For Edgar: 7

by Sheldon Rusch

Book Overview

In this ingeniously plotted debut thriller, a female special agent in modern-day Chicago tracks a killer who commits murders inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 042520409X
• ISBN13: 9780425204092
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Very good entry in the serial killer genre...

Well written, gruesome and scary! There aren't a lot of first-rate books in the serial killer genre, so this was a real find. Even though I suspected who the killer was, there was always enough room for doubt to up the fear factor.

For Edgar

Not just plot, which is fast-paced with a very interesting premise, but also has an excetional literary and lyrical quality to the writing which makes it an unusual and pleasurable read. Definitely not your regular,formula "who dunnit!" A joy to read how the author consistenly strings words together in such a poetic manner within a prose genre. Looking forward to his next book: "The Boy With Perfect Hands"

Masterful

Every moment we get to ride along with special agent Elizabeth Hewitt in this fast-paced mystery actively engages one's mind and viscera. Her clues to discover the identity of the killer are premeditated and linear, yet the reader's narrative is deftly cloudy and metaphoric. The murders themselves are grisly and inhumane, exactly the stuff that would make Poe himself turn the pages. From start to finish this book is crafted to be a sophisticated balancing act, between the purposeful homage to Poe and the clever use of his work as vital clues to a modern-day killing spree; between the heroine's remarkable strength and womanly vulnerabilities; between the internal ramblings of the psyche and our public self-projections; between our hope goodness will prevail and a superior evil intellect; between the vile details of the murder scenes and the illusion of beauty crystallized in prosaic sentences. You will be astonished this masterful and wonderfully imaginative novel is Rusch's first.

For Suspense Readers

Illinois State Police Special Agent Elizabeth Taylor Hewitt is a no nonsense, straight talking official who takes it personally when The Raven, dubbed so by the media, enters and starts carving up women in her town. What's a gal to do? She contacts her ex-lover/professor a self-proclaimed Poe specialist and joins forces with him to ferret out this serial killer and bring him to justice. As the murders get more gruesome, Hewitt gets more desperate in her quest and takes on risks she knows she shouldn't. Will her final quest for the deranged man who kills by the book be an act of heroism, or her final act of vengence? Sheldon Rusch does a good job with the Poe references in weaving them through the story. He builds tension and creates believable suspense. Rusch brings the story to a satisfying conclusion with the appropriate amount of twisted, gruesome insight that pulls the reader along. Hewitt is a character I'd watch out for.

A brilliant police procedural

McHenry County Sheriff Dave Manger shows the skull nailed to a tree with a ribbon hanging down to Illinois State Police Special Agent Elizabeth Taylor Hewitt. She realizes that there is more to the skull, which reminds her of Poe's The Gold Bug and regains a gold scarab that the child witness had taken from the crime scene. Brenda Kaczmarck is the first victim of the killer. Genevieve Bohannon is next, but Hewitt already sees a weird pattern forming that the culprit is paying homage to Edgar Allen Poe with these homicides that emulate his work. Hewitt turns to academia for a Poe expert, her former lover Professor Scott Gregory to expedite the dark literary pattern so that they might stop and capture the Raven before he finishes in a nevermore blaze of infamy. Though some readers may initially object to the coincidence of an ex-lover Poe expert, FOR EDGAR is a brilliant police procedural that uses literary references from the great writer as crime clues and messages from the serial killer. Elizabeth is a dedicated law enforcement official struggling to silence the Raven's macabre reign of terror before others end in the rue morgue. Gregory provides her with able professional interpretation of Poe's works. A final arc of the pendulum will surprise yet excite readers who Rusch to read the delightful FOR EDGAR. Harriet Klausner