Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .
Serial Killers Booklist
Page Modified: June 1, 2007
Serial killers
A list of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist (BL), Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus, and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on this list. Titles are alphabetically by author. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
- Sleepyhead
Author: Billingham, Mark
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0066212995 Date: 2002
Booklist
Library Journal
Alison Willetts can't move or communicate, but she's aware. Her survival of a deliberately induced stroke convinces police her attacker made an error. But Detective Tom Thorne discovers that Alison is the psychopath's masterpiece; the three women he killed before her were mistakes. Thorne must find a criminal whose agenda is terrifyingly unique.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 8.16.02 - Lazybones
Author: Billingham, Mark
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060560851 Date: 2004
Booklist
Detective Inspector Thorne is on the trail of a serial killer who is preying upon serial rapists in the third in Billingham's chilling series.
Updated 5.7.04 - All the Dead Were Strangers
Author: Black, Ethan
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24 ISBN: 0345439007 Date: 2001
PW
From the author of Irresistible and The Broken Hearts Club comes the third gripping thriller featuring NYPD detective Conrad Voort, who now must tackle his most challenging case--and the most terrifying killer--of his career.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 7/16/01 - Even the Wicked: A Matthew Scudder Novel
Author: Block, Lawrence
Publisher: William Morrow List Price:$23 ISBN: 0688141811 Date: 1997
Kirkus
A vigilante serial killer is prowling New York, ruthlessly executing evil-doers whom he feels deserve to die. So far, his victims have included a child molester, a Mafia don, a violent anti-abortionist, and a racial hate monger. But when the killer targets a noted lawyer, Matthew Scudder is called upon to stop a frighteningly efficient killer who can do the seemingly impossible.
- The Silent Children
Author: Campbell, Ramsey
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312870566 Date: 2001
PW
Hector Woollie kills children, "liberating" them from "abusive" parents, and his next victims are Ian and Charlotte. Ian can hear his mother weeping right through the wall the duplex shares with the madman's hiding place. Yet if the children make so much a peep, Hector will slit their throats.
Updated 6/27/00 -
Widow's Walk
Author: Coburn, Andrew
Publisher: Five Star $ ? ISBN: 0786231602 Date: 2001
Kirkus
When three men are murdered in police chief Paul Jenkins' community of Boar's Bluff, New Hampshire, the DA s office wants the glory of solving the cases. The Chief has two choices: stay safely out of the investigation, or defy everybody and try to do it on his own . . . and risk losing his job to a sergeant he loathes. As Jenkins begins to pursue the truth, he risks a lot more as the killer tries to find out how much he really knows.
Updated 3/5/01 - Before
the Cradle Falls
Author: David, James F.
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765303191 Date: 2002
PW
Paralyzed by drink and despair since the accidental death of his young daughter Shelby, Detective Kyle Sommers nonetheless must lead a task force to catch a brutal serial killer.
Updated 4/30.02 - Flinch
Author: Ferrigno, Robert
Publisher: Pantheon $ 24 ISBN: 0375401253 Date: 2001
Booklist
The author of the brilliant debut work The Horse Latitudes now pens an electrifying, darkly funny novel about the rivalry of two brothers and one's search for a serial killer.
Suggested Reading: Black Humor
Updated 10/25/01 - Birdman
Author: Hayder, Mo
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 038549694x Date: 2000
PW
Five young women with their hearts cut out, gone without a trace; and not a single loved one has filed a missing persons report. All Detective Inspector Jack Caffery has to work with are five mutilated corpses and five little dead birds - a tiny finch replacing each womans heart.
- The Treatment
Author: Hayder, Mo
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385496958 Date: 2001
Publishers Weekly
The troubled hero of Hayder's Birdman, which "gripped the mind even as it quickened the pulse" (The New York Times) returns in an expertly crafted chiller that brings him face to face with haunting memories and palpable fears.
Updated 10/25/01 - The Hundredth Man
Author: Kerley, Jack
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 052594821x Date: 2004
Booklist
Kirkus
LJ
Recalling Michael Connelly's taut storytelling and James Patterson's searing narrative twists, Kerley creates a world where heroes can't succeed without madmen, and the dead are the most dangerous of all.
Link: The Hundredth Man web site
Suggested Reading: Psycho Killers | All Stars
Updated 4.20.04 - Adam and Eve and Pinch
Me
Author: Rendell, Ruth
Publisher: Crown $ 25 ISBN: 0609610252 Date: 2002
Booklist
PW
This chilling novel about serial killer in contemporary London is penned by one of the most celebrated mystery writers of our time. As the story gets under way, readers have no idea how a series of vicious stabbings could connect to the colorful cast of interacting characters.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 1/28/02 - The Office of
the Dead
Author: Taylor, Andrew
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312203489 Date: 2001
Kirkus
Tracing the psychological development of a female serial killer, Taylor's Roth Trilogy moves to a cathedral city in the 1950s to explore disturbing links between past and present.
Updated 6/22/00
Overbooked is a volunteer project undertaken by Ann Chambers Theis: Collection Management Administrator, Chesterfield County (VA) Public Library. 9501 Lori Rd. or P.O. Box 297, Chesterfield, VA, 23832. Phone: 804.748.1760.
Overbooked is not an official Chesterfield County Public Library service. Overbooked.org is a nonprofit web site hosted by CVCO - Central Virginia's Community Online. Overbooked.com is a nonprofit website in experimental mode. Overbooked does not endorse any commercial providers (or their products and services) linked to from this web site.
Join the Overbooked List - A quiet list for readers to share recent reads, keep up to date with details about new books, discuss favorite authors/titles, etc.
Comments, suggestions, corrections: Ann Chambers Theis (AKA Ann/ACT): Ann (ann_overbooked@earthlink.net) or Ann (ann@overbooked.com)
I really appreciate all the e-mail I receive from avid readers and writers and regret that I am not able to respond to all correspondents.
