State of Mind - Hardcover

Katzenbach, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345386310 ISBN 13: 9780345386311

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1997

Synopsis

An authority on serial killers wrestles with an unspeakable secret. A puzzle writer is caught in a terrifying game to the death. A madman thirsts for revenge--and reckoning. In State of Mind, John Katzenbach turns these elements into a pulse-pounding ride of nonstop action and psychological suspense.

A professor of abnormal psychology, Jeffrey Clayton struggles with a dark past. Twenty-five years before, Jeffrey and his mother and sister fled his tyrannical father--a man who was later suspected in the heinous murder of a young student. Though the father was never charged, he committed suicide. Or so it seemed.

Since then Jeffrey's mother and his sister Susan have concealed themselves in the remote tangled swamps of the Upper Keys, where Susan creates word games for Miami Magazine. But someone has sent her a cryptic note. Once deciphered, it carries a terrifying message: I have found you.

At the same time, a serial killer has invaded a community whose citizens seek a haven of old-fashioned values. And one new-fashioned guarantee: unconditional safety. But no one is safe from this intruder--who murders young girls in unspeakable ways. Is Jeffrey Clayton's father the source of this latest killing spree? The authorities think so--and they present Jeffrey with an ultimatum: find the butcher responsible for the newborn spate of carnage. Find your father.

As this race-against-time scenario unfolds, each player--brother, sister, mother--becomes a pawn in a cunning killer's elaborate maze. "He plays at death," Jeffrey says. "That's the game. And now, we're the pieces. . . ."

Surpassing his earlier acclaimed achievements, John Katzenbach here devises a masterful cat-and-mouse exercise in suspense--with the storytelling prowess of Just Cause and a psychotic villain as menancing as The Shadow Man. In State of Mind, Katzenbach has created his most chilling novel yet.

About this title

Review

Susan Clayton, a professional puzzle maker, is stumped by this anonymous note left at her door: "THE FIRST PERSON POSSESSES THAT WHICH THE SECOND PERSON HID." Distracted by the sweltering Florida Keys evening and her cancer-stricken mother in the next room, Susan spends hours before she solves the riddle--it means "I have found you." Ominous words, considering that a serial killer is stalking Florida. And in this novel, Florida is ominous to begin with: it's set in a Robocop-like future society where people carry semiautomatics like breath mints, road rage reigns, and folks gladly trade their right to privacy for a place in a protected community called the Fifty-first State (Katzenbach's scary takeoff on Disney's planned town of Celebration, Florida). Meanwhile, Susan's brother Jeffrey, an authority on serial killers, is finishing up a lecture when his silent security alarm flashes. His metal-detecting alarm was set off by special agent Robert Martin of "State Security" (an American-style SS), who confronts the good professor with some bad news about his late father, a psychopath. Could he be the one who left Susan that threatening note? Can anybody stop the Fifty-first State from getting even scarier? With mounting suspense, Jeffrey, Susan, and their ailing mother put their heads together to keep the futuristic body count from getting wholly out of control. There is perhaps a touch less gore than Katzenbach fans may be used to, but no fewer thrills. He has seen the future, and it will make your hair stand on end. --Rebekah Warren

From the Publisher

"Few writers of criminal fiction seem to understand the criminal mind as well as Katzenbach."
--People

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0345386310
• ISBN 13: 9780345386311
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 409