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Overview
A serial killer has struck again. FBI Special Agent Victoria Santos is tracking the string of gruesome murders from New York to San Francisco, from Miami to Oregon. Her only lead: the distinct savagery of the slayings, "signed" with the killer's own brand of barbarism.Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Tribune reporter Mike Posten has covered thousands of horrible crimes in his rough-and-tumble career. But nothing has prepared him for an anonymous call from a mysterious stranger who claims his mind works so much like the killer's that he can actually predict the next attack -- time, place, victim. The only catch is, the man wants money. A lot of it.
It could be the scoop of Mike's career -- or the end of it. Haunted by a failing marriage and a back-stabbing rival in the Tribune newsroom, Mike isn't sure if the caller is the killer or the evil genius he claims to be, and he wonders which would be worse. He has never paid for a story, and he doesn't intend to start now -- unless it could help stop a killer. When the caller's grisly "predictions" prove true, Mike secretly contacts the FBI and Victoria targets his informant as the breakthrough she's been waiting for. At once a strange alliance and a classic struggle between the FBI and the press, Mike and Victoria form the front line of attack, with Mike as the go-between for the informant and the Feds: "checkbook journalism" at its deadliest.
Synopsis
By the author of the bestselling The Pardon, this fast-paced novel teams a resourceful FBI agent and an embattled journalist in a hunt for two men — a serial killer and his elusive informant.
When an informer chooses Miami Tribune crime reporter Michael Posten as his conduit, giving him information about murders that haven't yet taken place, investigators speculate on whether the killer and informer are the same person. As the newspaper continues to deposit larger sums into the killer's account, FBI agent Victoria Santos and the reluctant journalist join forces to prevent the next gruesome murder. But then dues stop and the murders continue... until a psychopath makes one mistake too many. This gripping, unpredictable story of revenge will not be soon forgotten.
Chicago Tribune
Intriguing . . . Grippando handles this unusual [plot] with ease.
Editorials
Chicago Tribune
Intriguing . . . Grippando handles this unusual [plot] with ease.New York Times Book Review
Spectacular effects . . . entertaining. . . . Grippando has done his homework on FBI forensics, criminal profiling and the internal protocol for backstabbing.Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
A breathlessly scary, unpredictable thriller.extravagantly plotted..Grippando has produced a work that will deserve its place on bestseller lists.Naples Daily News (FL)
It's not only titillating, but terrifying'indeed, terrorizing.Wes Lukowsky
There's a serial killer out there, but the locations are disparate and the victims seemingly unconnected. FBI agent Victoria Santos has developed a psychological profile of the killer, whose attention to detail results in a dearth of clues. Then "Miami Tribune" reporter Mike Posten receives calls from someone who claims he's not the killer, but he thinks so much like him he can predict the killer's next move. The caller will talk for cash, which the FBI supplies. The finale takes place on a cruise ship and pits the killer against Santos and Posten. HarperCollins is investing big money to convince readers that this is another "Silence of the Lambs", but it's not even close. At best, it's a run-of-the-mill thriller populated from Central Casting: the plucky FBI agent, the intrepid reporter, and the killer with a dysfunctional childhood. Still, the author's previous thriller, "The Pardon" (1994), did well, and the publicity blitz will generate some demand. Buy cautiously.Kirkus Reviews
Grippando grabs for the brass ring in his second galloping Napoleon-of-crime fantasy (The Pardon, 1994)—and brings it about halfway home.Somebody's decided to start selling Mike Posten, a Pulitzer alumnus at the Miami Tribune, the hottest crime tips of the decade: sending him the names of each new target of a cunning killer who's cutting out his victims' tongues—and sending them after they're already dead but before the bodies are discovered. It's the killer himself, insist the FBI when Mike asks if they'll bankroll his stories. But task force coordinator Victoria Santos doesn't think so, and like Mike, she sticks her neck way, way out in support of her theory that the killer's being dogged by a second man, an informant who knows his modus operandi so well that he can predict what he'll do next. Bucking the reservations the Tribune—and the FBI—have about spending big bucks for tips that may be coming straight from the killer and financing his getaway, Mike and Victoria work to piece together profiles of both the men they think they're looking for, even though the killer's profile, which combines hallmarks of both organized and disorganized serial killers, leaves them wondering if he might be a schizoid tattling on himself after all. So far, so edgy—until Grippando, halfway through, lifts the veil to expose the identities of both killer and informant, the relationship between them, and the motive for the ghoulish crimes, and the story turns into a cat-and-mouse game with a cat who's a lot less scary (and convincing) once he's been explained away, and a new series of threats (breaking up Mike's fragile family for good, taking an ocean liner hostage) that scream TV movie.
Even the flatter second half, once Grippando's shown all his cards, is enough to keep you tearing through the pages—but now you already know what you're going to find.