UNREAL WORLDS

Velocity

By Dean Koontz (Bantam, $27). Grade: A-

Dean Koontz fans who complain they miss the nastiness of the best-selling author's early works got a taste of the old days in last year's The Taking, one of the most graphic science-fiction novels in years. Now, Koontz has followed up with Velocity, a serial-killer novel, reminiscent in some scenes of his 1993 story Hideaway, that not only contains explicit descriptions of psychotic perversions, but is mighty scary as well.

When Billy Wiles, an easygoing Napa Valley bartender, leaves work one evening, he finds a scrap of paper pinned under his windshield wiper. On it is the following message: "If you don't take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher somewhere in Napa County. If you do take this note to the police, I will kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have six hours to decide. The choice is yours."

At first, Billy thinks the note is a sick practical joke. But the following day he discovers on the news that a beautiful blond teacher was indeed murdered shortly after the note's appointed time.

As the narrative progresses, the killer gives Billy more impossible choices, and the bodies begin to pile up. Victims also begin to hit closer to home, as a childhood friend is murdered, and a homeless man is assassinated in Billy's house while Billy sits on the front porch.

The depraved assassinations continue with such precision that they seem possible only if the killer can be two places at once or if some supernatural agency is in effect. As he has done in such horror novels as Whispers, Koontz makes the line between the real world and the unreal razor thin.

As is common in Koontz novels, there is an unusual love story as well. Billy helps to take care of his fiancee, Barbara, who lapsed into a coma a few years earlier. (In a curious coincidence, there is an eerie similarity to the recent Terri Schiavo case, though Velocity was completed long before Schiavo was in the headlines last spring.) Billy fears that the killer's last victim will be Barbara, and he is determined to keep her alive.

The conclusion works almost too well, but there is still room for a surprise of two.

Mark Graham

MYSTERY

Bluetick Revenge

By Mark Cohen (Mysterious Press, $24.95). Grade: B+

Mark Cohen is a Colorado guy who writes a mystery novel Colorado guys can understand: His hero, Pepper Keane, drives an F150 pickup with a few dogs in back (safely in a camper shell, of course), works out six times a week, lives in the mountains, doesn't have a real job. Well, OK, it's really a Colorado fantasy, but you get the picture.

Bluetick Revenge opens with a dog-napping: A former Marine JAG, now a sometime sleuth, Keane steals a prizewinning bluetick coonhound from the leader of the Sons of Satan, a motorcycle gang not known for their patience and generosity. He takes the dog at the request of a lawyer pal because the gang leader's former girlfriend, the lawyer's client, wants the pup before she'll agree to testify to the feds and then go into the Witness Protection Program.

Keane winds up guarding Karlynn Slade to keep her safe while the feds lay their plans, but she takes off, not entirely pleased with the Iowa lifestyle the government has planned for her. Keane heads first to Idaho and then to Alaska in search of Karlynn.

He's a tough guy, but a smart man's tough guy who reads philosophy and knows his Wittgenstein. He's in over his head concerning his private life when his very satisfactory relationship with a mathematics professor (currently teaching in Beijing) is threatened by her plans to adopt a daughter in China. But even here, his philosophizing and humor brighten the situation.

And there's a lot of humor here, including wintertime trips to Las Vegas and Alaska, where a sense of humor really comes in handy. In Barrow, Alaska, the houses are on stilts so they won't sink into the tundra during the thaw, plus the stilts "prevent the polar bears from climbing in through your bedroom window and eating you." Although the writing and the pacing of the book are sometimes a bit flat-footed, readers will enjoy Cohen for the Colorado setting and his sly take on life.

Jane Dickinson

YOUNG ADULT

Sixth-Grade Glommers, Norks, and Me

By Lisa Papademetriou (Hyperion Books for Children, $14.99, ages 8-12). Grade: B-<>p>This is one of those sweet books about beginning middle-schoolers discovering the pain of changing friendships and blazing their own new trails through school.

What sets this book apart, however, is its narrator, Allie Kimball, a likable girl who's nuts about soccer and words, especially funny ones that she slices together, like borechid (someone who looks good but lacks personality) and predorkament (a dilemma for someone who's a nerd).

The first sign that Allie and her best friend, Tamara, are going to confront their differences occurs on the first page when, referring to what to wear on the first day of sixth grade, Tam says: "You aren't taking this seriously, Allie. This is the kind of thing that can make or break your whole year."

Then, as bad luck would have it, the pair are scheduled for only one class together, while Tam is in several classes with Renee, their old archenemy and the queen of snide comments. "Having Renee in my life again was kind of a stinkprise," Allie tells readers.

Allie encounters several painful and awkward moments. While she handles them like an adult would want someone her age to act, she gives readers the dish on what she'd really like to do.

Allie's story sends a nice message to middle-schoolers in this light book perfect for summer or busy after-homework nights.

Natalie Soto

COLORADO AUTHORS

The Colorado State Capitol

By Derek Everett (University Press of Colorado, $29.95). Grade: A

For years, the gold dome of the State Capitol dominated Denver's skyline. Yet, this stately building that is such an integral part of our history and government often is more familiar to tourists than to Colorado residents.

Historian and former capitol tour guide Derek Everett breathes life into this grandiose structure and tells the stories that would be uttered if the stones themselves spoke.

Coloradans have long been outspoken about their diverse views, and the capitol ignited its share of controversy. The various regions of the young state began arguing in 1867 about the site of the new building before ultimately selecting a wind-swept ridge nearly a mile from the sprawling settlement near today's Larimer Street.

Everett records the incessant squabbling and lawsuits over money, design, materials and construction from citizens and fledgling lawmakers, some of whom looked to historical models of architecture and government while others wanted a break with tradition.

As construction progressed, transportation problems and labor unrest plaguing the country also affected Colorado and impeded progress. Some state leaders finally moved in by the fall of 1894, but challenges remained in determining interior furnishings, artwork and even location of departments and agencies that would finally be unified under one roof.

Everett's history of Colorado's Capitol is also a history of a fledgling state defining its identity and relationship with the rest of the country. His lively style reflects his ability as a tour guide to hold people's attention.

Because history is not static, Everett also includes contemporary efforts to maintain the building and make it conform to 21st-century standards and needs.

Joan Hinkemeyer

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