Eight in the Box

In a world in which novels about serial killers vastly outnumber the real thing (fortunately), Raffi Yassayan has come up with a fascinating twist: a serial killer who takes the body and leaves behind only a bathtub full of blood. Stephen Hoye builds the suspense with his articulate delivery, occasionally dropping verbal cues to the observant listener about particularly significant clues. Hoye offers many different voices as he becomes the police detectives who are tracking down the murderer, who seems to kill without a pattern. Ther's no confusion among the many voices. The motives of the killer are revealed eventually, but not in typical crime novel fashion. The ending is a shocker that few will see coming. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

April 7, 2008
Defense attorney Yessayan's promising debut nicely juggles a large cast of attorneys and cops, though at times it comes close to sounding like a legal spinoff of the TV show Friends
. Someone is killing young women in Boston, or at least young women are disappearing, leaving behind no trace except bathtubs full of blood. The police are pretty sure the victims must be dead, but no bodies have been found. The killer, who's identified for the reader as Richter, is doing something with the bodies that involves embalming, but it remains unclear what he's up to until the very end. Extended forays into race relations, the plight of the poor and questions of legal responsibility tend to slow the action. Hopefully, Yessayan, who doesn't stray beyond the conventional bounds of the legal thriller/serial killer subgenre, will strike out in his own direction next time.