Series: Jessica Coran Novels | Publication Date: August 3, 2004
Even an experienced forensic pathologist like Jessica Coran is shocked when she learns that a woman has been killed-and her spine has been removed from her body.
Complicating the case is the fact that one man has already been convicted for a similar crime, years earlier. Is there a copycat killer loose? Or does this mean that the man on death row is innocent? Jessica Coran is his only chance for freedom and the only person who can catch the killer...
Robert W. Walker is a native of Chicago, Illinois, and a graduate of Northwestern University. He lives and works in the city and spends most of his free time in the beer gardens, at Twilight Tales, and at the otter cage at Lincoln Park Zoo. He teaches novel writing at College of Dupage.
My latest several novels have been Original to Kindle, exclusvie works. Most recent has been TITANIC 2012 - Curse of RMS Tttanic, a cross-genre, generational suspense thriller with an occult horror twist. It's a new theory, a theory that proves the innocence of the iceberg, ha! Puts the burden of error squarely back onto Captain Edward Smith's shoulders, but it is also science fiction as it alternates chapters between 1912 and 2012. In future, divers go inside Titanic the Wreck to plunder her interiors. But what they find is murder and mayhem and monstrous stuff! See all ten reviews on Amazon.com
Just prior to launching T2012, I placed up CHILDREN of SALEM, romance and intrigue and ecumenical spies amid the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Talk about a "Bad Time to Be in Love" - but Jere Wakely does love the daughter of an excommunicated witch, Serena Nurse, and he vows to put an end to the insanity of the trials. Painstakingly reserached for some thirty odd years, Children of Salem is both my life's work and now my highest grossing ebook to date, selling 255 copies a month and garnering great reviews (as is T2012). Children of Salem is a big ambitious work that all my previous books have led me to return to over decades to rewrite and rewrite again and again until I got it right.
AFTERSCHOCK is among all my backlisted titles sold years ago to NYC publishers. Aftershock is the ebook bread-winner, the one which as sold the most copies and for a long time had been my leading title in sales. I placed up some 40 "odd" previously published titles ranging from horror and supernatural, occult horror and suspense-thriller to mysteries and historical themes, and now i have 46 Kindle titles available. Would be fifty if not for tie-ups on other titles.
One more recent modern day noir PI novels is DEAD ON from Five Star Books July '09 which has garnered rave reviews and wonderful remarks from Tess Gerritsen, Ken Bruen, JA Konrath, David Ellis, Raymond Benson, and Jay Boninsinga as well as Booklist! Prior to this my City trilogy, City for Ransom, Shadows in the White City, and City of the Absent published via HarperCollins and heralded as great books by The Chicago Tribune, winning the coveted Lovey Award, set the stage for my finally being able to get Childen of Salem RIGHT.
A bit about myself: I grew up in Chicago as my father came out of WWII knowing one skill -- how to drive a truck. As a truck driver, he supported five children. I was born in Corinth, MS., siblings born in Tuskeegee, AL., where my mother hailed from.
I struggled in school in inner-city Chicago, but early on found I had a gift for 'talking my way out of fights' and this translated into 'telling stories' to influence others, and soon wondered if I could not do it for money. I began writing at a young age to 'communicate' ideas and always at the root of my tales are ideas, notions, concepts, issues, fears, phobias,the darkside of human nature, twisted religion, the human conditon, and themes I find fascinating like the injustice we see every day, and vengeance, and greed, and skullduggery all around.
In fact, much of my fiction centers on twisted this or twisted that...from twisted fantasies in the minds of killers to twisted religion in the minds of...yeah... killers and others. I have read widely in all areas of human endeavor and use all areas imaginable in the creation of my characters and stories, and my work is character-driven whether it is a suspense novel or an historical novel.
I recieved a full scholarship to Northwesern Univesity out of Wells High School, inner city, which was some kind of feat, and it was based on my writing ability. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education, went on to accomplish a Masters in English Education. I've taught for over thirty-years to 'support' my habit -- writing. I have always taught full-time while writing full-time, and I 'make' time.
While I grew up in Chicago, and many of my books center there and in the Midwest, I am currently living in Charleston, WV where I am still teaching and writing. I live with four step-children and my ER RN wife, Miranda, whose first novel, a serial killer chase down romp called Absolution, is also available on Kindle. I completed my 50th novel for publication with Titanic 2012.
Wish to thank all my readers for the many, many years of support since writing the spoof on disaster films and books, SUB-ZERO in 1979, and those who supported my Instinct and Edge Series as well as my various horror and other suspense series. I have created no less than eight series characters, all of whom I intend to keep "alive" via Kindle original titles in future. I am currently working on a 4th Geoffrey Caine (pen name) Abe Stroud, archology horror title called Bayou Wulf. For a free download of the first chapters, you can contact me on facebook or my website - www.robertwalkerbooks.com
This review is from: Absolute Instinct (Jessica Coran Novels) (Hardcover)
If you like spine chilling type books then Absolute Instinct will have you on the edge of your chair. A man sits on death row for a crime he may or may not have commited, the only thing that might set him free is a missing spine, is there a connection? They claim he kills women and takes their spine, but if he's the killer why is there another woman dead and her body missing a spine, can this be a mirror crime? or is the real killer still out there. Time is running out on death row, how many more deaths will take place before they decide if they have two killers or just one and the wrong man will die for the crimes he did not commit. The book is a real spine chiller- Larry Hobson-Author-The Day Of The Rose
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This review is from: Absolute Instinct (Jessica Coran Novels) (Hardcover)
As a longtime fan of Robert W. Walker's Instinct series, I was eager to get my hands in his latest Jessica Coran story. It was worth the wait, because Walker's novel made my skin want to slide from my bones.
The killer in Absolute Instinct exhibits his evil nature at the ripe age of seven when his mother catches him sucking the marrow of her dead cat's spine. That scene actually made my blood boil, and I said a curse out loud.
Not to become political in a book review, but I immediately thought of research that shows most serial killers start by killing or torturing animals. I nearly stopped reading in order to write my Congressman a letter pleading for stricter animal cruelty laws. However, I was hooked into finishing this book in hopes that Walker's character, Jessica Coran, would track down this demon child (as the adult he becomes, of course).
In a twist of cruel reality, the child became a man, and that man is obsessed with the human spine. He is tracking his victims and actually removing the spine while the victim is alive. Of course, he doesn't want to be wasteful, and it seems that he is turning the spines into grotesque artwork.
If you have ever wondered if serial killers are born or created from the environment, Walker offers the idea that they are born. The killer is driven and haunted by not knowing who his father is. His mother tormented with tales of his father being a monster, and he is accused of being just like him until the day she dies.
On her death bed, she gives her son a box that contains all the information that explains who the spine sucker is the spawn of. The killer does not open it for most of the story, but when he does long time readers and newcomers alike will be in for a big surprise.
At the same time that the reader is following the killer through his tribulations, we are with Jessica Coran as she works to figure these bizarre murders. One problem is that they are happening across the country, and one state has already convicted someone for the crime. Coran finds herself in a race to not only catch a killer, but to save an innocent man.
It is a fast-paced, well-written, and extremely creepy mystery suspense novel. The kind of book that I Absolutely love.
GRADE: A+
Eric M.Croas
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The best forensic series I know of, and this the 11th in the series is absolutely right on. Mr. Walker was among the first to create this genre, working in it before Silence of the Lambs. I am thrilled to learn he's starting a new series with City for Ransom. His writing terrifies and fascinates at once. I loved this book.
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First Sentence:
LOUISA Anne Childe closed a dying fist around the blood-soaked charcoal drawing she'd so loved-the impeccable image of her sitting in the park across the street, doing what she loved, feeding the late winter birds. Read the first pageKey Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
spine thief, easel bag, bone cutter, lovely bones, murder books
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Louisa Childe, Giles Gahran, Darwin Reynolds, Robert Towne, Jessica Coran, Keith Orion, Joyce Olsen, Richard Sharpe, Lucinda Wellingham, Agent Reynolds, Governor Hughes, Cafe Avanti, Sarah Towne, Mad Matthew Matisak, Agent Sharpe, Field Museum, Ira Sands, Navy Pier, Agent Petersaul, New Orleans, New York, Amanda Petersaul, Herman Krueshach, Jack the Ripper, Eriq Santiva
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