Review: Fear Collector by Gregg Olsen

Fear Collector
by Gregg Olsen
Publisher: Kensington
Publication date: December 24, 2012
Genre: Crime Thriller/Suspense/Mystery
Purchase*: Barnes and Noble/Amazon/Book Depository

"YOU'LL SLEEP WITH THE LIGHTS ON AFTER READING GREGG OLSEN." --Allison Brennan  Ted Bundy. America's most notorious serial killer. For two women, he is the ultimate obsession. One is a cop whose sister may have been one of Bundy's victims. The other is a deranged groupie who corresponded with Bundy in prison--and raised her son to finish what Bundy started. To charm and seduce innocent girls. To kidnap and brutalize more women than any serial killer in history. And to lure one obsessed cop into a trap as sick and demented as Bundy himself. . .

Fear Collector delivered a suspenseful thriller about the ripple effect of Ted Bundy a notorious serial killer. Olsen takes us up close and personal into the lives of police detective Grace Alexander, her mother and an obsessed woman who loved Ted and thinks she is raising his son.

Grace was born after her sister’s murder. Her mom believes Ted Bundy murdered Tricia but her body was never recovered and he denied any involvement. Grace grew up completely in Tricia's shadow and entered law enforcement in search of answers. Peggy loved Bundy, she obsessed about him and raised her son to be just like his daddy. When girls start showing up dead, and the bones of a female wash up along the river; Grace and her partner Paul Bateman search for clues. The tale that unfolds was suspenseful as Olsen gave us multiple perspectives from the killer, Bundy, a kidnapped girl, Peggy and Grace.

Olsen did a great job of taking us into the psyche of all of the characters. While I understood Grace’s mother, I also mourned for the loss of Grace’s childhood. The killer’s perspective and Peggy’s was deliciously creepy and kept me reading late into the night. Bundy and his letters sent chills down my spine. I found it interesting that I was able to identify with each character good or evil. The characters were well fleshed out making the tale seem all too real.

The world building was excellent as Olsen weaved this suspenseful tale. He brought all of the key players to life. Even secondary characters help build the suspense and added believability to the case. I really enjoyed the multiple perspectives and even the letters between Bundy, and the victim’s parents. The tale weaved back and forth with the different characters, but always in a forward motion, slowly allowing the reader to recreate events, draws conclusions and watch the depth of the characters unfold. The conclusion while not a surprise did have a little clever twist. The author provided an update on all of the characters after the tale ended and I enjoyed reading about what became of each of them and felt it added to the realism.

I recommend Fear Collector to fans of crime thrillers and suspenseful mysteries. This was the first book I have read by Olsen but I can assure you it will not be my last. You can find a complete list of his works here.

I want to thank Kensington for providing this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Four cups of high-test coffee out of five

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga {review-giveaway}

I Hunt Killers
by Barry Lyga
Series:Jasper Dent #1 
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Publication date: April 3, 2012
Genre: YA Mystery/Suspense
Purchase: Barnes and Noble/Amazon/Book Depository

What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?
Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.
But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could--from the criminal's point of view. And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod. In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret--could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

I Hunt Killers was first recommended to me by Giselle @ Xpressoreads and I downloaded it to my Nook. I figured this would be the perfect fall read and it was! Lyga takes us inside the mind of Jasper Dent the son of a famous serial killer. The tale was unique, creepy and captivated me. Call me sick, but I loved all the details about how a serial killer thinks and what drives them. Dexter fans should find this one appealing. 

The tale begins when we meet protagonist Jasper (Jazz) Dent. He is scoping out a police scene in the park. It’s the murder of a young woman and Jazz is convinced the town has another serial killer. He should know, after all his Dad is a famous serial killer. His Dad is in jail but Jazz  remembers all the lessons he taught him. When Jazz looks at the crime scene he sees it from the killer's perspective. His entire childhood was spent learning his Dads trade, right down to how a killer gets caught. Jazz decides to investigate fearing the police will miss vital clues. The tale that unfolds kept me captivated and was filled with suspense, mystery, gore, friendship and self discovery.

Jazz is a complex character and at the young age of seventeen he has spent a large amount of his life living a nightmare. His Dad groomed him to be a serial killer and he struggles to separate himself from those lessons. Plagued with nightmares, he has an uncanny ability to get into the mind of a killer. I really connected with him, but also wondered in the back of my mind if his fears were justified. He is extremely intelligent, charismatic and at times manipulative, but you cannot help but adore him. His best friend Howie is loyal and reluctantly follows along with all of Jazz's adventures. He constantly reassures Jazz that his fears are unfounded. Jazz’s grandma suffers from dementia and was both hilarious and downright scary. It is very obvious that even before her illness the woman was not right in the head. Some of the things she did and said blew my mind! Members of the media, the police, and family members of victims added to the suspense and had me turning the pages. The killer who refers to himself as the “Impressionist” gave me the willies.

While I Hunt Killers is classified young-adult, it certainly offers plenty of gory images, murder and mayhem. I found myself completely enthralled by the tale Lyga spins. I am a huge fan of CSI and loved seeing the other side from a killer’s perspective. The “Impressionist” is given a voice and his obsession with Jazz is frightening. The details of his killings offer enough of a picture to raise the hair on your arms and make you squirm in your seat. I loved watching Jazz’s mind work as he took in details of crime scenes, examined bodies and pieced together the criminal’s mind. The shattered images from Jazz’s childhood and the accounts his Dad gave him regarding his hunts gave me chills. Despite the small town setting, I appreciated the respectful approach the author took with law enforcement. The police while one step behind Jazz, were intelligent. They were not the flounder idiots typically depicted in novels. While I pieced together the mystery, Lyga added some twists that I did not see coming. That uncomfortable nagging and self-doubt about Jazz that the author skillfully baited me with had me wondering if he was a killer and the suspense was delicious. 

I highly recommend I Hunt Killers to fans of mystery and thrillers. The tale can at times be violent and gory so be warned. The suspense kept me turning the pages late into the night and I am on pins and needles waiting for Game book two in the Jasper Dent series, due out in April of 2013.

I gave this novel 4 coffee cups out of 5

Now for the Giveaway! 

Little Brown Books Publishing is giving one luck follower

a paperback copy of I Hunt Killers.
(US/CAN only)

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