My Rating- 4 Stars
Synopsis- Dr. Jessica Coran, a brilliant and determined FBI medical examiner, was an expert student of the criminal mind who thought she could face anything. That was before Wisconsin. Before she saw one of his victims... The FBI had a special code name for his unusual method of torture: Tort 9, the draining of the victim's blood. The newspapers called him the Vampire-Killer. But his own twisted love letters were signed 'Teach'...and were addressed to the one woman he wanted most of all: His hunter, his prey, Dr. Jessica Coran
My Review- The book kicks off pretty intensely, police searching for a missing girl, who they find tied up by the ankles, completely drained of blood and mutilated badly. The FBI are called in, introducing us to the main players in the book, doctor Jessica Coran and Agent Otto Boutine.
The descriptions were fantastic, the speech realistic and tense and I soon found myself liking the character deveopements throughout the book. Unfortunately I never seemed to connect fully with either Jess or Otto, though I enjoyed their personal romance. I did, however, connect with the killer of this book, a man with many issues, a man with an addiction and a man with a very intelligent mind. I looked forward to his POV and learning how he viewed the world around him, how he planned his murders and every day life. But every villian has his weakness...
The middle of the story was a little slow for me, with huge blocks of description which, honestly, I skipped past to get to the juicy bits then, a little further on the murders came thick and fast and as
the evidence was revealed I was absorbed back in to the book. By then I was gripped until the end...where I reached the part I chose not to give a full 5 stars to Killer Instinct. There was an abrupt end to what could have been fantastic drama/healing period and the death of one of the characters was shocking(though, I guess, intended)and sudden, not giving the reader any time for the loss to sink in. It seemed, though this character had a big part in the book that the death was...overlooked, hurried and it felt a little cold. It didnt feel right, though I think this is my personal opinion and does not take away from the brilliance of the story.
I look forward to reading another of Robert W. Walker's books and have a feeling he has added a stroke of genius to all his works.