The Crucifix Killer Pdf Free Download
Elliott Davis
FBI agent Drex Easton is relentlessly driven by a single goal: to outmaneuver the con man once known as Weston Graham. Over the past 30 years, Weston has assumed many names and countless disguises, enabling him to lure eight wealthy women out of their fortunes before they disappeared without a trace, their families left without answers and the authorities without clues. The only common trait among the victims: a new man in their life who also vanished, leaving behind no evidence of his existence...except for one signature custom.
The first three thrillers in the Amazon best-selling Lt. Kate Gazzara series: Jasmine, Cassandra, and Saffron. Brutal murders. Impossible crimes. A detective that can't let go. Have you met Lt. Kate Gazzara? If you love police procedurals, realism, fast-paced nonstop action, and strong women detectives, it's time you met Kate Gazzara, a dedicated female detective in a world dominated by men. Kate's addictive. You can't listen to just one.
The snick of a lock. The squeak of door hinges. The creak of a floorboard... Nothing is more mysterious than footsteps in the dark. Are those approaching steps that of friend or enemy? Lover or killer?
As though stumbling out of a nightmare, rookie cop Alex Kincaid awakens in her car, dazed and confused. Parked on an unfamiliar street, she's outside an unfamiliar home with no recollection of how she got there, and no memory of the night before. Then, her nightmare becomes reality. Alex's first call of the day takes her to the same street, to the same house, where a man has been brutally killed. Alex thinks the man is a perfect stranger - until she finds herself the main suspect in his murder.
When she was just 12 years old, Mackenzie Price came home to find her father bleeding to death on the kitchen floor. She will never forget that night, nor what her mother asked her to do.... Twenty years later, Detective "Mack" Price is back in Lakemore, despite vowing never to return. Determined to atone for the sins of the past, she is unstoppable in her quest for justice.
Two beautiful young women are found strangled, their bodies meticulously washed and groomed. The only thing they have in common: Both worked as reporters for local TV stations. A coincidence? Or something more sinister? Rookie Special Agent Shannon Ames is assigned to the case and soon impresses with her brilliant intuition and startling ability to think outside the box. But as Shannon takes a more prominent role in the investigation, she finds herself drawn into a deadly dance with a master of deception.
They called him Leonardo - a master skilled in the art of murder. One year ago, Cincinnati was his canvas. A scalpel was his tool. And women were his works-in-progress. FBI profiler Casey McKinley was one of them, a victim of Leonardo's twisted genius. She has the scars - and the nightmares - to prove it. For Casey, a new city means a life far from the one she left behind in Cincinnati. In San Francisco she finally feels safe. Until a series of eerily familiar slayings plunges her back into Leonardo's game.
Private investigator Jim Bean is a straightforward, to-the-point man. He likes his cases to follow suit. But when his latest client, Sophie Evers, asks him to find her brother Daniel, Jim has no idea how complicated his life is about to become. As he falls deep into a manipulative game of cat and mouse, Jim uncovers the horrible truth about Sophie. Now he must set things right before her plan leads to the loss of innocent souls...even more than it already has.
The aptly named Robert Hunter is the LAPD homicide departments wunderkind, a gifted overachiever whose combination of drive and incisiveness have allowed him to quickly climb the ranks of the homicide squad. But Hunters seemingly stellar career isnt entirely as it seems, with its glowing achievements rather muted by some somewhat more desultory outcomes that he avoids mentioning where possible. Perhaps the darkest spot for Hunter is the Crucifix Killer, a serial killer whose grisly efforts tormented Hunter months, and still dofor though the killer was eventually detained and imprisoned, Hunter cant shake the feeling that there is perhaps something more to the case. So when Hunter is called in to investigate a horrific incident involving the disfigured body of a young women, he is not entirely surprised to find that the body bears the mark of the sadistic Crucifix Killer. This time, however, the killer has made it clear that the body count is set to rise.
In the interests of full disclosure, I should admit that Im not an especially avid crime reader. Mysteries, yes, crime no. And the reason for this is similar to that given by Literary Review 'reviewer Jessica Man: the increasingly gratuitous and sadistic violence against women (and often children) that typifies these books is something that riles the rather vocal feminist within me. Unfortunately, given my stance on this matter, I was destined to struggle with the Crucifix Killer from the beginning (although the blatant misogyny in this book is only one of the myriad problems that lurk between its covers). Not only are we subject to a number of scenes in which women are tortured and tormented, but women more generally throughout the book are treated as little more than playthings, with the entire female side of the cast leaning heavily towards the women of the night variety, or as lost and without valid identities of their own.
However, its not simply the women who are treated so shabbily in this novel: Carters approach to racial minorities is itself somewhat questionable. Admittedly, Im not an American, and my understanding of the race and class in America is obviously cursory and without nuance, but I cant help but feel that Carters take on minority characters is at times inappropriate.
The authors psychology background features prominently in this book, but unfortunately in a rather blatant way, manifesting often as a info-dumps about the field of psychology as well as case studies about each and every character who steps on stage. Unfortunately, beyond this, Carters evident insight into the human psyche seems to shrink into the background whenever there should be opportunity to receive more insight into the characters. Perhaps part of the problem is that the cast comprises a number of fairly stereotypical pimps, prostitutes, drug runners, and soi-disant hardened LA cops, but unfortunately Carters characters overall are roughly as wooden as the famed Trojan horse, and without any surprises lurking inside to make up for it. A dossier on each player does not a character make, Im afraid, particularly when were given so little else in terms of dialogue, interaction, or introspection to help us along the way.
Its not just in terms of the overall writing and characterisation that this book didnt work for me, however. The mystery itself (for it does attempt to set itself up rather more as a mystery than a thriller) is strongly reminiscent of certain Hollywood blockbusters, with Seven and Saw both coming rather gruesomely to mind, particularly in the opening scene, where Hunter is urged (by a distorted recorded voice, no less!) to make a particularly weighty decision regarding his partner. Unfortunately, this in media res opening is rather ineffective given that its true place in the story arrives some four hundred pages later, and come chapter 1, the reader is right back at square one trying desperately to fill in the blanks. The fact that Hunter is trying for a second time to apprehend a serial killer is worked quite awkwardly, too: I had to check to make sure that this book was really, as it claimed to be, the first, and not the second, in a series.
While I can live with a cliched narrative, as a cliche done well can still make for a great read, The Crucifix Killer often struggles for coherence, with plot lines straggling all over the place and failing to come together neatly. The end of the novel doesnt reach a neat climax so much as it is the point where the various different plot points and characters collide. Indeed, towards the very end of the novel certain rather important events are skipped over so that the reader ends up with a rather confusing retrospective recount of all that has happened. To me, the least effective element of the plot is the way in which the killer is, Scooby Doo-like, eventually unmasked. And it is indeed an unmasking, as despite the red herrings throughout the plot, no actual clues have been offered that could lead to this persons being the killer. To be honest, its rather frustrating that Detective Hunter takes the time to reflect back on all manner of conversations and past events that dont actually occur within the pages of the book itself to assert that, yes, indeed, it does all make sense, when, quite frankly, it doesnt.
Because two years ago, the Crucifix Killer was caught and executed. Could this therefore be a copycat killer? Or could the unthinkable be true? Is the real killer still out there, ready to embark once again on a vicious and violent killing spree, selecting his victims seemingly at random, taunting Robert Hunter with his inability to catch him? Hunter and his rookie partner, Garcia, need to solve this case and fast.
7fc3f7cf58