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Overview
A Heart-Pounding Thriller about Dark Secrets and the Horrific Lengths That Desparate People Will Go to Keep Them
Attorney Paul Riley has built a lucrative career on his famous prosecution of Terry Burgos, a serial killer who emulated the lyrics of a violent song to gruesomely murder six girls, including the daughter of billionaires Harland and Natalia Bently. Now fifteen years later, the police are confronted with a new series of murders—and the grisly second verse to the song. Riley is the first to realize that the cases are connected and that the line between copycat and cover-up has been blurred. But as the murderer's list of victims becomes less random and more personal, Riley finds himself at the center of a police task force as both an invvestigator and a suspect.
As the layers encasing the mystery unravel, old deceptions emerge with dangerous new consequences. Driven by his own fear that he may have overlooked something crucial during the investigation years ago—and worse yet, the possibility that he is responsible for the execution of an innocent man—Riley sifts through fifteen years of lies in order to uncover the truth. But what he discovers along the way is that the killer isn't the only one who wants to keep the past buried.
Synopsis
A Heart-Pounding Thriller about Dark Secrets and the Horrific Lengths That Desparate People Will Go to Keep Them
Attorney Paul Riley has built a lucrative career on his famous prosecution of Terry Burgos, a serial killer who emulated the lyrics of a violent song to gruesomely murder six girls, including the daughter of billionaires Harland and Natalia Bently. Now fifteen years later, the police are confronted with a new series of murders and the grisly second verse to the song. Riley is the first to realize that the cases are connected and that the line between copycat and cover-up has been blurred. But as the murderer's list of victims becomes less random and more personal, Riley finds himself at the center of a police task force as both an invvestigator and a suspect.
As the layers encasing the mystery unravel, old deceptions emerge with dangerous new consequences. Driven by his own fear that he may have overlooked something crucial during the investigation years ago and worse yet, the possibility that he is responsible for the execution of an innocent man Riley sifts through fifteen years of lies in order to uncover the truth. But what he discovers along the way is that the killer isn't the only one who wants to keep the past buried.
The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio
Ellis, a former partner in a Chicago law firm, isn't squeamish about laying out the gory details in the initial massacre of six young women in 1989 or the copycat atrocities to follow. But the carnage is only the grabber for what is actually a very tricky legal mystery, and Riley, who prosecuted "the most famous serial killer our city has ever seen" when he was a raw youth, doesn't really hit his stride until he walks down those mean corridors that lead to the courtroom.
Editorials
Marilyn Stasio
Ellis, a former partner in a Chicago law firm, isn't squeamish about laying out the gory details in the initial massacre of six young women in 1989 or the copycat atrocities to follow. But the carnage is only the grabber for what is actually a very tricky legal mystery, and Riley, who prosecuted "the most famous serial killer our city has ever seen" when he was a raw youth, doesn't really hit his stride until he walks down those mean corridors that lead to the courtroom.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Some books aren't natural fits for audio. Edgar-winner Ellis's new novel, for example, has a complex plot that hops back and forth between the arrest, conviction and execution of serial killer Terry Burgos in 1989 and 16 years later when Burgos's prosecutor, Paul Riley, is drawn into the investigation of a very similar series of murders, involving many of the same characters. Complicating things even more, the contemporary sections jump from Riley's point of view to that of the demented new killer. Ellis uses chapter breaks, posted dates, italics and a shift from present tense narration to past tense for 1989, efforts that clarify matters in print but are a bit subtle for audio. Even an accomplished and inventive narrator like Dick Hill can only do so much-a pause before announcing a time shift, the use of a distinctive accent for the killer-to keep listener confusion to a minimum. But there's not much any reader could do with a key ingredient of the novel-the nonsense messages left at the crime scenes that contain a coded text that is near-impossible to distinguish by ear. Hill handles the dramatic sequences and thriller elements effortlessly and if one is willing to overlook several perplexing time-warped moments and the impossibility of deciphering the clues before Riley explains them, this audio provides a fair amount of entertainment. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, May 21) (July)
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