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(More customer reviews)Serial killers are nothing new in mystery fiction. But Keith Ablow gives the title character of his novel a chilling spin, and lets the readers see through a window into the killer's twisted, fragmented mind. It's a freaky rollercoaster ride, and one that readers won't forget in a hurry.
The Highway Killer (also called Jonah) roams from one seemingly random town to another, choosing victims seemingly at random. He's attractive, intelligent, cultured, religious, a nurturing psychologist who travels from hospital to hospital -- and is overwhelmed by a dark urge to kill, to absorb the life of his victims into himself. There's no way to track him and no way to tell who he will attack next.
The FBI calls in Frank Clevenger, a famous forensic psychiatrist who is also trying to balance out his life with a troubled adopted son, who has been expelled for dealing drugs at his school. But he becomes enmeshed in the investigation, and soon a newspaper starts publishing front-page letters from the Highway Killer to Frank. He must use his own past, the letters, and the victims to delve into the Highway Killer's mind -- and what is driving him to murder.
They say you should write what you know, and Keith Ablow is a prime example of this. Like Frank, he is a forensic psychiatrist, and so he's ideal to bring us the tormented Jonah, a serial killer who is both good and evil, and who is so conflicted that he's blotted out part of his past that holds the key to his psychosis.
Most mystery novels can't balance out the personal and the professional -- or, better yet, tie them together. Ablow does both. Frank's personal life is tied in to why Jonah wants him to help. The writing is taut, but the best parts are when he gets inside the characters' heads, giving us a vivid picture of what they think and why.
Frank is an excellent protagonist; he's almost as psychologically complex as the Highway Killer. One outstanding scene is when Frank reveals the similarities between his adopted son Billy's abusive childhood and his own youth. It's a wonderful scene, and shows Ablow's tight focus on how people's minds work. Jonah is a crazy quilt of good and bad, and probably the best fictional "psychopath" I've ever read about. And Billy, who is struggling with his own past abuse, helps give a human edge to the aspects of Frank that are necessary to the plot.
"Psychopath" is the sort of book that can scare you stiff -- the only demons and monsters it has are the kind that really exist inside the human mind. Tightly-written, intriguing, and it'll keep you riveted up to the end.
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