Life Sentences: Book One in the Chad Wilbank Series

by Tekla Dennison Miller

Pilar Brookstone is an idealist. She thinks she can change things, make inmates' lives at the prison where she works a little better. Chad Wilbanks is a serial killer. He is serving life. Eight young... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932815252
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Medallion Press
• Length: 371 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.4" x 1.1" x 4.7"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating and Fast Paced

I really enjoyed reading this psychological thriller. I found it interesting that an educated woman with everything going for her would fall for an incarcerated serial killer. Nuts actually. The how and why was interesting. I have ordered Inevitable Sentences and I am looking forward to more insights into and development of the characters from Life Sentences.

Fast-paced thriller

Meet Pilar Brookstone. From a prosperous family, she's alienated from her father. She is naively condescending about her mother, failing to see her strength. When she graduates medical school, her idealism prompts her to help prisoners rather than join a prosperous medical practice. Pilar is the latest creation of Durango author Tekla Dennison Miller. Pilar is a departure for Miller, whose previous two books - The Warden Wore Pink and A Bowl of Cherries - were memoirs. The first recounted Miller's 20-year career in the prison service. The second was about her childhood. Miller draws on her corrections career for her first published novel. Part character study, part thriller, the novel attempts to explain how an intelligent, good-looking, "good" woman could fall for the "bad" prison inmate who murdered her friend. Pilar's attraction to Chad Wilbanks is a troubling parallel to her mother's attraction to her father. It's easy to criticize the daughter's relationship with the inmate. It's a harder pill to swallow when the reader realizes that the mother's relationship with the doctor father is equally poisonous. Miller succeeds in showing how a selfish, greedy man seemingly successful to outsiders suffocates his wife's soul. Meanwhile, an outcast outsider nourishes his daughter's insecurities. In Life Sentences, we get a look at the inside of a prison and an account of the phenomenon of women being attracted to murderous prison inmates. It's a legitimate and fascinating phenomenon. I remember the women who lined up to visit Death Row inmates in Florida during an 18-month period in which I was visiting an inmate there, conducting inevitably stifled romances that sometimes resulted in marriages to men whose wives could never hope to live with them. The success of Miller's novel lies in her ability to make Pilar a thoroughly likeable, successful woman whose reasons for loving a serial killer become understandable to the reader. Pilar Brookstone is no freak - she's a "normal" person whose love for a killer is somehow disturbingly easy to accept. In pulling this off, Miller triumphs. The novel is a fast-paced thriller populated by three-dimensional characters who stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Fascinating and incredible story!

Tekla's intimate knowledge of the prison system and those who inhabit it grabs and moves you quickly into a story that isn't easily put down. Her attention to the details of her character's behaviors make the story not only believable, but intensely human. A great read about a phenomenon which is as fascinating as it is incredible! Susan Koonce Ph.D

strong character driven suspense thriller

Pilar Brookstone transferred from the University of Michigan medical school to the University of Wisconsin to get away from her cold father and to flee from the brutal murder of her friend, one of eight victims of convicted serial killer Chad Wilbanks. After a residency at Detroit Receiving Hospital, tired of no one male accepting that someone beautiful can be intelligent and wanting to be different from her wealth is everything dad, Pilar accepts employment as the doctor at Hawk Haven Prison. Her first patient is Chad; she expected a monster, but instead he is charming and nice emphasizing her brains as much as her beauty. Pilar is shocked because she is attracted to the killer of her friend. As Chad beguiles Pilar she gives him money and rewrites her will naming him as her beneficiary. Tragedy strikes when someone murders Pilar. Her mother believes that snake oil Chad arranged a hit through one of his prison cronies and plans to prove it. Though somewhat a suspense thriller especially in the latter half of the novel, LIFE SENTENCE is more an intriguing character study that focuses into the psyche that allows an intelligent person to destroy themselves. The story line centers on Pilar whose distrust of males goes deep so when Chad penetrates through her anti-male armor, he grips her heart though she knows he is bad for her. After her murder, the story line continues as a character study although with more action and the focus on several protagonists but especially the victim's mother. Fans of tense deep looks into why people do things that they know are bad for themselves will want to read Tekla Dennison Miller's powerful drama. Harriet Klausner