Psychopath

Rating:
Summary: A magnificent piece of fiction!!
Review: "PSYCHOPATH" had me mesmerized from the very first page, and not only did I not want to put it down; I also didn't want it to end! After it did I wanted to start reading it all over again because it was one of the best novels I've ever read.

Dr. Frank Clevenger, who is a forensic psychiatrist that has been trying to conquer his own demons over the years, gets a call from the FBI asking for his help in finding the "Highway Killer." The only thing they know about this killer is that he seems to travel all across the country and chooses his victims at random. His name is Dr. Jonah Wrens, and he is also a psychiatrist who works on a temporary basis at various hospitals working miracles with disturbed children. He is highly intelligent, good looking, and quite charming, but at the same time he is filled with an overwhelming need to kill. Through letters sent to the New York Times, Clevenger tries his hardest to help Jonah discover and then face the reasons for this need to kill.

Keith Ablow has a great talent for storytelling. He had me feeling so many different emotions for these characters through the whole story, and that's not something many authors can do. This novel is truly a magnificent piece of fiction and I highly recommend that you read it TODAY!!

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and exciting medical thriller
Review: He travels the highways of America killing when the compulsion becomes unbearable but he always gets his victims to trust him and talk to him so he can get inside their defenses before he delivers the fatal blow. He is known as the Highway Killer and the FBI credit him with at least fourteen known homicides even though he believes he killed sevnteen people, men and women, young and old with no discernible pattern.

The FBI is getting desperate so they call in forensic psychiatrist Frank Clevenger as consultant. This resonates with the Highway Killer and he engages Clevenger in a dialog played out in the New York Times for the world to see. It is an interesting but potentially deadly cat and mouse game these two individuals play because they were both victims of parental abuse as children and they are both practicing psychiatrists.

Keith Ablow does the impossible by making the audience feel genuine sympathy for a serial killer tormented by his demons and his inability to stop from killing even though he knows it is wrong. As a doctor he has saved the lives of many children in crises but he can not heal himself. PSYCHOPATH is a fascinating and exciting medical thriller about a tormented person who wears the mask of sanity on the outside, but inside is a tortured soul who wants to be stopped.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Chilling "Psychopath"
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Ablow Delivers!!!!!!!!!
Review: This is my first Frank Clevenger (Keith Ablow) novel and so far I am VERY impressed. This novel is quite a unique murder thriller. A very different but pleaseing "villian". Keith Ablow shine!!!!!!!!!! I hope to see no less from his other novels....