Absolute Instinct (Jessica Coran Novels)

Rating:
Summary: Absolute Instinct is absolutely terrifying
Review: As a longtime fan of Robert W. Walker's Instinct series, I was eager to get my hands in his latest Jessica Coran story. It was worth the wait, because Walker's novel made my skin want to slide from my bones.

The killer in Absolute Instinct exhibits his evil nature at the ripe age of seven when his mother catches him sucking the marrow of her dead cat's spine. That scene actually made my blood boil, and I said a curse out loud.

Not to become political in a book review, but I immediately thought of research that shows most serial killers start by killing or torturing animals. I nearly stopped reading in order to write my Congressman a letter pleading for stricter animal cruelty laws. However, I was hooked into finishing this book in hopes that Walker's character, Jessica Coran, would track down this demon child (as the adult he becomes, of course).

In a twist of cruel reality, the child became a man, and that man is obsessed with the human spine. He is tracking his victims and actually removing the spine while the victim is alive. Of course, he doesn't want to be wasteful, and it seems that he is turning the spines into grotesque artwork.

If you have ever wondered if serial killers are born or created from the environment, Walker offers the idea that they are born. The killer is driven and haunted by not knowing who his father is. His mother tormented with tales of his father being a monster, and he is accused of being just like him until the day she dies.

On her death bed, she gives her son a box that contains all the information that explains who the spine sucker is the spawn of. The killer does not open it for most of the story, but when he does long time readers and newcomers alike will be in for a big surprise.

At the same time that the reader is following the killer through his tribulations, we are with Jessica Coran as she works to figure these bizarre murders. One problem is that they are happening across the country, and one state has already convicted someone for the crime. Coran finds herself in a race to not only catch a killer, but to save an innocent man.

It is a fast-paced, well-written, and extremely creepy mystery suspense novel. The kind of book that I Absolutely love.

GRADE: A+

Eric M.Croas


Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Bad
Review: Here are just a few examples of this absolutely bad writing and editing. When a character is reading a book intently, she is "pouring" over the book; perhaps the author meant "poring". When a character finds another's conduct bad, the first character is "enamored"; perhaps the author meant "not enamored". When a character finds something interesting, he is "peaked"; perhaps the author meant interest was "piqued". I could go on and on, but these are just a few example of lazy writing.

If the plot and dialog weren't so stilted, I could forgive minor errors, but I was stuck with this novel on an airplane.

By the way, the author in his "Acknowledgments" spends most of his words on himself, even describing himself as the "undisputed king of series fiction" and denies drinking vodka while writing this book. I kid you not.

Finally, the initial reviewer has a few errors in her comments. The first character mentioned was not Laura Graham, but Larina Gahram. The black FBI agent was not Darwin Williams, but Darwin Reynolds.

Rating:
Summary: Absolute Instinct
Review: If you like spine chilling type books then Absolute Instinct will have you on the edge of your chair. A man sits on death row for a crime he may or may not have commited, the only thing that might set him free is a missing spine, is there a connection? They claim he kills women and takes their spine, but if he's the killer why is there another woman dead and her body missing a spine, can this be a mirror crime? or is the real killer still out there. Time is running out on death row, how many more deaths will take place before they decide if they have two killers or just one and the wrong man will die for the crimes he did not commit. The book is a real spine chiller- Larry Hobson-Author-The Day Of The Rose

Rating:
Summary: action packed thriller
Review: Laura Graham caught her seven-year-old son Giles drinking the fluid and eating the marrow of her beloved cat's spinal column. When he reached adulthood he graduated to dining on the spine of humans while they were still conscious and after drinking the fluid and eating the marrow he made the spine a part of his sculpture. In Portland Oregon, a black man was found guilty of killing his white wife and hiding her spinal column. FBI agent Darwin Williams doesn't believe that the man sitting on death row, Robert Towne is guilty.

When Giles takes the spine from a woman in Milwaukee, the M.O. is the same as two other homicides including the one in Oregon. Darwin calls on Dr. Jessica Coran to prove that all these crimes were performed by the same man so an innocent person can be released from prison. When Jessica is finally convinced by the evidence, she talks to the governor for a stay of execution but the racist governor insists he needs more proof. Jessica has Darwin and the death row inmate devise a daring plan to free the prisoner while she offers herself up in a cat and mouse game with Giles who wants to make her his next victim.

This action packed thriller starts off at light speed and only gets faster but the heart of ABSOLUTE TERROR lies with the characters each in their own way going extraordinary lengths to find a way to free a man three days from his date with the needle. Jessica is her usually feisty self, taking daring chances to save an innocent man she does not know. Robert W. Walker is at his absolute best with ABSOLUTE INSTINCTS.

Harriet Klausner