An Evil Mind

October 5, 2015
In this slick serial-killer thriller from bestselling author Carter (The Death Sculptor), a gruesome discovery in a Wyoming diner parking lot leads to a series of interviews at the FBI’s Quantico Academy between Det. Robert Hunter, of the LAPD, and Lucien Folter, Hunter’s former Stanford roommate and a fellow criminal psychologist, who’s the prime suspect in some 30 cannibalistic murders. Bent on discovering the remains of all the skinned and mutilated victims, Hunter and FBI special agent Courtney Taylor, supervised by Adrian Kennedy, director of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, embark on a lurid game with Folter that culminates in a beyond-belief chase through New England and a predictable climactic bloodbath. Shallow characterizations and barely digested gobbets of textbook behavioral psychology make this lurid exercise not so much a dizzying descent into a sociopathic mind as a sensationalistic carnival ride through shaky chipped-paint scenery. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary Agency.

October 15, 2015
When a double homicide is reported in rural Wyoming, the case is quickly turned over to the FBI as details suggest there is a serial killer at work. Enter Robert Hunter, an experienced profiler from the LAPD. Turns out Hunter went to college with the suspect, the creepy Lucien Folter, who claims he's being set up as part of a huge web of crimesincluding kidnappings, torture, and brutal killingsthat have occurred over the last two and a half decades. As Folter reveals details of a previous crime that is personal to Hunter, the novel plays out as a game of wits between the manipulative Folter and the smoothly smart Hunter. Twists and turns and cliff-hangers abound in this swiftly paced tale. Carter, a criminal psychologist, doesn't mince detailsafter all, Hunter is the head of the Ultra Violent Crime Unit (emphasis on the Ultra )so readers should be prepared for quite a bit of gruesome violence. But those who can stomach it will eagerly seek out the previous Hunter novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)