Time Release
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
An obsessed cop gets a second chance to take down a madman he failed to arrest a decade earlier in this thriller by the author of Combustion.
Pittsburgh, 1986: The city is gripped in a panic as a maniac slips poison onto pharmacy shelves. All the evidence has pointed to Ron Corbett, but shoddy policework let Corbett off the hook and left the crime unsolved.
Ten years later, it’s happening again. This time, for the most personal of reasons, Detective Downing has made it his mission to see Corbett behind bars. He enlists the help of Jim Christensen, a psychologist who specializes in memory, to interview Corbett’s son, now a young man with a painful past and problems of his own. Does the boy remember his father poisoning pill containers? Has he blocked memories of a horrific crime spree enacted in his own house? As Christensen explores the boy’s memory and Downing grows more obsessive investigating the case, both men fear that the killings now may not be as random as they once thought, and that unlocking memories may draw them too close to a vicious predator.
“Time Release sizzles, cooks, and singes! It’s a whipcord thriller full of deftly drawn characters, intrigue, and taut action. This is a spellbindingly accomplished first novel”—James Ellroy, New York Times–bestselling author of The Big Nowhere
“A fast, smart read and one fine thriller.”—Robert Ferrigno, New York Times–bestselling author of Prayers for the Assassin
“Unexpected plot twists and breathless tension combine for a suspenseful ride that doesn’t let up.”—The Kansas City Star
“Time Release is a fast, smart read and one fine thriller.”
—Robert Ferrigno, New York Times bestselling author of Prayers for the Assassin
“Unexpected plot twists and breathless tension combine for a suspenseful ride that doesn’t let up.”
—The Kansas City Star
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Smith translates the 1982 Tylenol poisoning of seven people in Chicago into six people dead of Primenyl tampering in Pittsburgh, ca. 1986. At the time, Detective Grady Downing was positive he knew who was behind the killings, but he couldn't get enough evidence to convict. The chase destroyed his personal life and nearly capsized his career as well. Now, on the murders' 10th anniversary, Downing's sure the killer is at it again but the detective can't get involved officially. For help, he turns to Jim Christensen, a repressed-memory expert who owes Downing a favor. He wants Christensen to sift through the mind of Sonny, the youngest (surviving) son of his suspect, Ron Corbett. What Downing doesn't tell Christensen is that on both his last outing and this one, the killer turned on him when he came too close. Downing makes a fine tortured character, though the equally traumatized Christensen isn't as likable and is also plagued by Smith's many meanderings into his personal life. This is a good creepy debut thriller that comes with one caveat for aficionados of the procedural: old-fashioned police work doesn't solve the crime, psychology does (more than memories are being repressed here) so skeptics beware.
