From Publishers Weekly
A pair of plucky heroines adds interest to this otherwise predictable, and graphically violent, suspense novel by Heller (Maximum Impact), an investigative reporter for the St. Petersburg Times. Eugene Rickey, it's quickly revealed, is a serial killer. In his day job, he is a talented and conscientious Tampa, Fla., handyman?a master of the building trades with a solid reputation. But he is also a homicidal maniac who tortures his female victims before killing them. The police and county sheriff's experts follow a series of clues and red herrings as Rickey is shown stalking his targets, first a TV newswoman and then a female architect. Heller's vivid imagination of this demented man's psyche is offset, unfortunately, by some clunky clues and distracting subplots, including one involving sexual harassment in the newsroom. While the author writes taut, powerful prose, moreover, readers may be turned off by the uses to which she puts it: the opening chapter, for all its skillful renderings, is little more than a sustained exercise in literary sadism.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Only after all the doors and windows have been locked is it safe to begin reading Handyman. Eugene Rickey is an honest and dependable jack-of-all-trades. For fun and relaxation, though, he rapes, tortures, and kills. The first chapter of this novel is so realistically bloody and gruesome that it could turn the most ardent opponent of the death penalty into an advocate. Thankfully, this is the tale's only episode of out-and-out gore. The rest of the book describes the fast-paced hunt for the Handyman by Det. Benjamin Britton and Cynthia Diamond, a television journalist. Heller's (Maximum Impact, Forge, 1993) writing is consistently good, and she kindly gives the reader an occasional respite from fear through her subplots. Highly recommended, but read only with the lights on.?Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., Tex.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
