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Bitter Instinct [Paperback]

Robert W. Walker (Author)
2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)


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Book Description

March 25, 2003
FBI Medical Examiner Dr. Jessica Coran is investigating a series of bizarre murders attributed to the Poet. His calling card is human skin engraved with toxic ink and verse. For Jessica, the most baffling aspect of the crimes is that no victim shows signs of resistance, or even fear. Only she has the insight to read between the Poet's lines-and to stop him before his final stroke of insane genius.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

FBI whiz medical examiner Dr. Jessica Coran returns to face a poet-cum-serial killer on the rampage through Philadelphia's bohemian subculture in this lackluster addition to Walker's macabre Instinct series (Killer Instinct, etc.). Jessica must rely not only on her forensic skills, but on interpretations of the Byronesque poetry that the killer leaves on his victims' backs he poisons them with toxic ink as he writes with an old-fashioned quill pen. Jessica's friend, FBI resident psychic Kim Desinor, contributes her psychometric impressions to the investigation, grasping at anything that might help Jessica understand or identify this elusive murderer. The situation is complicated not only by the shaky cooperation of the local police detective and the FBI agent in charge, Jessica's old flame James Parry, but also by the fad of body poetry among students and disaffected youths, making them even more reluctant than usual to aid law enforcement despite the murders. Jessica and her team are also hindered by the neuroses and infighting of the local university's literary faculty, whom they enlist for additional opinions on the poems and later consider as suspects. But the intriguing villain is wasted on this clumsy tale. Despite Walker's too frequent references to Jessica's past triumphs and stellar reputation, there is scant evidence here of investigative acumen or even common sense. Walker seeks unsuccessfully to deepen his heroine's character through tipsy love-life chats with Kim, and neglects Jessica's professional development. Worse than the cartoonish characters is the hokey literary exegesis the reader is subjected to as each new body is examined. (May)Forecast: Perhaps Jessica Coran devotees will overlook these lapses, but neither she nor the author is likely to win new fans with this halfhearted outing.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Chilling and unflinching. -- Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Filled with surprises, clever twists, and wonderfully drawn characters. -- Dayton Beach News-Journal

Horrific, genuinely spooky... Just when you think there's nothing new to be done with the serial-killer genre. -- Ed Gorman

Masterful. -- Clive Cussler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Jove (March 25, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0515135690
  • ISBN-13: 978-0515135695
  • Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,349,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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

 

Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
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1 star:
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Average Customer Review
2.7 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling medical thriller, May 8, 2001
This review is from: Bitter Instinct (Hardcover)
He calls himself the Poet. His targets trust him so much so they cooperate as he engraves a piece of his epic verse on their backs. His victims are unaware that the ink is poison and soon leads to a swift, painless death. The Poet believes that his victims are angels who must return home so that when every one of them are finally gone, he will be transferred into an angel too.

After the third similar death, the Philadelphia police realize they have made no progress in catching this serial killer that leaves a calling card. The FBI sends two agents, medical examiner Dr. Jessica Coran and psychic expert Kim Desinow, to join the local task force. They quickly learn that the young have taken to having poetry written on their backs as a form of twisted homage. This makes tracing clues that much more difficult as this counterculture phenomena hides the culprit's trail behind wrong suspects. As the murder count rises, the City of Brotherly Love Task Force finds little to feel friendly about as they fail to gain any ground on identifying the murderer.

BITTER INSTINCT is a very frightening police thriller that shows the difficulty in catching a destructive individual when society adopts him as a hero. Robert W. Walker combines the best of Cornwell with Koontz in this psychological terror investigative novel. The heroine is quite good as a person struggling to profile a "popular" killer whose camouflage is inadvertently developed by the teens of the city. Mr. Walker has another captivating novel that readers will fully appreciate.

Harriet Klausner

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars WALKER IS BETTER THAN SANDFORD & KELLERMAN!, May 14, 2001
This review is from: Bitter Instinct (Hardcover)
Robert W. Walker is a fascinating author. I feel that he is one of the best suspense novelists there is. Every one of his Instinct novels and Edge novels are fun, exhilirating, and worthwile to read. FBI Agent Dr. Jessica Coran is a well-developed character, who is enjoyable and exciting to read about. In "Bitter Instinct," there is a killer on the loose who is dubbed as The Poet. At the beginning of the novel, in Philadelphia, he has already killed three victims. Engraved with a sharp pen, the Poet poisons his victims and then writes a few lines of poetry on their back. The Philadelphia police are stumped and ask for the help of Jessica Coran. As Coran and her psychic agent, Kim Desinor, try to capture this sadistic killer, they have to be on the lookout for their own lives. After investigating for days and coming up with no leads, they get a call from a dean the local college who claims to know the identity of the killer. Is this prestigious professor a killer? Is it someone not affiliated with college? Or is it the dean herself? "Bitter Instinct" is an amazing novel with twists and turns everywhere. If you are going to read one suspense novel this summer, then read "Bitter Instinct."
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars The worst of the Instinct series, simply godawful, April 21, 2003
By 
This review is from: Bitter Instinct (Paperback)
Words do not do justice as to how bad this book is. Seriously, is this the same Robert W. Walker? The first five books in the instinct series were AWESOME, the next two decent. But this one...[is not good]. The plot is secondary to Jessica finding herself and dealing iwth heartache and finding the strength to move on and...oh yeah by the way there's this killer out there that's not even bothering to worry about getting caught and he merrily piles up the bodies. Then the last hundred pages features a resolution so innate, ridiculous, and just plain horrible that finally I just slammed the book down once I found out who the killer was. And SURPRISE - it wasn't hard to figure out!

The worst in the series by far, so verbose and jumpy at times (five paragraphs about Jessica's thoughts and feelings every three or four pages, as just one example - oh yes there are more) that it's literally a struggle to read more then five or six pages at a sitting. Don't bother with this [book].

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
TWILIGHT had painted the common grounds about the FBI buildings at Quantico in lavender and purple shadow beneath the lamps lining the walkways. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
poet killer, stunned innocence, killer poet
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Poet Killer, James Parry, Second Street, Donatella Leare, George Gordonn, Kim Desinor, Leanne Sturtevante, Lucian Locke, Richard Sharpe, Harriet Plummer, Jessica Coran, Maurice Deneau, Garrison Burrwith, Lord Byron, Darkest Expectations, Marc Tamburino, Lucian Burke Locke, Scotland Yard, Anton Pierre, John Thorpe, University of Philadelphia, Jim Parry, Lieutenant Sturtevante, Chief Roth, New Orleans
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