What the Critics Say
About David Wiltse
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A phantom bomber with a signature "Spring" bears a well-nursed grudge against New York
City. To wreak vengeance on the
city he holds responsible for his thwarted academic career, Spring launches a campaign
of terror. His goal is purely revenge,
but he is soon intercepted by a lowlife with higher aspirations: getting the city to fork
up $5 million in exchange for no more
bombings. Relying more on old-fashioned policework and Becker's instincts than on the
kind of state-of-the-art technology
employed by the eccentric bomber, Becker and FBI Agent Pegeen Haddad must track down the
elusive Spring and his
abettor before more lives are lost - and before the city caves in to Spring's demands.
— from the jacket
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When heavy spring rains reveal a long-buried bag of bones, local police in the quiet
Connecticut community of Clamden
realize that a string of presumed runaways is really a case of serial murder. Someone
is brutally slaying local teens and
au pairs before taking them apart calmly, methodically, bone by bone. To find the killer,
FBI agent John Becker is brought
in to assist his old buddy, Clamden police chief Terrence "Tee" Terhune. — from the
jacket
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Terrorism, murder, and an icepick-wielding assassin are the pieces of a deadly puzzle John Becker must assemble before the killer strikes again, in this harrowing prequel to Prayer for the Dead. "A spellbinding thriller," Wrote Publishers Weekly of Wiltse's Prayer for the Dead. "Bloodcurdling and insanely original," said The New York Times Book Review. Now FBI agent John Becker is back to face Roger Bahoud, a mercurially violent international assassin who has descended on New York City for his latest victim: a visiting diplomat who holds the key to peace in the Middle East. A wild card too unpredictable for the KGB handlers who trained him, Bahoud is employed this time as a mercenary by Islamic fundamentalists. In the end, Becker must battle against time and his own psychological demons to outwit and outstep the ruthless Bahoud before the assassin can strike. The tension mounts and cuts close to the bone as Becker and Bahoud stalk each other in this taut, chilling thriller. — from the jacket |
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A tantalizing thriller about a lethal pairing of two sociopaths who escape detection,
in part because they don't fit the
serial-killer bill. "David Wiltse is remorselessly skillful in capturing and holding our
complete and breathless attention,"
said The New York Times Book Review about Prayer for the Dead, the author's
first novel featuring former FBI agent
John Becker. Now Wiltse brings Becker back in a thriller that breaks all the rules and
takes the reader to the edge.
The Edge of Sleep reunites John Becker with FBI agent Karen Crist, his former protegee
and ex-lover. Crist is at her
wit's end: little boys are disappearing, only to turn up murdered at an alarming —
and increasing — rate. The killer is in
free-fall: out of control, desperate, unchecked. What Becker and Crist don't suspect is
that the murderer in no way
fits the standard serial-killer profile. So even when they come face to face with the
guilty, neither Becker's instincts
nor Crist's training puts them any closer to breaking this chilling streak of crime.
Before they come close to
unmasking the killer, they will themselves become not so much the hunters as all-too-easy
prey. Fast-paced and
hard-driving, The Edge of Sleep is a brilliant novel of the hunter and the hunted
that secures Wiltse's reputation as
a writer who can keep readers up all night. — from the jacket
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It's the hottest summer ever in Falls City, Nebraska. Acting deputy Billy Tree is
struggling to readjust to his old hometown as well as recover from the shattering
tragedy that ended his Secret Service career. But amid the shimmering heat,
deserted barns, and burning plains, a horrifying, decades-old injustice is about
to rear its ugly head when a stranger with a vendetta arrives, hell-bent on making
Falls City pay for its sins...
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After a would-be assassin leaves Billy Tree's partner dead, and Tree wondering whether his
own panicked firing played
a part, the decorated Secret Service Agent suffers a crisis of confidence — in his
ability, his courage, and his principles
— that ends his career. He returns to his hometown, Falls City, Nebraska, in search
of solitude and a chance to
rediscover his moral center.
But danger lurks where he least expects it: behind a small town's bigotry lies deadly
intrigue. As the myth of rural
tranquility explodes around him, Tree unravels a conspiracy more terrifying than his most
haunting nightmares. —
from the jacket
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A taut thriller studded with unexpected reversals and surprising intersections of con
artists, hardened prisoners, and the
wiliest of serial killers. Former FBI agent John Becker returns, in Wiltse's most
absorbing shocker yet. Still on indefinite
medical extension from the Bureau, Becker finds he can't fully disengage from the
wackos and serial killers with whom
he inexplicably shares a certain sensibility. An inmate from a maximum-security prison
is sending Becker anonymous
coded messages. After successfully decoding these unwanted missives, a reluctant Becker
agrees to a face-to-face
with the offender - who ultimately cuts a deal for his freedom with Becker's hated
superior, Associate Director Hatcher.
Even Becker can't anticipate the kind of demon Hatcher unwittingly unleashes, though
he is the first to wise up to it.
And he is the only one who can catch the fiend - by exploiting the very talent he would
like most to repress: his
uncanny empathy for the most twisted of criminal minds. — from the jacket
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A gripping cat-and-mouse tale of wide-eyed terror concerning a diabolical psychopath who's
found the will to kill and
a detective who's lost the will to win. A chilling thriller in the tradition of Thomas
Harris' The Silence of the Lambs. —
from the jacket
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