Customer Reviews

Twisted

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Professor Moses De Lourde tries to survive a storm in New Orleans when he hears a clicking noise. He looks outside his window to see a man running away from his home. He leaves his home and while outside calls his friend FBI Forensic Profiler Ulysses Grove, but the call is somehow interrupted. Later a mortified Agent Grove learns that his pal is dead.

At the funeral Ulysses is reunited with reporter Maura County, who he previously worked with to apprehend the Sun City serial killer. After the murderer was caught, an exorcism was performed on the FBI Special Agent; the video caught something leaving Ulysses' body. He notices on Moses' body that some parts including the eyes are missing; the same thing that happened to two other people he knows during the eye of the hurricane. He wonders if something is after him using his friends as dead bait. Ulysses decides to confront his adversary by being in New Orleans during the eye of a Katrina like intensity named Hurricane Fiona.

Jay Bonansinga writes an action thriller that starts at light speed and soars even faster until the climatic final hurricane. The reader is unsure where the supernatural or the more mundane is at work as the story line lives up to its title with plenty of twists. Though the action is top rate, the key characters, especially Ulysses, are fully developed and believable. Fans will want to join Mr. Bonansinga in the eye of the storm from the distance of their armchairs.

Harriet Klausner

Bonansinga's chilling 2005 novel, "Frozen" (pun intended) introduces the reader to FBI profiler Ulysses Grove, author Maura County, and Professor Moses De Lourde as the trio star in a plot that revolves around an original serial killer murder spree. The reader will want to start with "Frozen" before making the decision to wrap themselves around "Twisted" because each of the characters above play important roles once again.

In "Twisted", Grove and County reluctantly agree to reunite to track down another serial killer, but this time, the catch is that this psycho ONLY murders victims who are within the eye of a hurricane. A pretty preposterous scenario in this reviewer's humble opinion. The stage for the novel is post-Katrina New Orleans and Bonansinga does do a great job working the city and especially the French Quarter into the novel.

On the downside, there are few new characters added to this novel and very little in the way of character development of the murderer. IMHO, Bonansigna takes a fairly original concept (when and where the murders take place) and turns it into too much fantasy for my liking. In particular, the "hurricane chase scenes" (many which are on foot, no less) are extremely dubious.

"Twisted" is worth your time if you are a fan of Bonansinga's or if you have read "Frozen", but just don't expect too much! A word of caution to residents of New Orleans and its surrounding area, "Twisted" may hit too close to home for some of you and may be disturbing!

I am a new fan of Jay Bonansinga's work and I have been reading whatever I can get my hands on that he has written. Very well done, action packed and intense....just the way I like 'em!

Finding a new and decent author is always a real pleasure. I read Frozen and wasnt too impressed but could see real potential. As a result I also bought Twisted and was not disappointed. This author improves with each book in this series. I like "Grove" and wish that just a touch more of his latent "supernatural" talents could be brought out. A decent read especially on a dark and stormy night.

Jay manages to make hurricanes characters in this book. His storm action will chill anyone who's lived through one. And if you've ever been to the Big Easy you know he loves the town. TWISTED reads like an An Lee movie with one gut-wrenching, intensely visual shot after another. Don't be surprised if you find yourself ducking storm-tossed debris--it's that good.

If you haven't read Frozen I'd suggest you start with that superb book before moving to Twisted. It will help set the stage and give you better insight into Dr. Grove and the other main characters. Though, if you are anything like me you'll like all of Jay's books.

This is a writer who seriously needs some editing. Between the malapropisms, the use of adjectives as verbs and overuse of certain words, it seems no one even looked at his manuscript, let alone read it before it was sent to the publisher. He has very good ideas and his characters are well drawn and enjoyable, but he neede some major help. For one thing, his medical knowledge is woefully lacking and detracts from the story's authenticity. He gets dosages and descriptions of medication wrong; tries to use pentobarbital as an inhaled anesthetic (impossible)and generally screws up basic anatomy to the point of laughability.His claim that he's a visiting professor at Northwestern is pretty iffy. The man definitely has talent, but his agent should see to it that he gets advice from experts in the medical field. A spell check and a dictionary would be good too.