Next Victim (Paperback)

by Michael Prescott (Author) "She was running hard down an alley with her Sig Sauer 9mm in her hand, her shout echoing off the high brick walls..." (more)
Key Phrases: arson unit, black tiger, video wall, Amanda Pierce, Scott Maple, William Hayde (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
To any thriller fan who didn't sleep through the 1990s, the protagonists of Prescott's fifth novel (following Last Breath) will seem comfortingly familiar: the heroine is a blonde, gray-eyed single (and single-minded) FBI agent; the villain is a crafty, complex and completely insane serial killer. Unlike cannibal Hannibal, however, the mysterious Mobius is not a unique monster; he's terrifying precisely because he's so ordinary, an everyman who could be just about anyone... or anywhere. And unlike cool Clarisse, Tess McCallum's career and psyche have both been frozen since the night she arrived at her "secure" home to find her fellow FBI agent, and supposedly secret lover, ritually murdered by the slippery sex-killer she had been pursuing. Now, two deceptively quiet years later, Mobius is back, with a new identity and a new weapon that enables him to morph from mere serial killer to mass murderer-unless Tess can find the elusive madman before he kills her, along with much of Los Angeles. Unrelentingly suspenseful, this psychological chiller is only for those with a high terror threshold.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
The New York Times bestselling author of Comes the Dark, Stealing Faces, The Shadow Hunter, and Last Breath, "Michael Prescott has managed to delve into the depths of the most twisted minds" (Publishers Weekly). This time Michael Prescott really outdoes himself as an FBI agent closes in on the serial killer who murdered her lover-just as the killer gets his hands on a chemical weapon that could raise his body count...to thousands of victims.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Signet (December 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 045120753X
• ISBN-13: 978-0451207531
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #641,622 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Next!, January 29, 2003

By	Robert Crawford (Hudson, MA) - See all my reviews

Sometimes, in the course of reading the work of a talented author who thinks up good concepts, knows the mechanics of good storytelling, writes interesting dialogue, and creates compelling characters, one has to wonder how much creative control they actually have and how much better they could've made their book if left to their own expert devices instead of being comprised by editorial micro-managing. I got an inkling of how Alex Kava's light was obscured by the editorial bushel while reading SPLIT SECOND and I couldn't help but speculate on the same thing while reading Michael Prescott's latest thriller (he'd wanted to name it WIPEOUT but the publisher choose the breathtakingly bland NEXT VICTIM).

A woman on the run from the FBI is carrying a canister of VX nerve agent and is intercepted by a serial killer, who then absconds with it and plans to use it on an unsuspecting Los Angeles. This is the best concept in recent fiction since Jan Burke's BONES (2001).

Not all the book's flaws can be blamed on editing, however- as one reviewer rightly posits, Mobius suffers from the talking villain syndrome, whereas the pieces could've come together in a more organic way, through skillful exposition or having Special Agent Tess McCallum, the book's heroine, tell the reader in her POV. Also, in the ATSAC HQ, Tess is actually relieved when it turns out that Mobius has VX in his possession, instead of the ebola that Tess had feared. I don't know of a single human who would ever be relieved to be dealing with VX, surely the deadliest substance ever engineered by Man.

But NEXT VICTIM'S virtues far outweigh its flaws and the characterization of the principals is good enough to garner sympathy for both antagonist and protagonist. and, while it's obligatory for the heroine to engage the villain in the Endgame in which the heroine (of course) wins, Prescott thankfully was able to break away from his usual DIE HARD-esque ending that involves a tall, abandoned/unfinished building to give the reader a more novel denouement.

As usual, I'll be on the lookout for the talented Prescott's next outing, hoping for both a hardcover deal for him and less editorial interference.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable and suspencefull thriller, November 24, 2002

By	S. Gould "gouldpjaks" (Woodmere, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Tess McCallum is an FBI agent who is determined to find and destroy the psychopath (Mobius) who murdered her lover and former partner. Mobius has been dormant for several years when Tess gets a summons from her former boss, Assistant Director Gerald Andrus, bringing her to L.A. to investigate a suspect who seems frighteningly similar to Mobius. At the same time a suspect in another FBI investigation turns up dead and the nerve gas she is carrying disappears. Again the M.O. of the murder is reminiscent of Mobius. Are these cases related and do they have anything to do with Mobius? Can a sociopath evolve into a terrorist who will unleash the nerve gas onto the unsuspecting L.A.populace? More important will Tess find Mobius before he puts his plans into effect? The story twists and turns until the satisfying conclusion. Although it lacks some of the charachter development and emotional impact of his previous works I enjoyed 'Next Victim' as I do all of Prescott's books.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not up to other books, December 11, 2002

By A Customer

I have read and really, really liked all of Michael Prescott's past books. I have gotten tension headaches from the suspense and action he puts into them. This one, however, just didn't grab like his others did. And the ending really didn't surprise me - I already had an idea of who it was. (Maybe I've been reading too many of these type of books.) I would still recommend Next Victim, but if you had to choose between reading The Shadow Hunter or Next Victim, opt for The Shadow Hunter.