Acquired Motives: A Dr. Silvia Strange Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

by Sarah Lovett (Author) "ANTHONY RANDALL DIDN'T look like a self-confessed sadistic rapist..." (more)
Key Phrases: Dupont White, Anthony Randall, Kevin Chase (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
I hope Patricia Cornwell's legion of fans will forgive me for saying so, but Dr. Sylvia Strange is a much more complicated and likeable character than Kay Scarpetta. Sarah Lovett's books about Santa Fe-based forensic psychologist Strange (Dangerous Attachments is also out in paperback) are full of the details of her crime work, but they're also firmly rooted in the basic humanity of her everyday life. And Lovett's plots have lots of compensating social impact to go with the murder, rape, and pillage: this time she raises the serious question of what to do when authentic sexual villains slip off the legal hook. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Her name notwithstanding, Sylvia Strange is a fairly normal forensic psychologist; here, as in her debut (Dangerous Attachments), it is the world around her that is strange and disturbingly violent. After Sylvia's court testimony helps let sadistic rapist Anthony Randall go free, both she and the defendant pay. Randall is abducted, castrated and torched, and Sylvia is attacked and left a photo of the castrated rapist. Sylvia's lover, Matt England, on the murder case for the New Mexico State Police, is wary of a friend, AWOL FBI agent Dan Chaney, who crops up to convince Sylvia and Matt that the killer is an arms dealer the Bureau claims is dead. By the time a second sexual offender is torched, and it looks like Sylvia may have contributed to the death by overlooking problems with a client during his parole-mandated therapy sessions, Chaney's story sounds pretty good. Toss in Matt's ex-lover, a shaman with "a midnight full-moon healing ceremony" and a psychic who helps save the day, and this becomes a story for those who revel in excess: physical, psychological and spiritual. The path to the solution is convoluted and character-crowded, but Lovett successfully pulls the story's several strands together in the end. (Sept.) FYI: Simultaneous audio publication with the audio ($18, ISBN 0-679-43271-0).
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (January 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743463358
• ISBN-13: 978-0743463355
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,646,567 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars review, October 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Acquired Motives (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a real page turner. The book is very much like a Patricia Cornwell novel. Sylvia Strange is a criminal psychologist trying to find out who is behind a string of murders that have been happening to supposed rapists etc., who have been cleared of their crime. Buy this book and you won't be able to put it down.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat like Patricia Cornwell when she was good..., May 2, 2005

By	Laurie Fletcher "Laurie Fletcher" (Casper, Wyoming, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book reads like Patricia Cornwell used to write before she got so tangled up in procedure and DRAMATIC personality. I've tried Sarah Lovett before and come away less-than-satisfied, but the Santa Fe setting of her Silvia Strange stories is just too seductive. I'm glad I was tempted back because this is an interesting and complicated book. A little gruesome, but interesting and complicated. The story has an early twist in that the murdered are violent sex offenders and the killer is a vigilante. In addition to following the ins and outs of the stories, we're challenged to examine how we feel about vigilante justice. There are some fairly extraordinary coincidences and some odd character development, but they are really incidental to the overall story.