Undercurrents - Softcover

Pearson, Ridley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312929587 ISBN 13: 9780312929589

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1992

Synopsis

Seattle is a city paralyzed by fear. A serial killer is loose on its streets. And as each new victim surfaces-chest slashed, eyes taped open-the tide of panic rises.

Driven by guilt and frustration, too exhausted to consider stopping, Detective Lou Boldt thinks he's finally gotten the break he needs to end the Cross Killer's twisted spree. But each new clue contradicts another. And each new corpse mocks Boldt's efforts.

To fathom the silent tale told by the latest corpse washed up in Puget Sound, Boldt has to go beyond every state-of-the-art method at his disposal. But as he gets closer to the truth, he travels deeper into the tortured mind of a relentless killer...into the depths of his own fear...and into a whirlpool of madness more frightening than his worst nightmares.

About this title

About the Author

Ridley Pearson is the award-winning coauthor, along with Dave Barry, of Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, Peter and Sword of Mercy, Escape from the Carnivale, Cave of the Dark Wind, Blood Tide, and Science Fair. He has also written more than twenty best-selling crime novels, inlcuding Killer View and Killer Weekend, and the young adult fantasies Kingdom Keepers-Disney After Dark, Kingdom Keepers II-Disney at Dawn, and Kingdom Keepers III-Disney in Shadow. He was the first American to be awarded the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in Detective Fiction at Oxford University.

From Publishers Weekly

A ghoulish series of murders of young women in the Seattle area has the city jittery with fear and the Seattle Homicide bureau exhaustively hunting down every wisp of a clue. Police Sergeant Lou Boldt, who heads up the investigation, has a special stake in finding the psychopathic murderer, dubbed the "Cross Killer" by the press. Boldt was involved in arresting a suspect in the case who was later gunned down in the courtroom, although now he appears to have been innocent of the crimes. The guilt from that death, the unraveling of his marriage and a new and disturbing twist to the escalating series of murders have Boldt totally obsessed., The new twist comes after a 10th body is found appearing to be the handiwork of the Cross Killer. To Boldt's fine-tuned eye, however, this latest murder may actually be the work of a copycat killeran imitation so good, in fact, that Boldt has the unnerving suspicion that this murderer may very well be somebody within the police department. The narrative unfolds in a series of deftly rendered cinematic scenes leading to a hair-raising denouement. Pierson (The Seizing of Yankee Green Mall) has the ability to create a credible protaganist and involve the reader in his dilemma by virtue of a neatly constructed plot. He has, in addition, an authentic feeling for police investigation and forensic medicine, and a remarkable insight and understanding of the motivations of the criminal mind. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; film rights to Martin Bergman Productions.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312929587
• ISBN 13: 9780312929589
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 435