The Informant

If you thought The Silence of the Lambs was the last word on how the FBI tracks serial killers, think again. Grippando -- the Miami lawyer who scored with The Pardon -- manages to reveal even more inside information as agent Victoria Santos goes after a particularly nasty murderer/mutilator. Helping in the chase is reporter Mike Posten, getting repeated tips from somebody who reveals the kind of details only the actual killer could know. There's also an exciting, ultra-violent conclusion on a cruise ship just begging for Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. From Publishers Weekly The title character of attorney Grippando's second thriller (after The Pardon) is the anonymous man who contacts Miami Tribune reporter Mike Posten and claims that he can predict the next victim of a serial killer who has eluded the FBI's Child Abduction and Serial Killer Unit. The informant wants to be paid in cash for what he says he knows. After a brief debate, Posten and his paper pony up for a series of exclusives. Posten also talks to the FBI, in the form of agent Victoria Santos, who is alone in believing that the informant and the killer are different people. It's an unusually cerebral and low-key beginning to a serial-killer thriller, emphasizing procedure, forensics and professional ethics rather than shock or even suspense; the killings that occur during this set-up take place off page. Soon enough, however, the informer/killer question is resolved and Grippando moves his story into more familiar territory, telling an absorbing tale with cool competence. The murders are given a plausible motive and the climax, which takes place on a hijacked cruise ship, surges with tension; even Posten's marital problems are tied neatly to the plot line. Former FBI agent and veteran serial-killer-stalker John Douglas (Mind Hunter) has blurbed this novel as authentic and "thoroughly convincing"; true?and it's a nail-biter to boot. $60,000 ad/promo; simultaneous HarperAudio release. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Grippando's (The Pardon, LJ 8/94) second novel is a taut page-turner with class, reminiscent of the work of Michael Connelly (The Concrete Blond, Little, Brown, 1994) and Patricia Cornwell (Cause of Death, LJ 3/1/96). A diabolical serial killer is traversing the country slicing out the tongues of his seemingly random victims. In a stunning twist on the otherwise tired serial killer theme, reporter Mike Posten of the Miami Tribune is contacted by a man claiming to know the killer's patterns intimately. As the "informant" extorts more and more outrageous sums for his uncannily accurate predictions, Posten and FBI agent Victoria Santos forge an uneasy alliance. While FBI brass are convinced that they are dealing with one man, Victoria remains loyal to her gut instincts. Ultimately, she must acquiesce to using Mike as a lure in a stand-off with the killer aboard a cruise ship. Public libraries will want several copies of this potential best seller. -?Susan A. Zappia, Maricopa Cty. Lib. Dist., Phoenix Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist There's a serial killer out there, but the locations are disparate and the victims seemingly unconnected. FBI agent Victoria Santos has developed a psychological profile of the killer, whose attention to detail results in a dearth of clues. Then Miami Tribune reporter Mike Posten receives calls from someone who claims he's not the killer, but he thinks so much like him he can predict the killer's next move. The caller will talk for cash, which the FBI supplies. The finale takes place on a cruise ship and pits the killer against Santos and Posten. HarperCollins is investing big money to convince readers that this is another Silence of the Lambs , but it's not even close. At best, it's a run-of-the-mill thriller populated from Central Casting: the plucky FBI agent, the intrepid reporter, and the killer with a dysfunctional childhood. Still, the author's previous thriller, The Pardon (1994), did well, and the publicity blitz will generate some demand. Buy cautiously. Wes Lukowsky From Kirkus Reviews Grippando grabs for the brass ring in his second galloping Napoleon-of-crime fantasy (The Pardon, 1994)--and brings it about halfway home. Somebody's decided to start selling Mike Posten, a Pulitzer alumnus at the Miami Tribune, the hottest crime tips of the decade: sending him the names of each new target of a cunning killer who's cutting out his victims' tongues--and sending them after they're already dead but before the bodies are discovered. It's the killer himself, insist the FBI when Mike asks if they'll bankroll his stories. But task force coordinator Victoria Santos doesn't think so, and like Mike, she sticks her neck way, way out in support of her theory that the killer's being dogged by a second man, an informant who knows his modus operandi so well that he can predict what he'll do next. Bucking the reservations the Tribune--and the FBI--have about spending big bucks for tips that may be coming straight from the killer and financing his getaway, Mike and Victoria work to piece together profiles of both the men they think they're looking for, even though the killer's profile, which combines hallmarks of both organized and disorganized serial killers, leaves them wondering if he might be a schizoid tattling on himself after all. So far, so edgy--until Grippando, halfway through, lifts the veil to expose the identities of both killer and informant, the relationship between them, and the motive for the ghoulish crimes, and the story turns into a cat-and-mouse game with a cat who's a lot less scary (and convincing) once he's been explained away, and a new series of threats (breaking up Mike's fragile family for good, taking an ocean liner hostage) that scream TV movie. Even the flatter second half, once Grippando's shown all his cards, is enough to keep you tearing through the pages--but now you already know what you're going to find. ($60,000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. "A breathlessly scary, unpredictable thriller...extravagantly plotted....Grippando has produced a work that will deserve its place on bestseller lists." -- Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Sept. 22, 1996 "A worthy addition to the genre....Byzantine plot twists and close calls...an explosive climax." -- Toronto Star, Sept. 21, 1996 "Edgy...keeps you tearing through the pages." -- Kirkus Reviews, Sept. 25, 1996 "Grippando meets the criteria for the genre. He thrills." -- Houston Chronicle, Sept. 15, 1996 "Grippando writes with the authenticity of an insider--from the FBI's tracking of serial killers right down to the nuances of internal Bureau politics. The Informant is a thoroughly convincing edge-of-your-seat thriller, clearly on a par with The Silence of the Lambs." -- John Douglas, former chief of the FBI's Investigative Supprot Unit and bestselling author of Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit "Intriguing...Grippando handles this unusual [plot] with ease." -- Chicago Tribune, Sept. 15, 1996 "Spectacular effects...entertaining....Grippando has done his homework on FBI forensics, criminal profiling and the internal protocol for backstabbing....Plenty of blood is spilled on the rug." -- New York Times Book Review, Oct. 13, 1996 "Surges with tension...an absorbing tale written with cool competence...and a nail-biter to boot." -- Publisher's Weekly, July 22, 1996 Read more