Watch Me : They Said She Couldn't Catch A Serial Killer

When female FBI agent and computer hacker Jay Fletcher discovers a network of serial killers involved in an all-too-real computer simulation game, she decides to seek justice at any price. A first novel. National ad/promo.

Cyberspace serves as a clubhouse for serial killers in this lively, if far-fetched, debut thriller centered on an FBI computer analyst who becomes a deadly vigilante. Special Agent Janet Louise ("Jay") Fletcher has developed a program called C-Bix that crunches huge amounts of personal data to identify likely violent criminals. Despite the program's effectiveness, however, Jay blows a big serial-murder case by accessing airline records without authorization. Frustrated and disgraced, she is sent on "detached duty" to Santa Fe to help catch an arsonist. There, in her spare time, she uses her expertise to solve a local serial killing. But since her evidence is inadmissible in court, she confronts the killer and acts as judge, jury and executioner?in the process discovering a computer bulletin board where the killer had fraternized with other murderers. Jay decides to track down and slay them all, including the board's creator, the dangerous Iceman, who has eluded authorities while actively killing since the 1960s. Meanwhile, the FBI wants to stop both their rogue agent and her prey. Jay's metamorphosis from a committed agent to a renegade getting sexual thrills from vigilante murder doesn't quite wash. Still, Holt is a savvy writer?when she's introduced, Jay is fantasizing that she's Clarice Starling, heroine of The Silence of the Lambs?and the figure of Iceman is compelling, the depiction of the Internet appropriately creepy. With suspense generated through the unraveling of puzzles and the dynamic of the chase, this is an above-average cat-and-mouser that delivers some virtual chills. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild, Mystery Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates; audio rights sold to Dove.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FBI special agent Jay Fletcher has made a serious mistake: in tracking down a serial killer, she has violated federal law by trolling in various databases via the Internet without a warrant. The charges are dropped against the killer, and Fletcher finds herself assigned to assist a local arson investigator in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This slows her down only briefly, as she soon finds herself using the same electronic investigative tactics to identify a killer in Albuquerque. This time, rather than going through the formalities of a trial, she simply executes the killer herself. And thus a new angel of vigilantism is born. Tapping a previously suppressed reservoir of hate and revenge, she applies her computer skills to hack a vicious online role-playing game that masks an electronic bulletin board for serial killers, several of whom she eliminates. Holt has written a suspenseful, violent novel about this rogue cop who metes out her own brand of justice and the other cops who let her get away with it. It's almost fun, if you don't think too closely about what you're enjoying. George Needham

The line between good and evil vanishes in this debut thriller about serial killers who talk shop on the Internet and the vigilante FBI agent who chases them through cyberspace. Talented agent Jay Fletcher holds graduate degrees in psychology and computer science and has even designed a computer template for the FBI. When her zealousness compromises a case, she's packed off to Santa Fe to cool her heels. While participating in an arson investigation, Jay stumbles onto "Special K," an Internet game for serial killers. One killer looks like and obsesses about Leonard Nimoy. Another, aptly named Iceman by the FBI, parasitically lives off the identities and credit cards of his victims. This grisly, disturbing, yet fresh novel raises numerous complex questions for our high-tech society. Highly recommended for all fiction collections; most libraries can expect requests.
-?Susan A. Zappia, Maricopa Cty. Lib. Dist., Phoenix
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.