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: Thrilling, unforgetable novel...
Review: Ablow weaves his magic again with "Psychopath", the forth in the Clevanger series. Dr. Clevanger really steps up in this one, acting more like a hero, than a man struggles with his demons. Added to the mix, is his adopted son Billy, who is still trying to break through his childhood trauma. In this installment of the series, Dr. Clevanger is asked to help to find a serial killer, who is baffling the FBI. Little does he know that he is up against another psychiarist, who both heals and kills. The killer, Dr. Jonah Wrens, is actually sympathetic, and this stands apart from other serial killer books. By the time you reach the climax, you find yourself rooting for both to find each other, and for Dr. Wrens to be redeemed. There are sad points to the story, but there are great parts to it too. The scenes with Billy and Frank are great. I cannot wait for his fifth novel.
Rating:
Summary: Scary, eerie, evil. But good...
Review: Catching the highway killer is the job Frank Clevenger is recruited for. He's a psychiatrist hired by the FBI to bring in a psychopathic killer who is striking at random victims, or seemingly random victims, in 12 states.
Eerily reminscent of the Beltway sniper and with harkening back to "Silence of the Lambs", fans of crime fiction will be thrilled with this tight novel. The author is a forensic psychiatrist, so he writes from first-hand knowledge. And he does it well. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Keith Ablow Scores!
Review: Dr. Frank Clevenger, a forensic psychiatrist, is asked to help the FBI with a case they can't seem to solve. "The Highway Killer" is both a gifted psychiatrist and a tormented serial killer. He begins to communicate with Frank through the New York Times, revealing just how much the two have in common. Clevenger is distracted from the hunt by problems at home - his adopted son seems to be falling apart. He needs a father at his side just when Frank is being pulled into a cat-and-mouse game with a psychopath. The desperation Frank feels, that he is not giving either situation his full attention, adds to the tension. This series gets better with each book!
Rating:
Summary: A well written serial killer novel
Review: Frank Clevenger is a forensic psychiatrist who takes on the case of the "Highway Killer" a serial killer who has left bodies along highways throughout the country. The law enforcement authorities haven's got a clue and ask Dr. Clevenger for assistance. What Clevenger doesn't know is that our killer is a locums psychiatrist who travels the country filling temporary jobs. Eventually they communicate through letters to the New York Times. Can Clevenger get him to stop the killings? To do so would involve getting to the very psyche of the killer in an effort to cure the pathology.
PSYCHOPATH is a very well written serial killer novel. Good strong well depicted characters add a certain element of realism. Suspense is maintained throughout the tightly constructed story line. There is much psychoanalysis in that the author is also a forensic psychiatrist which adds to the realism. However, with so many serial killer novels out there, I simply could not escape the feeling that I read this before.
Rating: 
Summary: Not impressed
Review: I can't agree with the positive reviews here. This author doesn't thrill me. I'll stick with Lashner, Grippando, and Katzenbach.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing sensitivity
Review: Keith Ablow is a surprise in my life. I was unfamiliar with this author, and I thought I would not like his writing--after all, the subject matter is not certainly appealing at all. However, I found myself highly impressed with his writing. The sensitivity to his mentally ill character is amazing. I found myself truly understanding the motive, the emotion and the obsession of this villain. I also found myself admiring the detective and his love for his son--both so flawed yet so skillfully handled. I went on to read Murder Suicide by Mr. Ablow. It too continues this fine series. I recommend if you have not read this author to definitely put him on your list. He is amazing in his ability to carry you along through his characters lives and make you feel their pain, their obsessions and their capacity for love.
Rating:
Summary: Psychiatrist v Psychiatrist
Review: There are many psychological thrillers out there that run to a fairly standard formula. They're usually based around a serial killer who commits shocking crimes and is then hunted down by various law enforcement agencies following procedures such as data profiling, forensic research and evidence gathering. The law enforcement officers, usually FBI agents, are pretty much cut from the same cloth too, dedicated to their job to the detriment of their own personal lives. By and large they're ultimate professionals who could probably be taken from one story and placed within another, virtually without noticing.
Keith Ablow has taken the psychological thriller to a new level delving deeply into the disturbed minds of the criminals who have darkened the series so far. PSYCHOPATH is the 4th book in the Dr Frank Clevenger series a series notable both for it's dark themes that are dealt with and for the very disturbed protagonist who bears the brunt of these issues. Frank Clevenger is a forensic psychiatrist who has been plagued with all of the addictions and psychological weaknesses he usually treats. These have all been displayed in the earlier books as he battles through drug abuse, alcoholism, gambling all stemming from abuses he suffered as a child. He is not your average protagonist, but he is definitely one of the more interesting that I have come across.
This 4th Frank Clevenger book is not a mystery. Right from the opening page we know that Jonah Wrens is a serial killer who will come to be known as the Highway Killer. We also know that he is good-looking, personable, friendly, approachable and a brilliant pediatric psychiatrist in fact, the most dangerous kind of sociopath possible. Instead, this is a dark psychological thriller delving deeply inside the mind of a man tortured by his past.
Clevenger's notoriety has risen thanks to his exploits chronicled in the book preceding this one, DENIAL and he has become a psychiatrist who is very much in demand. With no progress being made on the Highway Killer case, the FBI contact Clevenger and ask him to add his expertise. Although interested in taking the case, Clevenger's personal life has once again reached crisis point with his adopted seventeen year old son, Billy getting into trouble at school, fighting with other boys and getting caught dealing drugs. Fearing he could lose his son if he was distracted, he refuses the FBI's request.
What he hadn't bargained on though was Jonah Wrens reaching out to him in the form of a letter published in the newspaper. This direct contact drags him back to the case and into a head-to-head public battle with the killer as they trade letters with each other in the newspaper.
As the story progresses we switch from Clevenger, who is juggling the case while trying to deal with his rebellious son, to Jonah Wrens who, in his professional guise is displaying sublime psychiatric abilities. Yet all the while, Wrens is slowly unravelling, losing his hold on the killer inside him, setting up for an inevitable showdown.
A disappointing part of the story came towards the end when Ablow inexplicably chose to add a rather clichéd lady in distress scene that saw Wrens act completely out of character. Actually, that should be unrealistically out of character. Up until this point he was a horrifyingly efficient killer when suddenly he changed his routine for no logical reason and no explanation for it was given. It smacked of the author taking the easy way out in an attempt to insert a dramatic scene that simply wasn't required.
Keith Ablow deals with some of the darkest fears, addictions and compulsions throughout the Frank Clevenger series and does so with stunning clarity bringing his characters to life by revealing their minds to us completely. It's not surprising to find that Ablow is himself a forensic psychiatrist enriching the story with his first-hand knowledge and experience which I have found continually absorbing. His specialty throughout the series has been the human psyche that has been severely traumatized as a child which then manifests itself in some sort of destructive behaviour later in life.
In the 3 earlier books we have seen Clevenger deal with his drug abuse, alcoholism and gambling addiction while still functioning as an excellent forensic psychiatrist. We have learnt watched him step to the edge of the cliff of despair and have a good look over the edge before stepping back. In this latest book, Frank Clevenger has progressed past the dark days described in COMPULSION and PROJECTION thanks mainly to his adoption of Billy.
There is a sinister edge to this book, sharpened by the fact that we know so much about the Highway Killer. We know both sides of him, the brilliant psychiatrist who achieves amazing results with his patients and the unbalanced killer who is nearly driven to insanity by his need to kill.
While I have enjoyed this series immensely, the continual excursions into a very disturbed mind may become very harrowing for some readers. While it makes compelling reading, the subject matter, such as child abuse and schizophrenic episodes on top of vivid descriptions of a serial killer in action makes for a seriously dark story and wouldn't be to everyone's liking.
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....
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....
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