Items related to A prayer for the dead
Synopsis
Approached by the police, former government hitman John Becker emerges from a self-imposed retirement to hunt down the twisted killer who has been preying on innocent people. Reprint. NYT. AB. PW.
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From Kirkus Reviews
Another serial psycho-killer from a specialist in the genre (The Wedding Guest, The Serpent, The Fifth Angel). Roger Dyce is a Connecticut insurance agent who likes to inject young men of Scandinavian extraction with a paralyzing drug, drain their blood (slowly, over several days), and dress them in the clothing of his beloved grandfather before dismembering their bodies. As he's disposing of his eighth victim, Dyce is drifting uncharacteristically toward Helen--a supermarket checker whose life expectancy dramatically declines--and eyeing as his next victim Eric Brandauer, a young tough who has ideas of his own. When his trap to catch Eric lands him in the hospital with an Eric-broken nose, Dyce comes face to face with his nemesis/double John Becker--an ex-FBI agent who quit the Bureau out of fear of his uncanny empathy for killers and his own growing propensity for violence.... The motivation of both men is tediously spun out--via italicized flashbacks revealing the nature of Dyce's attachment to his grandfather and Becker's sessions with his rock-climbing girlfriend and his psychiatrist--but the plotting of thrust and counterthrust, and the morituri musings, are chillingly understated. Creepy stuff, all right. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From Publishers Weekly
Wiltse displays powerful writing skills in this spellbinding thriller. Retired FBI agent John Becker reluctantly agrees to help the police chief of a small Connecticut town investigate the cases of 15 missing men. Becker has personal reasons for not wanting to become involved, but the gravity of situation draws him in. Learning that many of the men have mothers with Scandinavian maiden names, Becker guesses that someone with access to such information might be the culprit. Via clever sleuthing, he discovers that the same insurance salesman had visited all of the missing men: he is the seemingly quintessentially ordinary Roger Dyce. Becker gets a chance to question Dyce when the latter lands in the hospital after an intended victim beats him up, but Dyce senses danger and escapes. Hoping to predict the killer's next moves, Becker struggles to fathom the the psychopath's mind, succeeding in a feat of amazing intuition. But even as Becker closes in, Dyce takes more lives. Alternating between Dyce's and Becker's points of view, Wiltse (The Fifth Angel) builds tension with subtle, chilling precision.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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- PublisherSinclair-Stevenson
- Publication date1992
- ISBN 10 1856190927
- ISBN 13 9781856190923
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages297
- Rating
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A Prayer for the Dead
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A Prayer for the Dead
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ISBN 10: 1856190927
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Prayer for the Dead
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ISBN 10: 1856190927
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A Prayer for the Dead
Published by
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ISBN 10: 1856190927
ISBN 13: 9781856190923
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A prayer for the dead
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Sinclair-Stevenson, London, 1992
ISBN 10: 1856190927
ISBN 13: 9781856190923
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Prayer for the Dead
Published by
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ISBN 10: 1856190927
ISBN 13: 9781856190923
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Hardcover. Condition: Poor (ex-library). Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. Hardcover. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Sinclair-Stevenson, London, 1991. First Edition. *** CONDITION: The book itself is in poor (ex-library) condition and comes in good dust jacket. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: A former FBI agent comes out of a self-imposed retirement to catch a madman whose twisted crimes have police baffled. And the hunt will not end until he meets the killer in the ultimate showdown--between two men obsessed with death . . . . *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: Fiction; Crime; ISBN: 1856190927. ISBN/EAN: 9781856190923. Inventory No: 06100442. The photo of this book is of the actual book for sale. Seller Inventory # 06100442
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