Friday, August 19, 2011

Postcard Killers-James Patterson and Liza Markland

Postcard Killers
James Patterson and Liza Markland
Grand Central, Jul 12 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9780446569941

The two twentyish charming Americans tour Europe, but are uninterested in the sights. Instead the pair selects nice looking victims to butcher with knives. They send postcards warning the police they are coming to kill and afterward send pictures of their gruesome endeavors.

For six months NYPD Detective Jacob Kanon hunt the pair though he is always a few steps behind them. He lives for his obsession to butcher the two punks who murdered his twenty-one years old daughter Emily and her husband Clive. They send a postcard to reporter Dessie Larsson implying Stockholm is next following Berlin’s homicides. Police Superintendent Duval refuses to protect Larsson, but unshaven Jacob arrives feeling this time he will find the pair who ended his life when they ended his daughter’s life.

The serial killer cat and mouse game starts off with a powerful suspense but the latter half of the thriller feels padded. The killers are a frightening amoral pair while compulsive out of control demanding Jacob should have been deported for his behavior; though readers will empathize with his loss he is not likable as he seems to be a pale imitation of Liam Neeson’s Mills in Taken. Still his is an entertaining tale as the audience anticipates the confrontation between the reporter and the crazed cop vs. the Postcard Killers.

Harriet Klausner


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