Killer Instinct [Kindle Edition]

Robert W. Walker (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The opening of this psychological suspense novel smells of evil: the body of a prostitute is found hanging upside down in an abandoned Wisconsin cabin, an arm severed off, genitals mutilated and her blood missing. Coroner Jessica Coran, a made-for-Jodie Foster character, heads the FBI team assigned to track a latter-day Count Dracula. As it turns out, the serial bloodsucker is a mousy medical-supply salesman who often stalks his victims at hospitals in a gray van. Calling himself Teach, he uses a tracheal tube to siphon off their blood, his methods not unlike Jessica's obsessively meticulous autopsies. Clearly, killer and medical sleuth are two of a kind: soon the vampire sends his counterpart a love letter and longs to sink his fangs in her neck. He's a far more soulful figure than the novel's mechanical gumshoes. "Virgin blood was hard to come by, but according to the books, it had the most curative powers," Teach muses as he lies in a bloodbath, unworried about AIDS. The plot may be predictable, but Walker has created a complex, chilling high-tech tale that many readers will lap up. Walker wrote Curse of the Vampire under the pseudonym of Geoffrey Caine.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

DR. JESSICA CORAN

A brilliant and determined FBI medical examiner, she was an expert student of the criminal mind who thought she could face anything.

That was before Wisconsin. Before she saw one of his victims...

THE VAMPIRE KILLER

The FBI agent had a special code name for his unusual method of torture: Tort 9, the draining of the victims blood. The newspapers called him the Vampire-Killer. But his own twisted love letters were signed "Teach"... and were addressed to the one woman he wanted most of all: His hunter, his prey, Dr. Jessica Coran.

(This book is first in Robert W. Walker's Instinct series. It was previously published in paperback. This ebook also features an excerpt of WHISKEY SOUR by J.A. Konrath.)


About the Author

Robert W. Walker is the author of more than forty thriller novels, including 11 books in the acclaimed INSTINCT series featuring FBI medical examiner Jessica Coran.


Praise for Robert W. Walker

"Masterful." -- Clive Cussler

"Ingenious." -- San Francisco Examiner

"Gruesome." -- The Sunday Oklahoman

"Frightening." -- Midwest Book Review."

"Bone-chilling." -- Publisher's Weekly

"Perfect for Patricia Cornwell fans." -- Mystery Scene

"Walker is a master at the top of his game." -- Jack Kilborn

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 391 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003CJU2T0
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,280 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, July 21, 1998

By 

Pam "SMB,SLT" (Flint Hills of Kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer Instinct (Paperback)

Okay, I confess I keep trying not to find authors new to me, but I was searching the "horror" and the Instinct series caught my eye. I have learned to my chagrin that I need to sit down and read a few pages before running off to buy a bunch of books. (I didn't always have such sense.) I was lucky to find the whole series sitting there and sat down to see what kind of book it was that started such a string of books.

I was hooked from the first page. Robert Walker did make me thing of Cornwell and Scarpetta, and in a way of Sanford and Davenport. I read the first fifty pages and then took the books to the checkout counter so I could get home and dive into the rest.

I recommend these books to all who enjoy the likes of Cornwell and Sanford and who as an earlier reviewer put it, spend some of their time with their doors locked and all the lights on in their house hoping that evil stays outside and far away.

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some of his "facts" are pure fantasy., January 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Killer Instinct (Paperback)

I've read all of Patricia Cornwell, and have just about OD'd on Ridley Pearson, and this was an Amazon suggestion. While it was a decent read, I found two major problems by page 37. First of all, what Medical Examiner would be out in the middle of nowhere conducing a scene investigation in a skirt and high heels? Sexist, if you ask me. Secondly, he paints the "small town medical examiner" as some sort of villain and says HE will embalm the victim. Having both funeral directors and medical examiners in my family, I know that no ME will embalm a body...and you do not need an MD for embalming. It was a decent read, but some of his descriptions and action scenes get a little drawn out. I found myself skimming some parts. I may try another Coran novel, but it won't be my first choice.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best I've ever read, August 27, 1999

By 

Veronica ([e-mail]) (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer Instinct (Paperback)

I truly enjoyed this book. I love to read about serial killers and the FBI. Athough it was a great book I have to say that I have read a couple of books that were slitly better, such as most of the books by James Patterson. It did keep my interest up and kept me turning pages, Some of the relationships and characters could have been built up a little more. I do absulutly love the main character being a woman in what we call a "man's job." It was a great book.