A Killer’s Grace
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
For Kevin Pitcairn, the letter from a serial killer awaiting execution comes with implications he can’t ignore. The writer’s guilt is clear—at least in a legal sense. But the questions he raises draw Pitcairn into a compelling journey of investigation whose profound psychological and spiritual implications hurl his live into upheaval. As he tries to determine and tell the killer’s true story, Pitcairn plunges deeper into the pit his own demons have created and trapped him in. His journalist’s curiosity becomes a compulsion as events bind him tighter and tighter, propelling him from New Mexico’s stark high desert into an increasingly hostile wider world. Murder, mystery, and redemption shape Pitcairn’s struggle to answer the moral questions left festering by the killer’s horrible crimes: What is the nature of evil? What choices do any of us truly have? How can we reconcile with our most painful wounds and the people who have inflicted them?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Chapman's provocative metaphysical thriller, Kevin Pitcairn, a recovering alcoholic, works as a freelance reporter and columnist for the Albuquerque Chronicle. Much to his surprise, Pitcairn receives a lengthy letter from convicted serial killer Daniel Davidson, who turns out to be a reader of the journalist's work. Davidson hopes to persuade Pitcairn that mental illness drove him "to rape and kill," and that medication has worked to reduce his testosterone levels and enable him to master his violent fantasies. The murderer hopes Pitcairn will be receptive to the idea that his crimes could have been prevented with the right treatment. Davidson's hopes are soon realized, and Pitcairn sticks his neck out to advocate on the killer's behalf. Ultimately, Chapman's protagonist is overly simplistic at times, and the author fails to fully weave his exploration of free will into what proves an otherwise engaging story.
