The Blurb
'Good job you didn't turn on the lights . . .'
A student nurse has the shock of her life when she discovers her patient, prosecutor Derek Nicholson, brutally murdered in his bed. The act seems senseless - Nicholson was terminally ill with only weeks to live. But what most shocks Detective Robert Hunter of the Los Angeles Robbery Homicide Division is the calling card the killer left behind.
For Hunter, there is no doubt that the killer is trying to communicate with the police, but the method is unlike anything he's ever seen before. And what could the hidden message be?
Just as Hunter and his partner Garcia reckon they've found a lead, a new body is found - and a new calling card. But with no apparent link between the first and second victims, all the progress they've made so far goes out of the window.
Pushed into an uncomfortable alliance with confident investigator Alice Beaumont, Hunter must race to put together the pieces of the puzzle . . . before the Death Sculptor puts the final touches to his masterpiece.
My Review
So, we've made it to book four! And I think the crimes are getting more horrifying as we move through the series which fills me with a certain amount of fear as I move onto book five and beyond. But, for now, back to book four and The Death Sculptor. Hunter and Garcia are confronted with a whole new level of twisted and grotesque when they are called to a murder scene on what should've been their day off. The victim is riddled with cancer and probably only had a couple of weeks left to live. His murder seems pointless but the killer definitely has a point to make... Hunter and Garcia can find no obvious motive, even with the help of the DA's whizz investigator Alice, and it's not too long before another body is found, and another 'message' left for them to decode.
It's great to see Robert Hunter back again, he's such a deep, interesting character. And whilst, of course, you could read this as a standalone, I love that through following the series I am learning more about the Hunter and the other characters. I am particularly enjoying seeing Garcia developing, as he learns from Hunter. I also like the police captain, Barbara Blake, a no-nonsense, straight up woman who completely supports her people. And it was nice being introduced to Alice in this book, I hope we might see her again in future stories.
The crimes, as I've come to expect from Carter's books, are gruesome and horrifying, but also very creative! The man has some imagination! I didn't find this as hard a read as the previous book, but the phrase at the top of the blurb 'Good job you didn't turn on the lights' and the meaning behind it haunted me for some time.
I have found with these books that when it comes down to it, the reason behind the crimes, the reason and the way the perpetrator is carrying them out, is a sad one. Something that has become unbelievably twisted but is still sad, and that was the case here too. I loved how the connections were made to finally solve the crimes, leading to a super tense, but very satisfying, denouement. The Death Sculptor is another cracking entry in this series and I'm looking forward (a little trepidatiously, mind!) to book five.
The Author
Born in Brazil of Italian origin, Chris Carter studied psychology and criminal behaviour in the USA. As a member of the District Attorney's Criminal Psychology team, and working together with the Police Department in numerous cases, he interviewed and studied many criminals, including serial and multiple homicide offenders with life imprisonment convictions. He now lives in London, UK.
