The Darkness of Evil
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the USA Today–bestselling author, FBI profiler Karen Vail hunts for an escaped serial killer in this "impressive" thriller (John Sandford,#1 New York Times–bestselling author)
Jasmine Marcks was a teenager when she discovered her father was a killer. First, there was the strip of bloody duct tape; then, the bloodstain on his shirt; and finally, the long nights away from home that always coincided with gruesome deaths. Roscoe Lee Marcks killed fourteen people before he was finally put behind bars. But as renowned FBI agent Karen Vail soon learns, Marcks's reign of terror isn't over yet.
When Jasmine receives a letter—a single sheet of paper mailed from the maximum-security prison Marcks now calls home, the page hides a threatening message from a father who wants vengeance against the daughter who turned him in to the police. So when Marcks breaks out of prison, Agent Vail calls on a legendary retired profiler to help her find the escaped convict—and keep him from making Jasmine his fifteenth victim.
"Smoothly written and intricately plotted. Like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Jacobson lays bare the malevolence that lurks in the human heart." —John Sandford, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Lethal Prey
"Intriguing . . . A right-good thriller . . . [with] top-level action." —Booklist
"A slick, fast read full of very clever twists. Karen Vail is one tough heroine!" —Phillip Margolin, New York Times–bestselling author of Violent Crimes
"Addictive reading . . . by a master storyteller at the top of his game." —The Strand Magazine
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jacobson's so-so seventh Karen Vail novel (after 2014's Spectrum) opens in a Washington, D.C., TV studio, where a talk show host is interviewing Jasmine Marcks about the book she's written about her father, Roscoe Lee Marcks (aka the Blood Lines serial killer). Through the years, Jasmine tried to reconcile the fact that the loving father she knew killed 14 people before being sent to prison. Although the police at first didn't believe her, Jasmine is credited with turning in her father after discovering bloody duct tape in his car and other evidence. Jasmine's fears that her father may try to harm her may become a reality when he escapes from prison. As Roscoe continues his killing spree, Karen's hunt for the fugitive is complicated by several arsons that may be linked to him. Law enforcement procedures and profiling details elevate the story, as does the matching of the insightful Karen against the intelligent Roscoe. But the cumbersome plot is marred by too many tangents, banal dialogue, and a preposterous twist near the end.)
