At The Stroke Of Madness (Maggie O’Dell #4) -

Alex Kava

Mira

2008

408 páginas

13h 36m

ISBN-10: 0778325989

FBI Special Agent Maggie O’Dell is just starting a vacation when she gets a call from her friend, psychologist Dr. Gwen Patterson. One of Gwen’s patients is missing on a trip to Connecticut. Can Maggie look into Joan Begley’s disappearance?

At first Maggie dismisses Gwen’s concern. But when the body of a woman is discovered in an abandoned rock quarry in Connecticut, Maggie heads to the small town on “unofficial” business. Soon the shocking news surfaces that more bodies have been discovered, and Maggie is drawn into a case that confounds both local law enforcement and a seasoned criminal profiler like herself.

But where is Joan Begley? Is she in fact the woman discovered buried in the quarry? Or is she the unwilling guest of a killer obsessed with possessing an unimaginable prize from his victims?

During a cleanup excavation in the deserted quarry, a fifty-five-gallon drum was discovered, containing the remains of a woman. Then more barrels are found, containing more bodies: some of the dead have been brutally murdered, and some have already been buried. At this grisly discovery, Sheriff Watermeier calls in the FBI, as well as a forensic anthropologist, Dr. Adam "Bones" Bonzatto, in hopes of identifying the victims and ultimately the faceless killer.

Maggie arrives in Connecticut and begins to profile the killer — and quickly recognizes a pattern to his madness The victim range widely in age and include both men and women, but they have one thing in common: they all suffered from an illness or physical deformity of some sort. And the part of their body that was inflicting is missing. As bizarre as it seems, the killer appears to have a fascination, an obsession with his victims’ imperfections.

With only an old man who suffers from Alzheimer’s as a witness to the killer’s identity, Maggie realizes time is running out. Because another woman has gone missing, and the old man’s illness has made him the next target. Determined to put an end to the killing, Maggie has to dig deeper into her own resources than she’s ever done before to catch this killer of unparalleled madness.