed under Audiobooks.