Ashes to Ashes - Hardcover

Hoag, Tami

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553106333 ISBN 13: 9780553106336

Publisher: Bantam, 1999

Synopsis

She writes the kind of thrillers that keep readers and critics awake all night.

She grabs you with a story as frightening as your worst fears, as chilling as your unspoken secrets.

She is New York Times bestselling writer Tami Hoag, today's most exciting master of suspense.  Ashes to Ashes is her most terrifying novel yet...read on...

Some killers are born.

Some are made.

For him, the question is irrelevant.  The taste for murder has always been present, prowling the edge of his consciousness like a hungry wolf.  In a wooded Minneapolis park, he performs his profane ceremony.  He arranges the body to his satisfaction.  He pours the accelerant, anointing the dead.  Then he lights the match.

"Ashes to ashes."

The newspapers have dubbed him the Cremator.  He has already claimed three lives.  And he won't stop there.  He has a plan for greatness.  Only this time there is a witness.  A teenage runaway with a dubious identity and a murky past, Angie DiMarco has seen the face of the killer in the flickering light of the funeral pyre.  Now the police have Angie, but Angie isn't talking.  

Enter Kate Conlan.  She knows all too well the dark side of the human heart.  Once an up-and-coming FBI agent, she left the Bureau under a cloud of scandal.  Now, instead of catching criminals, she helps their victims and protects witnesses.  The job of advocate suits her just fine--until she's assigned to Angie.

Not even Kate can tell if the troubled youth is a reluctant witness, a potential victim, or something more troubling still.  Her superiors are interested only in badgering Angie for a lead, because the Cremator's latest victim may be the daughter of Peter Bondurant--an enigmatic billionaire businessman with power to influence the way the case is handled.

Bondurant pulls strings and gets Special Agent John Quinn brought to the case.  The FBI's ace profiler of serial killers, Quinn shares a painful past with Kate and hides a secret that is driving him toward madness.  He is a man on a ragged edge, and yet his insatiable need to do justice drives him to catch the Cremator--no matter what the cost to himself.

Amid a frenzy of public hysteria, politics, and media attention, Kate is confronted with the most difficult role of her career--and her life.  For she is the one woman who has what it takes to stop the Cremator...and the one woman he wants next.

About this title

Review:

Some doctoral candidate is doubtless hard at work as you read this, trying to explain why and how the serial killer suddenly became every thriller writer's favorite subject. Meanwhile, the irrepressible Tami Hoag shows us in her latest sure-to-be-a-bestseller how the theme should be handled--with sensitivity, wit, and enough energy to heat a small city.

A monster known as the Cremator is killing prostitutes in Minneapolis parks and setting their bodies on fire. When one of his victims turns out to be the daughter of a local billionaire, and a homeless teenager claims to have witnessed the burning, it brings together former FBI agent Kate Conlan (now working as a victim-witness advocate) and the Bureau's top serial-killer profiler, John Quinn. Conlan and Quinn share a painful personal history; now they have to work together against a very smart lunatic who seems to be able to read their minds.

Although none of this is actually groundbreaking material, Hoag leaps into her story as if she were the very first writer to have thought of it. Guess what? Her innocence and verve are contagious. We throw skepticism to the winds and gladly go along for the thrilling and romantic ride, just as we did in other Hoag hits such as Cry Wolf, Dark Paradise, Guilty As Sin, Lucky's Lady, Magic, Night Sins, Still Waters, and A Thin Dark Line--all available in paperback. --Dick Adler

From the Back Cover:

The New York Times bestseller!

"Without a doubt...one of the most intense suspense writers around."
--Chicago Tribune

"[Tami Hoag] demonstrates just why she has become one of the hottest names in the suspense game....Bottom line: Leaves competition in the dust."
--People

"[A] detail-packed thriller...The Silence of the Lambs comes to mind more than once."
--Entertainment Weekly

"Tami Hoag is the queen of the crime story."
--New York Post

"You'll want to lock the doors while you're reading."
--Star Tribune, Minneapolis

"An up-all-night read."
--The Detroit News

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0553106333
• ISBN 13: 9780553106336
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496