Quoting : Maelstrom by Michael MacConnell

As I said earlier, I finished reading Maelstrom by Michael MacConnell yesterday and found it to be a whirlwind ride, a serial killer story with a difference. I'll just chuck a few quotes from the book out there to let you get acquainted with a few of the characters and MacConnell's style.

Where better to start than with the opening paragraph which puts us in a car with...

The (toey) prey...

Terry pressed his foot down harder on the accelerator. Beside him, his girlfriend Janice slept soundly, oblivious to her boyfriend's reckless abandonment of the speed limit. While he normally paid little attention to road rules, today he had good reason to arrive at their destination speedily. Having made him wait more than 12 months - at last, at long last - Terry Chambers was going to screw Janice Falsom.

Terry didn't know it yet but he and Janice Falsom were already screwed...

So, on to The Killer and a chilling description of a guy with whom you get the impression is not going to be particularly receptive to pleas for mercy...

He was a chameleon. He moved, killed, and then moved again. He had no need for frivolous, specific or bizarre rituals. He borrowed the means from those his research had lead him to. The Violet-Eyed Man's motivation was simple - he liked to kill. After decades of introspection, it was the only conclusion he had been able to reach regarding his true nature. The means itself wasn't important.

Then there's the difference I was talking about, these guys provide the X-factor that quickly drew me into the the story, they are The Hunters...

Sarah could turn her head just enough to see another stranger approaching them, this time from the direction of the burning truck. although physically he looked nothing like the man who had tazered her - the man he had called Bates - he was, at the same time, exactly like him in ways that were less tangible. Sarah, stunned but still focused, noticed his nondescript outdoorsman's clothing, his loose walk, the way he scanned the surrounding area without seeming to, and the restrained menace in his fluid movements.
They were predators.

The protagonist of Maelstrom is FBI agent Sarah Reilly, daughter of Harry Reilly a legend within the Bureau...

He was fifty-one years old and his body was still thickly muscled, primarily from a youth spent in the coal mines of South Jersey. On top of his square-shaped Irish-American head were more dark hairs than there were grey and his green eyes still had a youthful twinkle that could make the ladies giggle and blush. He had a wonderful daughter, Sarah who - after having graduated with a degree in Criminalistics from Notre Dame - had finished first in her class at the FBI academy at Quantico. Most significantly in his life, he had Louise. His wife put up with his countless eccentricities and annoying habits and put him in his place if he got too cocky.

Michael has fed me few juicy tidbits about himself but I still haven't gotten around to updating his page with any details. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about Michael and his activities you can visit his website.