Rating: 
Summary: Chilling medical thriller
Review: He calls himself the Poet. His targets trust him so much so they cooperate as he engraves a piece of his epic verse on their backs. His victims are unaware that the ink is poison and soon leads to a swift, painless death. The Poet believes that his victims are angels who must return home so that when every one of them are finally gone, he will be transferred into an angel too.After the third similar death, the Philadelphia police realize they have made no progress in catching this serial killer that leaves a calling card. The FBI sends two agents, medical examiner Dr. Jessica Coran and psychic expert Kim Desinow, to join the local task force. They quickly learn that the young have taken to having poetry written on their backs as a form of twisted homage. This makes tracing clues that much more difficult as this counterculture phenomena hides the culprit's trail behind wrong suspects. As the murder count rises, the City of Brotherly Love Task Force finds little to feel friendly about as they fail to gain any ground on identifying the murderer. BITTER INSTINCT is a very frightening police thriller that shows the difficulty in catching a destructive individual when society adopts him as a hero. Robert W. Walker combines the best of Cornwell with Koontz in this psychological terror investigative novel. The heroine is quite good as a person struggling to profile a "popular" killer whose camouflage is inadvertently developed by the teens of the city. Mr. Walker has another captivating novel that readers will fully appreciate. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Stinky writer
Review: I can't believe this guy got published. His writing is fragmented, disjointed. His character development is poor. Yuck! How can anyone say he's better than . . .
Rating:
Summary: This book borke my record.
Review: I have always been patient. Once I picked a book, I will make myself finish it as a way to tell myself that my choice is correct and worthy. But sorry, could not do it with this one. The 1st 50 some pages were fine, but then it went downhill. A point made was repeatedly said, scenes were dragging, unnecessary script and telling like the Russian helicopter and the ride side tracked the story, the writer showed off too much with the poems/peotry...all made the reading bulky and dull. I did make an effort to convince the story would pick up later. However, if by finishing 1/3 of the book and it still could not intrigue me, reading which should be a pleasant activity turned to be a chore.
Rating:
Summary: Stinky writer
Review: I have throughly enjoyed the instinct series so far. This latest novel is no exception. Jessica is in London, looking for a vicious killer, no surprise there, however, JT gets left behind on an interesting John Doe case. The tattooed man has no identity, only his tattoos, which JT tries to track him down on. This time, we don't know the identity of the killer and this makes the story much more thrilling. A real whodunit! I can't wait for the next one! Thanks for reading! **Pandora
Rating: 
Summary: This instinct is very bitter indeed!
Review: I have throughly enjoyed the instinct series so far. This latest novel is no exception. Jessica is in London, looking for a vicious killer, no surprise there, however, JT gets left behind on an interesting John Doe case. The tattooed man has no identity, only his tattoos, which JT tries to track him down on. This time, we don't know the identity of the killer and this makes the story much more thrilling. A real whodunit! I can't wait for the next one! Thanks for reading! **Pandora
Rating: 
Summary: A good read but something's missing
Review: I picked this up because the blurbs said it was similar to another author noted for her strong female character Kay Scarpetta. Oh how I miss that. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but it was a good read. Me, I'm hooked on forensic science and even enjoy Johanson's Eve Duncan which she hasn't written more of, drat. Walker was OK, a fair substitute until something better comes along. The surprise suspect and killer wasn't known thru much of the book, and I was surprised at the revelation, but the plot did seem to drag. Whose poetry did he use?
Rating:
Summary: A good read but something's missing
Review: I picked this up because the blurbs said it was similar to another author noted for her strong female character Kay Scarpetta. Oh how I miss that. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but it was a good read. Me, I'm hooked on forensic science and even enjoy Johanson's Eve Duncan which she hasn't written more of, drat. Walker was OK, a fair substitute until something better comes along. The surprise suspect and killer wasn't known thru much of the book, and I was surprised at the revelation, but the plot did seem to drag. Whose poetry did he use?
Rating:
Summary: This book borke my record.
Review: If you have been anxiously awaiting this Jessica Coran novel as I have, just skip over it and wait for the next one. This storyline was not even close to the previous Jessica Coran "Instinct" novels. It was, frankly, boring. Too much gibberish about poetry and not enough forensic details as all of the other stories in the past have had. I read these novels for the terrific medical/forensic details, hard-hitting detective work, and the gripping suspense that usually keep me guessing until the very end. This novel should be non-fiction based on all that I learned about the poets and poetry of the modern and pre-modern world. Take my advice, as a huge fan of Robert Walker, wait for the next installment in the Instinct series (hopefully there is one) and hope also that it is much, much better than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Wait for the next one!!
Review: If you have been anxiously awaiting this Jessica Coran novel as I have, just skip over it and wait for the next one. This storyline was not even close to the previous Jessica Coran "Instinct" novels. It was, frankly, boring. Too much gibberish about poetry and not enough forensic details as all of the other stories in the past have had. I read these novels for the terrific medical/forensic details, hard-hitting detective work, and the gripping suspense that usually keep me guessing until the very end. This novel should be non-fiction based on all that I learned about the poets and poetry of the modern and pre-modern world. Take my advice, as a huge fan of Robert Walker, wait for the next installment in the Instinct series (hopefully there is one) and hope also that it is much, much better than this one.
Rating:
Summary: WALKER IS BETTER THAN SANDFORD & KELLERMAN!
Review: Robert W. Walker is a fascinating author. I feel that he is one of the best suspense novelists there is. Every one of his Instinct novels and Edge novels are fun, exhilirating, and worthwile to read. FBI Agent Dr. Jessica Coran is a well-developed character, who is enjoyable and exciting to read about. In "Bitter Instinct," there is a killer on the loose who is dubbed as The Poet. At the beginning of the novel, in Philadelphia, he has already killed three victims. Engraved with a sharp pen, the Poet poisons his victims and then writes a few lines of poetry on their back. The Philadelphia police are stumped and ask for the help of Jessica Coran. As Coran and her psychic agent, Kim Desinor, try to capture this sadistic killer, they have to be on the lookout for their own lives. After investigating for days and coming up with no leads, they get a call from a dean the local college who claims to know the identity of the killer. Is this prestigious professor a killer? Is it someone not affiliated with college? Or is it the dean herself? "Bitter Instinct" is an amazing novel with twists and turns everywhere. If you are going to read one suspense novel this summer, then read "Bitter Instinct."
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