Customer Reviews

Victim Six

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Gregg Olsen's fiction just gets better and better. And his latest, Victim Six, is his best thriller to date.

Serial killings in western Washington state have the community, and especially a tenacious detective and a young journalist, on alert. Is there a pattern? Who is most in danger? Who is killing people? And... Who is Victim Six?

Each reader has a tough decision to make - whether to race through to answer all the questions or whether to slow down and savor the plot twists, the characters and the language. Either way, Victim Six is a great read.

I enjoyed reading this book and did so in about a day. I wasnt able to put the thing down. I grew up in Kitsap County, Port Orchard is my home town. As I read this book, it was exciting to know that when he was writing about the courthouse, ITS OUR COURTHOUSE. Everything was true to the lay out of Port Orchard. This book was so real to me that in the morning when I woke up, I got onto our local papers website, like I do every morning and was expecting to read something new about the "Kitsap Cutter". In response to the jerk who suggested that Gregg writes his own reviews, get real. Gregg is a wonderful author. He does not need to write his own good reviews. Thats what fans of his work are for. Of which I am one. And that is very offensive. If you have no proof....well you know what they say about when you assume things. Gregg, keep up the great work. We are all so proud of you. Don't let the uninformed few ruin it. You are greatly successful. We love you and we can't wait for the next book.

Shellie

Olsen writes well with good dialogue. Unfortunately the plot is totally unrealistic. With a growing number of victims and the supposed intervention of the FBI, the two local detectives sit around for weeks or months waiting for something to happen. There is no task force, no murder books, no door-to-door interviews, no procedure. Hello Michael Connelly and Ian Rankin. Too bad.

In the Puget Sound area, Samuel and Melody Castile abduct Celesta Delgado. They rape and torture her before killing her. Victim number two is Marissa who receives the same treatment from the married couple. The count rises as the married couple stalks, hunts, and kidnaps their targets.

Kitsap County Sheriff's Office Detective Kendall Stark knows a vicious serial killer-rapist is on the loose. At the same time the cop fears the worst is happening in her county, Melody's sister Serenity thinks her brother-in-law may be a killer; at a minimum she knows he is a lunatic. She fears for melody's safety, unaware that Samuel has selected her as Victim Six and that her sibling is not just aware of her spouse's murders, but a willing participant.

Victim Six hooks the reader due to the up front and in person deep look at the killing couple as the fast-paced story line comes across with an odd duality of feeling on one hand the story seems over the top of Mt. Rainier and on the other the tale seems plausible. This dichotomy demonstrates why Gregg Olsen is so good at suspense thrillers as readers will believe the Castile duo could have been the villains in the Frighteners as much as Disturbia. Well written and exciting from start to finish, fans will be hooked even knowing who the killers are early on and anticipate the sibling showdown. With a slick final twist, Victim Six is a super serial killer thriller.

Harrier Klausner

Like the 3 before this one, Victim Six will be forgetable. If the chapters were about half the lenght, I would have though I was reading a Patterson book.

This story was basic and unexciting. The description teased you with the questions of who would be the titular character. It was obvious to me from the moment that character was introduced. Not very suspenseful or intriguing. The central police characters are pedestrian and dull. There is a distracting side story of Kendall's son's autism that neither adds anything to the story nor explain who the characteris, what she does or why she does it. The story could have used more indepth analysis of the villian's psychosis to give the story more oomph. I will not be reading anymore from Olsen unless I am completely stuck for something to read.

Victim Six
Gregg Olsen has done a brilliant job. The book covers the three sides to a criminal investigation, yes three sides: the victim, the killer, and law enforcement. His writing puts you at the scene and in the scene. You feel Sympathy for the victims, you feel the detective's frustration, and you feel anger and disgust for the killers.
Throughout the whole book you cannot help but root for Detectives Kendall Stark and Josh Anderson. They have to deal with the investigation, the families of the victims, and their own personal lives. On top of everything there is a ladder climbing reporter who has good intentions but compounds problems with her reporting methods.
I will say this book gave me nightmares. This is not a bad thing; I feel any writing that brings out such a response has reached its audience like a well made Horror movie.
So if you want a good scare, get victim six.

With some lurid prose and an edgy story Gregg Olsen plunges his readers into the mind and actions of a sadistic killer who is terrorizing the Puget Sound in Washington State. The victims appear to be selected at random, the manner in which the victims are dispatched are both spine-chilling and repugnant. There is no killer acting with an uncontrolled murderous rage in Olsen's tale. No, this killer and his willing accomplice enjoy taking their sweet time stalking and imprisoning their prey then leisurely acting out their erotic sexual fantasies and inflicting as much terror and suffering as possible on each victim. These are truly a couple of sick puppies.

The identity of the perpetrators is obvious to the reader fairly early in the story. There are many clues, not the least of which is the multiple telephone calls placed by the killer to a local newspaper woman who is tracking the story. She and the two detectives investigating the case seem to be overextended or just plain lazy as they fumble around unable or unwilling to follow the clues and put two and two together.

While VICTIM SIX is a book that is guaranteed to titillate and may appeal to those with a taste for the truly gruesome it was just a little to sick for my reading taste. If, however, the master/slave relationship of Alton Coleman and Debra Brown are your cup of tea or Jeffrey Dahmer's rampage piques your interest, this novel will be right up your alley.

Victim 6 by Greg Olson is a thrill ride. There is a serial killer on the loose in Washington state who targets young women who seemingly have nothing in common. Detectives Kendall Stark and Josh Anderson are doing their best o piece together the actions of this deranged serial killer and catch him. A young reporter, Serenity also finds her way into the mix and plays with fire by receiving phone calls from the killer.

I thought it was predictable but also thrilling and scary. I may have slept with the light on after finishing it. It's your run of the mill thriller that would be good for the beach or an airplane. I have no doubt that when I'm in the mood for a creepy, suspenseful book I will read another by Olson.

Warning: some of the scenes were quite violent so if that makes you uncomfortable, I would recommend another book.

This is an interesting and well written story about a serial killer, a sexual sadist who tortures and kills women, and about the woman in charge of investigating the murders. We get to see who the killer is early on and learn he is a "family" man with a wife as sick as he is and a young child. The policewoman also has a family, a husband and a young autistic son. Although the subject content is gruesome, as most murder stories are, it held my interest and if one can say they enjoyed such a book, I did, although I hated the ending. That was a bummer, but it was realistic and probably the usual outcome in such situations, if someone doesn't see the damage left in the aftermath of such cruelty.
Eunice Boeve, author of Ride a Shadowed Trail

Someone over at the Mystery Readers' Café thread recommended this book. I'm glad she did. It's a solid suspense thriller with good, but jaded and overworked cops, and nasty villains.

A woman disappears. Runaway? Victim? Is the boyfriend really concerned or is he responsible? The cops don't know and some don't care: no evidence, no foul--there are enough known crimes to investigate without chasing down maybes.

But the reader knows--maybe more than we would like to. There are multiple points of view: the victims, the cops, the reporter, the sadistic killer. All weaving a tapestry of loss and depravity through the currents and countryside of Washington State's Puget Sound.

The depravity is lurid, the villain a piece of sadistic **** several rungs lower than Hannibal Lector--but Lector was a literary masterpiece, while this creep is the real thing like Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy. And like them, he gets away with it longer than he should.

As for Sheriff's detectives Kendall Stark and Josh Anderson--like the work-a-day cops in a Dell Shannon or Ed McBain or even Joseph Wambaugh mystery--they aren't the brightest bulbs on the marquee. They make mistakes, fail to connect the dots that the reader knows are there. But they're overworked and underpaid, and they don't know what the reader knows, so they seem to fumble, seem to not care while a serial killer stalks their turf, and the reader can only hope--pray--that they figure it out before another victim dies.

A realistic, frustrating read. Will have to visit this author again.