Fault Lines [Hardcover]

Anna Salter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1998

Drawing on her real-life expertise as a forensic psychologist to create "a crackling, suspenseful mystery" (Andrew Vachss), Anna Salter debuted an unforgettable heroine, Dr. Michael Stone, in Shiny Water. Now, in a thrilling new novel, Michael Stone deciphers the twisted logic of a sexual predator -- and crosses into deadly territory.

A devastatingly violent attack has left one of Michael Stone's clients paralyzed by fear; her only security is the attack dog who never leaves her side. Michael has her own self-protection: even when she steps into the hot tub on the deck of her sparse A-frame house in the Vermont woods, she takes her gun. Michael has learned the hard way that her profession invites danger: she's a forensic psychologist -- an expert in analyzing and, in a perfect world, outsmarting the criminal mind. But some deviants will never be understood or rehabilitated -- like the purely evil perpetrator who has crossed Michael's path before.

Alex B. Willy is a sadistic child molester, a man of monstrous deeds and chilling obsessions. Attempting to profile the psychological makeup of a molester, Michael glimpsed the darkness within through her interviews with the incarcerated Willy; flattered by her attention, he had disclosed the modus operandi of a pedophile, and even boasted about his crimes on audiotape.

Now, his thirty-year sentence suddenly cut short, Alex Willy has been granted a retrial and is sprung from prison. And the one person who threatens his freedom, who knows the depths of his sickness and his seamless lies, is Michael Stone.

Her friends want to hide her, while Michael -- gutsy, aggressive, and fiercely protective of her privacy -- feels safety lies in evading her stalker on her own terms. With horrifying brilliance, Willy has devised an even better way to get to Michael. Invading her professional world, Willy taunts her with malevolent e-mail messages and an intimate knowledge of her clients. Moving in her shadow but always two steps ahead, Alex B. Willy soon targets Michael's guarded personal life, delving along the fault lines of her psyche -- and setting her up for a chilling coup de grace.

As authentic as a case file, and as relentless as a nightmare, Fault Lines firmly places Anna Salter alongside Patricia Cornwell and Jonathan Kellerman in a master class of top-notch psychological suspense writers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like her creator, Anna Salter, Dr. Michael Stone is a top forensic psychologist who specializes in sex offenders. In her second excursion into this world of deviance and danger, after the memorable Shiny Water, Dr. Stone finds that working out why a spectacularly vicious sexual predator commits his crimes won't necessarily protect her when a quirk in the legal system gets him out of prison. The smart and vulnerable Dr. Stone may be Salter's alter ego, but the radiantly evil Alex B. Willy is her most impressive achievement in this strong story. --Dick Adler

From Kirkus Reviews

Second thriller featuring female Vermont forensic psychologist Dr. Michael Stone (Shiny Water, 1997). Dr. Stone, a specialist in child abuse and domestic violence, helped put away Alex B. Willy, a child molester whoduring an earlier interview not admissible as evidencerevealed to Stone a whole batch of crimes he wasn't charged with. Though sentenced to 30 years, Willy has now been released on the technicality that the child witnesses in his trial had been overly suggestible. Clearly, Willy cant let Stone survive knowing what she knows about him, and, indeed, amused messages from him start popping up on her E-mailmessages that point to Willy having bugged her office and having taped her interviews with clients. Willy zeroes in on what he sees as Stone's psychic fault lines, which include the death of her daughter Jordan by SIDS while at day-care. Stone, meanwhile, hires a retired FBI agent to sweep her office for bugs. He finds nothing, but Willy keeps right on sending incredibly up-to-the-moment messages. What to do? Instead of being a sitting duck, Stone wonders whether she should go after Willy herself. At the same time, shes beleaguered by Camille, a deeply unstable rape-and-torture victim who now protects herself with Keeter, a dangerous Rottweiler attack dog. When Camille learns of the threat against Stone, she begins to shadow Stone secretly, with the intention of protecting her, an idea that rapidly proves more hindrance than help. The outcome, a face-off with a psychopathic pedophile, is as predictable as a heroine tied to railroad tracks. Still, there are shocks here, and each plot twist turns on a kink in an insanely brilliant mind. Not Thomas Harris and The Silence of the Lambs by a long shot, but a book steadily gripping in its psychology, despite an overly familiar villain. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Atria (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671003127
• ISBN-13: 978-0671003128
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,477,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Follow Up that Doesn't Miss a Beat., August 4, 2000

By 

Elena J. Seymour (Fredericksburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fault Lines (Hardcover)

Fault Lines is the second in what I hope will be a long line of stories involving Dr. Michael Stone. This time Dr. Stone is really the main target in the story. No one has ben killed...yet. Within the first chapter we learn the our favorite sadistc child molester has been let out of prison on a technicality. This puts Michael in a dangerous position because after several "interviews" with Willy, many of which she has recorded, he has admitted to, and actually bragged about a lot more than was ever uncovered in court, etc. Obviously with the possibility of a retrial, her information could be damaging to his case. Her best friend Carlotta and her part time lover/police chief, Adam, would like her to run and hide. But, as anyone who has read her first book, Shiny Waters, will know, Michael does not take orders well. And she certainly does not "run and hide". There is a rather simplistic game of cat and mouse that Michael and Willy play via email, and the impending confrontation. There are also several important clients of Michael that play key roles in the story. Once again, we learn more about Michael and her psyche. We watch her friendships and relationships, grow and suffer huge violations of trust. You find yourself understanding her and why she does what she does and yet at the same time comiserating with her loved ones and their great desire to just shake her sometimes. The climax of the book does not leave us disappointed in the slightest. That's 2 for 2 for Anna Salter

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes We Meet Someone We Don't Like Twice, August 19, 2000

By 

Daniel J. Maloney "Daniel J. Maloney" (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fault Lines (Paperback)

Psychologist Michael Stone is being challenged by a man she had studied to learn about deviant personality when he was in prison. He is unexpectedly released and Stone's world is starting to turn upside down. From suspecting that her office is bugged to a number of other diabolical efforts to get under Michael Stone's skin, this taut mystery is totally engaging. This is an easy one to read from cover to cover in one sitting.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great thriller, October 12, 2004

By 

DWD "DWD's Reviews" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fault Lines (Paperback)

Psychologist Michael Stone (a female, despite the name)has spent quite a bit of time interviewing Alex B. Willy, pedophile and sadist. When he gets out of prison due to a technicality, she knows he'll come after her because she is the only one who knows the twisted way his mind actually works, despite his charming demeanor. We follow Stone as she tries to work through her out-of-whack personal life, some demanding clients and the omni-present threat of Willy. Interestingly, Willy is not fleshed out much as a character. This works well, in that Willy becomes more of an unknown threat to the reader - a man capable of anything - but we don't know where he is likely to come from or what he is likely to do.

The book is surprisingly well-done, (I say surprising because a lot of thrillers featuring psychiatrists tend to get bogged down in jargon) and Stone is prickly but likable. Her world is peopled with interesting, but not terribly well-developed characters. This is a part of a series so I'd assume that the characters will be better developed as time goes on.

If you follow the author's link at the top of the page you will find that Salter is well-qualified to write about the life of a therapist as has co-authored a number of books about recovering from rape and child abuse and trauma.

All in all, a great little read.