Heart of a Killer [Hardcover]

Friday, March 23, 2012

Heart of a Killer [Hardcover]

Product Details

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (February 14, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312598378
ISBN-13: 978-0312598372
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

By : David Rosenfelt
List Price : ~~$24.99~~
Price : $15.88
You Save : $9.11 (36%)

Customer Reviews

I have enjoyed all of Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series. Realizing 'Heart of a Killer' wasn't another Carpenter installment disappointed me. Combining that with the synopsis I wasn't sure it was a book I would enjoy - bought it because it was Rosenfelt. Certainly not disappointed.
The book tells the story of Sheryl Harrison, in prison for the brutal murder of her husband Charlie six years previously. She has a daughter with a terminal heart condition and wants to donate her heart to her daughter. Enter Jaime Wagner - a young, Harvard educated attorney toiling as an associate at a big corporate firm. The firm has been assigned the Harrison case pro bono and it is eventually assigned to Wagner.
John Novack is the detective who answered the call to the Harrison home the day of the murder. He has always questioned her guilt. Wagner asks for his help and his decision to reopen the case obviously doesn't sit well with someone.
Wagner's attempt to honor Sheryl's wish to donate her heart to her daughter plays out against a national terrorist plot. John Novack's attempt to solve the Harrison murder runs headlong into the terrorist plot.
Rosenfelt weaves the story expertly. You are torn between rooting for Harrison's right to save her daughter and the character you have come to like and admire. Novack is a gruff cop and Wagner is smart and vulnerable. As always, Rosenfelt's storytelling is superb.
Highly recommend.

This is my the first I've read of Mr. Rosenfelt and I put him on the top pier of mystery/thriller authors with Crais, Koryta, Parker and the like.
Let's see if we can list the elements of this one: mother-daughter love, witty underachieving attorney, high tech hacking, national terror, gruff cop, murder, explosions, the FBI, and twists and turns in every short chapter.
Our "hero", Jamie aka "Harvard" is a lazy happily underachieving attorney in a white shoe firm who is given a pro bono case. All he has to do is arrange to have a convicted murderer allowed to donate her heart to her dying daughter. That alone is intriguing on all sorts of levels. But then the rub - it does not look as if she committed the murder she confessed to six years ago. Enter the arresting policeman and intrigue surrounding who her murdered husband really was.
Although it seems a stretch, the book turns into terrorism at an international level while Jamie is trying to get his client's suicidal wishes come true.
This is plainly a terrific mystery/thriller. The characters are great. There is just the right of humor and all through the book the heart-wrenching emotional aspect never gets maudlin. This is a true page turner and highly, highly recommended.