A Killer's Essence

July 4, 2011
In Zeltserman's uneven stand-alone, a crime thriller set in New York City in 2004, NYPD Det. Stan Green's boss dispatches him one night to a lower Manhattan crime scene, where the corpse of a woman, eventually identified as Gail Laurent, has been found. Laurent's killer shot her once in the face, twice in the chest, and also cut off three of her fingers. Surveillance video leads Green to Zachary Lynch, who witnessed the murder. To Green's frustration, Lynch, who suffered an accident causing brain damage that left him unable to see people in the usual way, can only describe the criminal's clothing. Green is sure that the sadism of the crime means that a serial killer is responsible, but leads are scarce, and personal problems, especially Green's strained relationship with his children, who live with his ex in Rhode Island, intrude. Zeltserman (Small Crimes) convincingly portrays the daily grind of police work, but the plot's resolution will satisfy few.

September 1, 2011

An NYPD homicide cop who's seen it all finds a strange new way to see it all in Zeltserman's latest trip to the dark side (The Caretaker of Lorne Field, 2010, etc.).

Fifty-two-year-old Gail Laurent had led a blameless life. One might say she didn't have an enemy in the world. Not so. Shot multiple times and savagely treated thereafter, she is discarded, like a mutilated paperback, not far from the front door of a bookstore. Witnesses? Yes and no. Examining the tape from the store's surveillance camera, Detective Stan Green watches a man come into the frame, freeze, then register extreme horror. When questioned, however, Zachary Lynch swears he can't be helpful. He acknowledges that he may have actually witnessed the killing but insists there's no way he can identify the killer. In the meantime, Green's domestic life is no picnic either. There's the wear and tear of maintaining amicable relations with a spiteful ex-wife, matched by the strain of coping with a gorgeous, much younger girlfriend. And let's not forget the $3,000 he owes to absolutely the wrong people. On the job, it's now beyond question that the police have a vicious serial killer on their hands. Pressure mounts exponentially. NYPD brass wants the case cracked yesterday. Green thinks wistfully of other lines of work. And then suddenly, a long-dormant memory surges up from his unconscious to give a weirdly literal dimension to the phrase "soul-searching," and serve as a key to the puzzle.

Zeltserman's signature creepiness is available here and there, but what really drives this novel is the engaging portrait of an honest, hardworking cop who, on the job and off, gives the best he's got, knowing how rarely it will be enough.

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August 1, 2011
Zeltserman is garnering quite a reputation for innovation in crime fiction, and his latest book shows why. Beginning with all the customary trappings of a world-weary cop yarn, the novel smoothly transitions into Zeltserman's subtle, edgy brand of horror. Homicide detective Stan Green thinks his one lead to the identity of a serial killer just went south when Zachary Lynch, the only eyewitness, claims he only sees people's souls, not their faces. As Green gradually learns more than he really wants to know about Lynch and the bizarre ability he claims to possess, the novel becomes a character-rich study of conflict between preconception and perception. Mix in a serial killer making his debut, and the tension just keeps coming. Zeltserman's new work retains the honed-razor psychological insight of his award-winning The Caretaker of Lorne Field (2010). A scary, keep-you-guessing thriller not to be missed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)