Part of Alex Delaware, book 8
First published 2003
Alex Delaware opens a package containing an audiocassette. A scream fills his office, followed by a child's voice repeating "Bad love. Bad love. Don't give me the bad love." The psychologist has no idea what it means or who sent it. Phone calls with disturbing laughter follow. Someone breaks into his property and vandalizes it. The messages escalate from creepy to dangerous. Delaware realizes someone has chosen him as a target. The stalker plays mind games and sends increasingly violent threats. Delaware calls his friend Milo Sturgis, an LAPD detective, for help. Together they discover a pattern of murders that may connect to the harassment campaign. The stalker follows a twisted logic that Delaware must decode. If he fails to understand the killer's motivation and methods, he will become the next victim. The case forces Delaware to confront someone who has turned psychological terror into a deadly art.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: cat-and-mouse, mind-games, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Los Angeles
512 pages · Paperback · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: violence