From Amazon.com
Ridley Pearson's reputation for smoothly-paced, edgy suspense fiction is unassailable. In this, his eighth novel, a Seattle food company is under siege from an unknown poisoner/extortionist, and innocent consumers are in constant danger. Police sergeant Lou Boldt and psychologist Daphne Matthews -- both too close to the case for comfort -- work furiously to build a profile of the madman, but the police department is cracking under the strain as the lunatic slips away unapprehended from ATM machines one after another. As the manhunt builds to a furious crescendo, Boldt and Matthews are jolted again by the discovery that the man they seek may not be working alone.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
A rare humanism and meticulous attention to procedural detail have marked Pearson's thrillers featuring Seattle cop Lou Boldt (Undercurrents; The Angel Maker). In the mournful detective's third match-up against a maniacal serial killer, Pearson outdoes himself by eschewing scenes from the murderer's point of view (and the pandering to bloodlust inherent in such scenes) in order to focus solely on the terrible toll wrought on victims and cops. Here the villain is tampering with products of Adler Foods, a giant company that he or she blames for a long-ago crime. The bodies of poisoned children and adults turn up everywhere as Boldt and his SPD/FBI task force, including series regular Daphne Matthews, a police psychologist, race to ID and trap the killer. Instead of forensic detail, Pearson this time highlights high-tech procedures: computer warfare against the killer's use of ATMs to collect a ransom; cutting-edge surveillance techniques. A tangled subplot about a possible culprit among the cops drags the suspense slightly but some extraordinarily tense cat-and-mousing between cops and killer more than makes up for it. This is a serial-killer novel that speaks to readers' hearts even as it jangles their nerves-and it's not to be missed. $150,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate selections; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
