Robert W. Walker, author of the phenomenally successful Instinct thrillers returns to his acclaimed Edge series-featuring Native American police detective Lucas Stonecoat and police psychiatrist Meredyth Sanger.
Stonecoat must track the Scalper-an insatiable killer whose grisly calling card cuts deep into the heart of Stonecoat's Native American heritage.
Overworked police detective Lucas Stonecoat finds himself juggling two gruesome murder investigations, an old flame and a tempting new co-worker in Walker's latest mystery (following Blind Instinct). The Houston police department endures a lot of bad press when two women are found scalped, with their hands chopped off and Native American pictographs carved into their flesh. Lucas's prejudiced superiors, assuming that he is an expert on scalping because of his American Indian heritage, assign him to the case along with forensic psychiatrist Meredyth Sanger. The quarrelsome duo question a pompous and uncooperative psychiatrist who treats recently released felons and team up with two rather stereotypically portrayed detectives from a different precinct. In the midst of the investigation, Lucas is distracted by his grandfather's serious illness, the marital strife of his first love and another case involving a beheading. Walker's stilted dialogue and typecast supporting characters do nothing to enhance the romance brewing between Lucas and Meredyth, but diehard mystery readers who can stomach the meticulously depicted, grisly crime scenes will appreciate the narrative's momentum and procedural details. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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 was the first book I read by Robert W. Walker, and I have already put him on the list of authors I don't care for too much.
The storyline could have been intriguing: A serial killer called the Scalper (for taking the victims' hands and scalps) paralyzes the city of Houston, TX. Detective Lucas Stonecoat, a Native American, works together with the city's forensic psychologist, Meredith Sanger, to bring the killer to justice.
However, I didn't enjoy the book for the following reasons:
1. Lucas Stonecoat, Native American as mentioned above, stays quite one-dimensional. I couldn't help but feel that the author really didn't know too much about Native Americans and therefore did not create a believable character. There are a few too many cliches on one hand, on the other Stonecoat's character stays rather "blurry"...
2. This detective is quite out of control. He has no problem with violence and breaking the rules big time, which in itself could be believable. What is not so realistic anymore is that his behavior is miraculously endorsed by half of Houston's police force. This makes me think that Robert W. Walker has not had the time or the interest to study real police work. And I personally enjoy thrillers which go the extra mile in this direction, because it makes a book so much more credible.
3. The jacket says Mr. Walker teaches Writing. And I believe it! Throughout the book he has his characters talk to each other as if they were on stage. Or, for that matter, in an ancient Cowboys & Indians movie. I had a really hard time getting into the story because I was distracted by the very "constructed", at times almost "ceremonial" sentences in every-day-life situations.
4. The level of violence was incredible. True overkill. I'm not sure I need to read about that many atrocities in such detail in order to enjoy a good suspenseful thriller.
For those readers who love this genre as much as I do, here is a recommendation: James M. Grippando's 'Under Cover Of Darkness'. Now this guy can write!
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I have really not liked the "Edge" series at all from Walker, so why in the world I bought this one, I still can't figure out. It was poorly written, boring and difficult to follow. I finally was able to get through this book unlike the last one, but I am beginning to wonder if Walker has ever been to Houston. At least he got the weather more correct this time, but I work downtown and have been looking for buildings one could jump from one to the other. Most buildings here take up a city block and jumping across five or six lanes of roadway is just too unbelievable. But poetic license aside, I wonder if Walker's students are writing this series because they don't seem to be written by the same person who is writing the "Instinct" series.
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