Mind Games

October 8, 2018
FBI profiler Kaely Quinn, the heroine of this uneven series launch from Mehl (Unbreakable), was born Jessica Oliphant, but she changed her name after she discovered that her father, Ed Oliphant, was a serial killer. Kaely has recently relocated to St. Louis from Quantico, Va.—glad to have escaped reporter Jerry Acosta, who used to pester her for interviews, “determined to write a book about the daughter of a monster who now fought monsters for a living.” Then the obsessed Jerry shows up in St. Louis with an anonymous poem he received in the mail, titled “Seven Little Elephants: A Eulogy for Kaely Quinn.” The allegorical poem outlines a series of murders leading up to Kaely’s suicide. It also identifies her as Jessica. Thus begins a hunt, complicated by the attentions of two fellow FBI agents who are attracted to Kaely, for a killer who knows a lot about her past. Some readers may find the motive of the unlikely killer unconvincing, but fans of romantic mysteries will want to see more of the gutsy Kaely.