Wallflower [Hardcover]

William Bayer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 18, 1993

When his own goddaughter becomes the latest victim of a serial killer wielding an ice pick, New York City Detective Frank Janek knows he must get inside the mind of a serial killer to locate this monster. Reprint. NYT. K.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bayer brings back Switch protagonist Frank Janek in this uneven thriller with close parallels to Thomas Harris's Red Dragon. Celebrated NYPD lieutenant Janek is called home from vacation--and a pleasant romantic entanglement--after his goddaughter is found stabbed to death and sexually mutilated in Central Park, the latest victim of a serial killer. Devastated and determined to find the killer, Janek is kept off the case because of his personal involvement and because the matter is now under FBI jurisdiction. He gets around these obstacles by means of his old amorous ties to his boss, Kit Kopta, and the clout of his success in the Switch case--a reference Bayer makes too often. Early revelation of the slayer's identity is likely to disappoint readers, who may also be put off by gratuitous descriptions of gruesome murders. A potentially tricky ending doesn't live up to its promise, and while occasional passages display the animated, original writing style of Bayer's earlier books, this yarn is far too tidy to captivate.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Always an inventive suspense-writer, Bayer outwits himself here with a fractured, Rube Goldberg-like thriller that pits the cop-hero of his first big seller (Switch, 1984) against an unlikely serial killer. As before, middle-aged NYPD homicide detective Frank Janek proves a most winsome protagonist, valiant yet vulnerable. And as in Blind Side and Pattern Crimes, Bayer starts seductively, with a moving prelude that highlights Janek's humanity as the cop takes his first vacation in ten years, in Venice, and falls in love with a German tourist. Janek's idyll is shattered by a phone call informing him that his beloved goddaughter Jess has been slain- -latest victim of a serial killer wanted by the FBI. Trading on old debts, Janek gets assigned to the case as an FBI adjunct (solid detailing of FBI-NYPD rivalry here); his inspired investigation uncovers dread secrets (e.g., that Jess had joined a sex-club) but also a prime suspect: Jess's therapist, man-hating Beverly Archer. However, while breaking into Archer's home for clues, Janek is near-fatally wounded by one of Beverly's patients, a convicted murderess whose room yields strong evidence of her guilt as the serial killer. So far, so brilliant; this is Bayer at his most suspenseful and resonant--but then the narrative veers into overplotted excess, as Bayer reconstructs the genesis and execution of the killings from Archer's point of view (in a shrill, unconvincing voice), and then from that of the murderess, who turns out to have been programmed by Archer to avenge past shames. And when the narrative returns to Janek, his trapping of Archer involves a ploy so far-fetched and a denouement so poetically just as to defy credulity. So: by turns enthralling and just plain silly--a spirited but strained miscalculation by an author who more often than not has been right on the mark. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (July 18, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 051710959X
• ISBN-13: 978-0517109595
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,502,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read about a great cop., September 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Wallflower (Paperback)

I don't normally read police procedurals but this one is an exception. "Wallflower" is by far the best of the Janek novels. It also has the least amount of sex in it of the three. If Bayer had left the better part of the sex to the reader's imagination in all three novels he would have done even better. This is a great read, especially for those who would profer to avoid Ed McBain and/or Joseph Wambaugh but would still like some balance in their mystery reading. If you enjoy the Janek novels as I have you will also enjoy the seven movies based on these books.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites, May 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Wallflower (Paperback)

I borrowed this book from a friend in high school and never returned it. Now it's almost 10 years later and I've read it about 15 times. Wallflower is probably one of the best books I've ever read. It may seem a little involved and a bit farfetched, but it is fiction... This is a must-read for anyone who likes murder mysteries, especially psychological murder mysteries.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Police Thriller, April 9, 2002

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wallflower (Paperback)

I think this is one of the better police thrilers of the time period. He defiantly has a good one here also. He just produces wonderful character driven stories that when they work (and this one does), they really grab you. The tension is there though out the full book. The story is very developed so much so that you see the crime sceens. Another thing about his books is that they do not play to the lowest common denominator for action books; he gives the reader some respect and expects an IQ over 70. A good book that is worth the time.