Strip Search: A Novel (Hardcover)

by William Bernhardt (Author)
Key Phrases: math lady, Burger Bliss, Joshua Brazee, Las Vegas (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Bernhardt's dysfunctional Las Vegas cop, Susan Pulaski, tracks another maniacal serial killer in this circuitous and graphically violent sequel to 2005's Dark Eye. When the grisly murders—in which the victim is branded and dismembered, and a mathematical equation left at each crime scene—hit Vegas, police chief Robert O'Bannon temporarily rehires widowed ex-police profiler Susan, against the wishes of Lt. Barry Granger, the homicide detective leading the investigation, who despises Susan. The chief's autistic math-whiz son, Darcy, may be able to crack the killer's baffling symbols, but O'Bannon warns Susan to keep Darcy on the sidelines. As tensions escalate between Susan and Granger, Susan remains one step behind the mastermind behind the crimes. Distracting lectures on numerology, the Kabbalah and advanced mathematics interrupt the overloaded plot, but the ghastly puzzle comes together in a breathtaking, suspenseful finale. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
In Dark Eye (2005), Bernhardt (of the Ben Kincaid series) struck out in a new direction, introducing readers to Susan Pulaski, a down-and-out former Las Vegas police detective who teamed up with an autistic savant, Darcy O'Bannon, to track down a serial killer. Now they're hot on the trail of another killer, a ruthless executioner who kills according to a complex mathematical process. This is a better book than its predecessor, perhaps because Bernhardt has a firmer grasp of his characters. Pulaski seems less pathetic, and O'Bannon seems less like a curiosity. The story, too, is compelling, grittily gruesome in a Jeffrey Deaver kind of way. Pitt, David

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345470192
• ISBN-13: 978-0345470195
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #636,699 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strip Search, October 29, 2007

By	Konrad Kern (OFallon, MO United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As a killer stalks the streets of Las Vegas, using numerology to target his victims, outcast detective Susan Pulaski is reunited with autistic savant Darcy O'Bannon, who may be the only one who can understand the murderer's complex mathematical game.
I guess the only thing I like about Susan Pulaski is the fact that her friend, the autistic savant Darcy, hangs out with her. Her character, as mentioned by others, is not likeable. Darcy, on the other hand, makes the novel what it is.
I like Bernhardt's novels and think he's a wonderful author. He writes a well rounded thriller with plenty of suspense and thrills.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars don't eat just before reading this police procedural , August 27, 2007

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In Las Vegas, a serial killer leaves behind torn off body parts and mathematical formulas written with the victim's blood. LVPD is stymied so police chief Robert O'Bannon knows who he needs to assist lead homicide detective Barry Granger over the objection of the lieutenant an his own concern that she is the lesser of two evils. He rehires former police profiler behaviorist Susan Pulaski, who he once fired, to uncover the identity of this maniac.

Robert warns Susan not to alienate Barry, but she knows that is impossible as he hates her. He also tells her to keep his autistic son Darcy out of the investigation as he has not forgiven her for using him in the past (see DARK EYE). Susan believes Darcy who is a numerical patterns savant can interpret the bloody messages left behind at each grisly crime scene. With Darcy on Susan's side and Granger not, the psychopath continues his numerical rampage.

This exhilarating but dark and vividly violent (don't eat just before reading this novel) police procedural sequel hooks the audience with the first coded formula and never slows down even with extended cul de sac sidebars vaguely related to the prime serial killer plot. The story line flows with blood as the killer keeps rolling sevens while Granger and Pulaski shoot snake-eyes at each other. The climax will prove to be one of the year's best as advanced mathematical concepts have rarely been more fun to follow.

Harriet Klausner

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Here We Go Again!, September 10, 2007

By	BeatleBangs1964 (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

All right. Susan Pulaski, whom readers "met" in DARK EYE is back in town, in this case being Las Vegas. Once again we have a demented killer who goes around dismembering people and leaving scattered parts. Real prince of a guy, eh? It gets worse.

Like the Manson killers, this weirdo leaves messages written in his victims' blood. Instead of partial song lyrics, he leaves mathematical equations. He wants the world to know that despite his psychosis, he's intelligent.

On the flip side, Chief O'Bannon's decision to rehire Ms. Pulaski speaks to a lack of common sense. The lady has plenty of clinkers in her thinker that have yet to be hammered out. Going one on one against some demented killer won't speed up her own mental health.

Once again Ms. Pulaski rules against common sense and logic and riles her superior by including his son Darcy to help with the cryptic mathematical formulae written in human blood. Darcy is written as a savant stereotype and savantism affects less than 10% of the autistic poplation.

This is a very gory story, many steps below Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN and much more ghastly, grisly and gruesome. If you are interested in autism and/or have a personal involvement in it, it is only natural to want to read stories about autistic characters, even if the stories are stinkers such as this and DARK EYE. I was hoping Ben would be brought back and Ms. Pulaski and the tired lot she works with would be gently retired. What I'd most like to see retired are the myths and stereotypes about autism including the plethora of savant stereotypes many stories feature.

No fuzzy math here - bad characters + bad story = wasted time. Read Bernhardt's other books instead.