Mind Kill - Hardcover

Richard La Plante

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316878707 ISBN 13: 9780316878708

Publisher: Little, Brown, 1997

Synopsis

Incarcerated cult leader Justin Gabriel, convicted of ordering his followers to kill, has spent ten years honing his mind control abilities. His parole hearing is approaching—his one and only shot at freedom—and he is determined to silence anyone who might speak against him. Taking the form of a giant predatory bird, Gabriel terrorizes his enemies—those who got him convicted—through their dreams, causing heart attacks or insanity. The last survivor is ex-cop Bill Fogarty, now retired and enjoying a new life and love. Gabriel invades Fogarty’s dreams with terrifying visions, eventually causing a mental breakdown and institutionalization. Fogarty’s longtime friend and former colleague, Philadelphia medical examiner Josef Tanaka, desperately tries to put the pieces together in time to save his friend. But will these two men, accustomed to the clinical realities of autopsy tables and precinct desks, be able to fight for their lives in the realm of the Dreamtime?

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

The X-Files might be useful here as a kind of litmus test. For those who love the TV mega-hit, this fourth in La Plante's creepy-crawly series (Steroid Blues, 1995, etc.) stands a better than average chance of finding favor. X-File naysayers should probably look elsewhere. Because realityor whats commonly accepted as suchgives way here to a set of operating principles difficult to describe and even harder to define. This makes for a world in which anything is possible and nothingperish the thoughtrequires the anchoring of conventional science. ``We're all just one big mind,'' says a La Plante character who's got it figured out. X-File fans will no doubt know what that means, or at least be comfortable with not knowing. They'll also be prepared for Justin Gabriel, a heartless killer who commits his crimes while locked away in Philadelphia's Greaterford prison. By hiring hit men? Nothing so mundane. He dreams his wayit's a ``spontaneous transmission of energy `' thinginto his victims minds and frightens them into cardiac arrest. Bill Fogarty, retired cop and one of the series heroes, becomes a case in point. He's being driven to distraction by a terrifying Gabriel emanationan enormous black bird of prey. No one else can see it, but it haunts Fogarty, who obsesses over it, can't get free of it, and is being destroyed by it. Enter his pal Joey Tanaka, forensic pathologist, martial arts specialist, and co-series hero, who rids Fogarty of his demon. How that happensa kind of Pilgrim's Progress to a Zenlike never-never landforms the burden of La Plante's tale. Not for everyone, obviously: too strange, too surreal. Yet it's paradoxically true that the most affecting thing in the novel is the friendship between Fogarty and Tanakaindomitable, imperishable, and as traditional as David and Jonathan. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

A murderer who kills via mind control proves a formidable adversary for a Philadelphia medical examiner in La Plante's latest suspense outing, which turns from the author's normal martial arts motif (Leopard, etc.) to the dark side of ESP. Ex-cop Bill Fogarty's Long Island retirement plans are rudely interrupted when a strange nightmare brings on a psychotic episode and lands him in a mental hospital. The dream's author is charismatic Justin Gabriel, a Manson-esque cult leader whom Fogarty busted for murder several years earlier. Intent on killing everyone who helped put him away, Gabriel has been using his psychic powers to visit his enemies in their dreams and provoke deadly panic attacks. The task of stopping him falls to Fogarty's friend, medical examiner Josef Tanaka, who uses his own ESP to connect the dots in the case. But Tanaka soon finds himself a target of the diabolical Gabriel: Tanaka is forced to kidnap Fogarty from the hospital and make him mentally revisit the bust that led to Gabriel's quest for vengeance. La Plante props up a questionable conceit with an engaging cast of characters, writes believable "imaginary" murder scenes and makes a home for both paranormal and normal suspense in this briskly plotted tale. Agent: Nat Sobel.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0316878707
• ISBN 13: 9780316878708
• Binding: Hardcover