Part of Joseph O'Loughlin
First published 2016
A mother and her teenage daughter are found dead inside a remote farmhouse. One body bears dozens of stab wounds. The other is arranged with eerie calm, posed like Sleeping Beauty waiting to be woken. Clinical psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin should have no reason to get involved. Then he learns that a former student has been inserting himself into the police inquiry, calling himself the "Mindhunter" and trading on Joe's name to do it. The student leaks case details to the press, inflames public opinion, and throws the investigation into chaos. Joe steps in to repair the damage. What he finds goes far beyond one crime scene. A separate series of attacks connects to the farmhouse murders: victims choked unconscious, the letter "A" carved into their foreheads, men and women both targeted. The suspect list grows. Tempers inside the investigation fray. Joe keeps pulling at threads, and the closer he gets to the truth, the more the killer's attention shifts toward Joe and the people he loves most.
Genres: fiction, suspense, mystery, crime, thriller, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, gritty, intense, psychological, suspenseful
Tropes: cat-and-mouse, obsessive-protagonist, threat-to-loved-ones, unreliable-investigation
Setting: farmhouse
383 pages · Hardcover · Mulholland Books
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, murder