"SINGULARITY" by Kathryn Casey (A-)
This is a tense and gripping detective thriller detailing
the frantic search for a nameless and faceless psychotic killer who may be stalking the streets of Texas looking for his next
victim. Novels featuring a crazed killer like this are plentiful, but the author has added much more to the story than merely
providing us with a tightly written and tightly wound tale that is sure to leave us sitting in suspense on the edge of our
chairs.
To her great credit, author Kathryn Casey alternates chapters of deep intrigue with chapters of
the heroine's domestic life so that we have a picture of a complete person instead of just a cardboard character who is 100%
cop and little else. The tension level should never be ratcheted up all of the time, something that master filmmaker Alfred
Hitchcock well understood with the insertion of numerous quiet moments into his movies to relieve the tension. Filling out
the spaces from a character standpoint makes for a better and more interesting story, and this author has my appreciation
for doing this.
This is all the more important in this instance because the case involves the pursuit of a deeply
disturbed killer who mutilates his victims, usually not my favorite kind of reading material. I would like to state for the
record that I am not a fan of crime stories about psychotic killers, and this goes doubly for novels that try to pry into
the mind of the killer. Some authors love to do this, but for me reading stories from the vantage point of a killer is very
unsettling. I don't want to go there, so just leave me with the good guys trying to save us from these wackos.
Criminal profilers have
become very popular on television, so this novel should strike a cord with anyone who is fascinated by that line of detective
work. Lieutenant Sarah Armstrong is not just a criminal profiler, but a criminal profiler with the elite Texas Rangers, and
she happens to be the only criminal profiler who works for that law enforcement agency.
The Texas Rangers are a
small group of the best of the best and Sarah is one of only two women who are members. Rangers report directly to the Governor
and have the mandate to operate anywhere and everywhere throughout the state of Texas, but only when invited by the local
authorities. This usually happens in high profile cases or in situations where local law enforcement resources are not able
to handle the case.
Such is the situation when the bodies of Edward Travis Lucas, III, and Annmarie Knowles were found
tied and bound in his luxurious Galveston Island beach house. Religious symbols were carved into their bodies as well as painted
on the walls in blood as if to convey some sense of deeply distorted personal justification for this horrific deed. It turns
out that Lucas was a multimillionaire Galveston businessman and Annmarie Knowles was his mistress and a lawyer who worked
for his firm.
Suspicion immediately centers on Lucas' wife, Mrs. Priscilla Lucas, on the theory that they were
about to embark on a nasty divorce with hundreds of millions of dollars involved. Furthermore, she was seen having a heated
argument with Annmarie Knowles in the her apartment the night before the killings. At least that is the way that Detective
O. L. Nelson, the lead local cop on the case, sees it. The obvious solution is always the only solution for him. Mrs. Lucas
further damages the case for her innocence by refusing to talk about the $100,000 that she had removed from her account just
three days before the murders.
Sarah is not so sure, for the ritualistic aspects of the crime scene strongly suggest a murder for
pleasure instead of a hit for money or revenge. Fortunately, in a high profile murder like this the Texas Rangers as well
as the FBI have been called in to help with the case. This is just as well, for Sarah has had a run in with Nelson before,
and he has since been resentful of her presence. The two FBI agents quickly settle in on the case. Agent Ted Scroggins aligns
himself with Nelson in wishing to arrest Mrs. Lucas, while Agent David Garrity, also a criminal profiler like Sarah, wants
to step back and look through the database for other recent murders in Texas that may bear this killer's modus operandi.
Sarah Armstrong shares
a warm home life on a small ranch with her mother and her beloved preteen daughter, Maggie, who she nicknames "Magpie." Mother
and daughter both share duties in the feeding and caring for Emma Lou, Maggie's horse. Sarah revels in Maggie's curious mind,
but at the moment she is being uncommunicative and having some problems at school. Like all mothers, Sarah feels guilty for
not being around more often, a situation exacerbated by her mother who is constantly voicing the same wish.
It is with Maggie and during
other quiet moments that Sarah is allowed to remember the recent loss of her beloved husband. Bill was also a Texas Ranger,
and the two had worked well together until he lost his life the previous spring in the line of duty. 2008, St. Martin's Minotaur,
306 pages.
