Readers fearing that recently retired FBI Agent E.L. Pender (The Girls He Adored; Fear Itself) would devote himself to a life of leisure on a sandy beach can breathe a sigh of relief: his serial killer hunter skills are as sharp as ever. Pender does head for a tropical isle, though the fictional St. Luke in the U.S. Virgin Islands when old pal Julian Coffee, the chief of police, invites him to help hunt down a sadistic killer whose signature is severing the right hand of his many victims. The identity of the killer, or in this case killers, is no secret to the reader: kinky anthropologist spouses Phil and Emily Epps are shown early on murdering St. Luke resident Andy Arena after a "sadomasochistic tango." The Epps believe that sucking in a dying person's last breath will make them all-powerful, a ritual learned on one of their field expeditions. Drawn into the Epps's cabal is narcissistic Lewis Apgard, scion of one of the island's founding families. Lewis needs to have his wife, Hokey, killed so he can move forward with a land scheme that will net him big money, and fortunately for him, the Epps are glad to help him out. Meanwhile, Pender, "bald and homely as a boiled potato," finds love with a beautiful local lady who has a serious law enforcement problem in her past. Nasaw is such a clever writer that it's hard not to root for all his quirky characters, including the Epps, though we're constantly reminded that the deadly duo is bad, bad, bad. Even so, Nasaw is able to whip up plenty of suspense as Apgard and the Epps take Pender prisoner, grab a child hostage and make one last bid for freedom. Agent, Fred Hill. (June 1) Forecast: This is a well-written, appealing series that has the potential to find a wide audience. Booksellers can recommend to mystery, thriller and mainstream readers alike. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Nasaw (Fear Itself; The Girls He Adored) has created some of the most interesting serial killers in modern literature. Here, former FBI agent E.L. Pender heads to St. Luke, one of the Virgin Islands, to help hunt for a murderer whose modus operandi is to torture his victims, cut off their right hands, and leave them to bleed slowly to death. The authorities, fearful of bad publicity, want to keep the killer's existence quiet. Pender, clearly from the mainland and unaccustomed to the speech patterns and social customs of the island, is at a disadvantage as he tries to familiarize himself with the community and its inhabitants. As the body count builds, and the pattern of the killings changes, he finds that the case is more complex than he first thought. Although the reader knows who is behind the killings, tension arises from not knowing whether Pender will figure it out in time to save other people while putting himself at grave risk. Loaded with suspense and packed with unique and engaging characters, this is a winner for all fiction collections.-Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights- University Heights P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Feckless psychopaths. Can those two words really be mentioned in the same breath? Well, yes. And speaking of breath. . . . meet the Epps: Dr. Emily and Dr. Phil, anthropologists and serial killers. They kill for the sake of dying breaths, convinced that if they can suck these up in sufficient quantities they can live forever. Never mind how they came by this unwarranted (certainly unscientific) approach to immortality. What's relevant is their unshakable belief in the concept's validity and the ease with which surface ordinariness can blind the average citizen to rampant nuttiness. For 15 years, the Epps have gone about the business of population decimation "without so much as a cross word from the authorities," Emily airily informs a potential disciple. True enough, but that period is about to come to an abrupt end with the advent of former FBI Special Agent E.L. Pender. He arrives at St. Luke (fictitious) in the Virgin Islands at the behest of embattled Police Chief Julian Coffee, a onetime colleague and unabashed admirer of Pender's special abilities ("When it comes to serial killers, you're the man"). And no question about it, Chief Coffee does have a situation on his hands. Hands indeed. Right hands to be precise, which a sudden series of corpses have been materializing without. It doesn't take long for Pender to sniff out the eccentricity in the Epp household, though catching the weird doctors red-handed, as it were, seems another matter entirely. But, then, who knew the silly pair would be cooperative enough to record 15 years of serial killing in meticulous, evidentiary detail? Unsparingly gruesome in places. Still, it's a colorful cast, sharply observed and wittily presented: Pender in love is almost as much fun as Pender the sleuth. By far, Nasaw's third is his best yet (The Girls He Adored, 2001, etc.). Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The third E. L. Pender novel finds the retired FBI special agent hot (literally) on the trail of a serial killer who turns out to be far more scary and far more brilliant than our hero could possibly have imagined. Someone is murdering people in the U.S. Virgin Islands, killing them and cutting off their right hands, and only Pender (we hope) can solve the mystery. Writing with remarkable attention to detail, Nasaw grounds his story in the particulars of place and character, vividly evoking the overweight, disheveled Pender forced to trudge about in the sweltering tropical heat. The villain of the piece--it would be a crime to get any more specific--is original and weird enough to fit nicely into a novel by Thomas Harris (to whom Nasaw often has been compared). Pender himself, an imaginative variation on the Columbo-like rumpled detective, is a crafty and inventive sleuth, and it's always fun to watch him work. --David Pitt Copyright 2004 Booklist