The Red Scream (Molly Cates #1)

Texas reporter Molly Cates, whose book describes the horrifying career of serial killer Louie Bronk, realizes, shortly before Louie's execution, that he may be innocent and that her life is in danger. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Walker's second well-wrought mystery, following her Agatha-winning Zero at the Bone , will add to her following. Molly Cates, a crime writer in Austin, Tex., is planning to cover the execution of doggerel-writing serial murderer Louie Bronk, whose five-year killing spree is the subject of Molly's recently published book. But Charlie McFarland, whose wealthy wife, Tiny, was Louie's last victim and who has since remarried, wants the past left buried, suggesting fresh publicity will threaten the stability of his grown daughter, who was 11 at the time of her mother's murder. Next, an anonymous note to Molly warns, in verse, "Now that Louie's doomed to die / I may give his craft a try." Arriving at the McFarland house for a meeting, Molly stumbles on the corpse of Charlie's second wife, Georgia. The police--including Molly's attractive and still interested ex-husband, Grady Traynor--are eying Charlie and his grown children with suspicion when Louie issues an explosive statement that raises questions about Tiny's death and compels Molly to take a hard look at the investigative work she has done. The finale, in which Molly is almost killed, is somewhat gratuitous, but that aside, Molly and her disturbing subject command the reader's rapt attention.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Now that homicidal drifter Louie Bronk's about to be executed for a murder he committed 11 years ago, Texas reporter Molly Cates, whose one claim to fame is her book on Louie, prepares her last article on the case. Oddly, her boss and powerful contractor Charlie McFarland, whose wife Tiny was the one victim habitual killer Louie will be executed for, pressure her to walk away from the story. But Molly won't walk away, especially after she starts to get a series of threatening notes aping Louie's prison poems; Charlie's second wife, Georgia, is killed (by a copycat?); and so is an important witness in Tiny's death shortly after Molly talks to him and senses he's hiding something. Then, four days before the execution, Louie recants his decade-old confession, claims he never killed Tiny, and demands that Molly help him prove it. When Molly, supported by her ex-husband, police lieutenant Grady Traynor, follows Louie's story about his telltale 1972 Ford Mustang to a Fort Worth junkyard, she walks into enough trouble to prove that somebody doesn't want the whole story to come out; but is that proof enough for the law-and-order governor? And if Louie didn't kill Tiny, then who did? One of the creepiest killers since Hannibal Lecter meets a plot and heroine worthy of Patricia Cornwell. Welcome to the big time, Mary Willis Walker (Zero at the Bone, 1991). -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Obsessed crime reporter Molly Cates (Zero at the Bone, St. Martin's, 1991) scrambles to put the finishing touches on her coverage of a Texas serial murderer about to be executed. Just as she contacts a prominent Austin family victimized by the killer, however, murder strikes down the second wife in exactly the same way as it did the first. Horrified, Molly leans on the detective in charge (one of her ex-husbands, if not exactly a best friend), who advises her to leave well enough alone. A very well-written and plausibly plotted second effort, much deserving of purchase.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Molly Cates is a good ol' Texas gal who has spent the last 11 years of her career as a journalist obsessed with down-and-out serial killer Louie Bronk. From the first time Molly heard about Louie--after he'd confessed to killing beautiful socialite Tiny McFarland and a dozen other Texas women--she'd wanted to write his story. Her book, Sweating Blood, has just been published, and Louie, after 11 years on Death Row, is about to be executed. But in his remaining hours, Louie screams the "red scream" and proclaims his innocence. Hooked yet again by Louie's odd forcefulness, Molly reinvestigates the years-old story and finds herself caught in a series of bizarre events that end in a stunningly unexpected climax. Walker is a masterly writer, weaving horror, humor, and suspense into a story that is gripping and provocative. Molly Cates is full of vinegar, a wonderfully appealing heroine with a lot of guts, a fine sense of humor, a more than passing acquaintance with life's ironies, and enough of her own dark secrets to make her both vulnerable and humane. Two thumbs up--way up!--for this outstanding book. Emily Melton