Bitter Instinct - Softcover

Walker, Robert W.

3.57

115 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0515135690 ISBN 13: 9780515135695

Publisher: Jove, 2003

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FBI Medical Examiner Dr. Jessica Coran is investigating a series of bizarre murders attributed to the Poet. His calling card is human skin engraved with toxic ink and verse. For Jessica, the most baffling aspect of the crimes is that no victim shows signs of resistance, or even fear. Only she has the insight to read between the Poet's lines-and to stop him before his final stroke of insane genius.

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About the Author:

New WORK this year - a record year for output as I have published here on Kindle in Feb. two titles: the 12th in my award-winning, highly acclaimed INSTINCT SERIES - The EDGE of INSTINCT (also bk.#5 in EDGE Series/combined ensemble casts, you see). In addition, to introduce new readers to my EIGHT separate series characters, I published a book of EIGHT short stories under title of THRILLER PARTY of 8 - The One That Got Away. Since two books put up in calendar year 2013 did not seem enough, I have now added in June a twisting, turning, churning, burning historical in the tradition of my Children of Salem meets Gone With The Wind entitled ANNIE'S WAR books #1 and #2 subtitled Love Amid the Ruins. Book #3 in this layered, complex pre-Civil War tale of the first home-grown terrorist attack on a US Armory in history, set in 1859 is through the eyes of the infamous John Brown? NO...through the eyes of his sexually active 17-year-old daughter. While it chronicles what happened at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, the dramatic novel is one foremost of love and romance at the forefront, and it devolves into a fierce gun battle. It reads like a western for good reason. If a fan of the recent Kevin Costner film on the Hatfields and the McCoys, this fits right in that ballpark...and in fact, I modeled my John Brown on Kostner's role as Devil Anse. The two men would have had a lot in common. Anse and Brown that is...not Costner. Book THREE of ANNIE's WAR will be published before end of June, so the entire trilogy, each at 2.99 will be available as will a hefty offering of the ENTIRE thee books in ONE kindle order for 5.99 - a real bargain. Counting Annie's Trilogy then in Calendar Year 2013 --so far-- I have completed and Kindled FIVE book-length works, Four being novels, One being Shorts, plus have shown up in three anthologies this year...and the year is only half over. There could be more!

From Publishers Weekly:

FBI whiz medical examiner Dr. Jessica Coran returns to face a poet-cum-serial killer on the rampage through Philadelphia's bohemian subculture in this lackluster addition to Walker's macabre Instinct series (Killer Instinct, etc.). Jessica must rely not only on her forensic skills, but on interpretations of the Byronesque poetry that the killer leaves on his victims' backs he poisons them with toxic ink as he writes with an old-fashioned quill pen. Jessica's friend, FBI resident psychic Kim Desinor, contributes her psychometric impressions to the investigation, grasping at anything that might help Jessica understand or identify this elusive murderer. The situation is complicated not only by the shaky cooperation of the local police detective and the FBI agent in charge, Jessica's old flame James Parry, but also by the fad of body poetry among students and disaffected youths, making them even more reluctant than usual to aid law enforcement despite the murders. Jessica and her team are also hindered by the neuroses and infighting of the local university's literary faculty, whom they enlist for additional opinions on the poems and later consider as suspects. But the intriguing villain is wasted on this clumsy tale. Despite Walker's too frequent references to Jessica's past triumphs and stellar reputation, there is scant evidence here of investigative acumen or even common sense. Walker seeks unsuccessfully to deepen his heroine's character through tipsy love-life chats with Kim, and neglects Jessica's professional development. Worse than the cartoonish characters is the hokey literary exegesis the reader is subjected to as each new body is examined. (May)Forecast: Perhaps Jessica Coran devotees will overlook these lapses, but neither she nor the author is likely to win new fans with this halfhearted outing.

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