Synopsis
Love hurts.
FBI agent Kelly Feinman knows this is true. While she is recovering from an attack by a serial killer called the “Acid Man,” her husband leaves her. Physically and emotionally scarred by the murderer, Kelly feels she will never be the same. She is cut off not only from her husband and child, but also from her fellow FBI agents, who see her as a rogue for going after the Acid Man alone.
Love is hell.
Matt Connor knows this is true. His love for his girlfriend, Amy, is so intense that he feels he is in heaven when he is with her. When Amy leaves him for another man, Matt is shattered. In agony, he plans a diabolical scheme that first calls for him to disappear from the face of the earth. His revenge will make Amy wish she had never been born.
Love can heal.
Matt’s act of vengeance puts him in charge of Amy’s infant son. He discovers a soothing warmth in Jimmy’s eyes that makes him wonder if Amy’s betrayal truly merited wrecking the child’s life. Yet Matt’s heart cannot be made whole until he has won Amy back.
Kelly cannot be made whole until she understands the depth of evil that lurks behind the Acid Man. Ironically, to rid herself and the world of her nemesis, she must seek out Matt Connor, a wanted man she has been ordered to bring to justice.
In Falling, Christopher Pike explores the depth and breadth of human emotion through two brilliantly etched characters: Kelly Feinman, who pays a terrible price to understand the nature of true evil, and Matt Connor, a classic antihero who captures the listener’s sympathy. The listener is drawn deeply into the hearts and minds of these two people, who almost against our will force us to face our deepest fears. It is that power that makes Falling impossible to forget.
Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Pike's gripping thriller pays homage to Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter novels, particularly in the character of FBI agent Kelly Feinman, who fills the Clarice Starling role. An unlikely law-enforcement agent, Kelly was an academic drafted by the bureau as a consultant based on her graduate thesis on mythology. Kelly puts her expertise to use on a particularly savage case, that of a man dubbed "the Acid Killer," who has sent the Feds DVDs of his sadistic murders of women he believes have been unfaithful. Her research leads her to a promising suspect, but her desire to solve the case on her own places her life in jeopardy. Pike (The Cold One) deftly interweaves this plot with the elaborate, Edmund Dantes like revenge scheme of Matt Connor, a California man who was himself betrayed by the woman he loved. While some of the action sequences involving Kelly strain credibility, the intricate, thoughtful plot offers enough fresh variations on the serial-killer theme to keep readers turning the pages. (Feb.)
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