A terrifying thriller guaranteed to keep you turning the pages. A serial murderer is on the hunt for women, torturing them with the precise cuttings of a 'Surgeon'. Added to the mystery is the eerie similarity of the crime to the previous rape and near death of Dr. Catherine Cordel, who survived the assault by killing his attacker two years before. Is the 'Surgeon' a copycat killer or is there a hideous connection?
'Today they will find her body.'(opening line)
'There were two visible wounds. One was a deep slash across the throat, extending from beneath the left ear, transecting the left carotid artery, and laying open the laryngeal cartilage. The coup de grace. The second slash was low on the abdomen. This wound had not meant to kill; it had served an entirely different purpose.'(5)
'And when it was done, when her agonal struggles had ceased, you left us a calling card. You neatly folded the victim's nightshirt, and you left it on the dresser. Why? Is it some twisted sign of respect for the woman you've just slaughtered? Or is it your way of mocking us? Your way of telling us that you are in control?'(16)
'No matter how much you try to maintain order in your life, no matter how careful you are to guard against mistakes, against imperfections, there is always some smudge, some flaw, lurking out of sight. Waiting to surprise you.'(30)
'Evil doesn't die. It never dies. It just takes on a new face, a new name. Just because we've been touched by it once, it doesn't mean we're immune to ever being hurt again. Lightning can strike twice.'(51)
"This is the worst kind of unsub we can face. He went a whole year between attacks -- that's extremely rare. It means he can go months between hunts. We could run ourselves ragged looking for him, while he sits patiently waiting for the next kill. He is careful. He is organized. He will leave few, if any, clues behind.'(58)
'This isn't a souvenir. And it's not a mark of ownership." He set down the necklace, a tangled filigree of gold that had skimmed the flesh of two dead women.
A shudder went through Rizzouli. "It's a calling card," she said softly.
Moore nodded. "The Surgeon is talking to us."(87)
'Where we go depends on what we know, and what we know depends on where we go.'(137)
'No kiss, no embrace, could bring two people any closer than we are right now. The most intimate emotion two people can share is neither love nor desire but pain.'(156)
'Some men are worth trusting. Moore had told her.
Yes, but which ones? I never know.
You won't know until push comes to shove. He'll be the one still standing beside you.'(295)
"This is a boy who never stood out, never alarmed anyone. This is the most frightening killer of all, because there's no pathology, no psychiatric diagnosis. He's like Ted Bundy. Intelligent, organized, and, on the surface, quite functional. But he has one personality quirk: he enjoys torturing women. This is someone you might work with every day. And you'd never suspect that when he's looking at you, smiling at you, he's thinking about some new and creative way to rip out your guts.'(305)
'Twenty years of marriage, with all its countless memories. The whispers late at night, the private jokes, the history. Yes, the history. A marriage is made up of such little things as burned suppers and midnight swims, yet it's those little things that bind two lives into one.'(343)
a Ballantine Book
350 pages
Book borrowed from the library
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
No comments:
Post a Comment