Title: FACE OF THE DEVIL
Author: WILLIAM WELLS
Genre: FICTION, MYSTERIES AND THRILLERS
Length: 217 PAGES
Publisher: RIVERDALE BOOKS
Received From: NETGALLEY
Release Date: AUGUST 1, 2019
ISBN: 9781626015159
Price: $6.99 USD (EBOOK)
Rating: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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DESCRIPTION:
“Wells has a brisk, breezy style that… blurs the line between fiction and (fictive) reality. Prime entertainment.” —Booklist
In this fast-paced psychological thriller, someone is brutally murdering female college students on Midwestern campuses.
When a police sketch of the killer shows a remarkable resemblance to Ethan Hamilton, a prominent professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin who specializes in psychopathic personality disorders, Ethan is at first a suspect.
Initially cleared, he agrees to help the FBI hunt down the killer. The killings continue and Ethan begins having troubling dreams about the crimes, and other signs of severe stress, he quits his work with the FBI but gets drawn back in. A shocking development puts Ethan and his family in jeopardy.
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MY REVIEW:
“I am Ethan Hamilton: 48 years old; B.S.; M.S.; Ph.D.; professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin. My academic speciality is abnormal psychology, with a sub-specialty in the sociopathic and psychopathic personality. My books and papers on the subject have gained national and international attention for me and for my university.”
Ethan Hamilton knows more about psychopaths than almost anyone in law enforcement, including those who work in the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.
So, when someone starts killing young female college students and when a sketch of the murderer looks much like him, it is inevitable that he get involved in the case. He is cleared quickly as a suspect and instead offers his professional expertise to help catch the real killer.
Author William Wells is also an expert, an expert of twists and turns. He digs deep into the psyche of both the killer and the purported expert on psychopathic personalities. What he discovers is that the line between the hunter and the hunted is sometimes very thin.
If you enjoy thrillers with a horror bent, you will want to read this book. I particularly enjoyed the discussions surrounding the age-old question of what most influences a person’s development – nature or nurture.
There are several other themes that are interspersed throughout this book, but I do not want to give out any spoilers in this book review, so I will refrain from discussing them here. However, once you read this book, I am willing to discuss it anytime on my blog, or on my Instagram account. Be sure to follow both by going to my blog at http://Amiesbookreviews.wordpress.com and follow @Amiesbookreviews on Instagram.
There were a few typos in the file that was sent to me, but I believe these will be fixed in the final version of this book. It is due to these typos that I have rated this book as 4 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐
*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book.*
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QUOTES:
“You would never go broke catering to the public’s appetite for the macabre. It was cathartic to confront pure evil and survive.”
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“Horror was titillating – as long as it was someone else’s horror.”
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“Why was Wisconsin known as the serial-murder capital of the U.S.? I’ve studied the subject and found that no one really knows why our state produces psychopaths in the way that Silicon Valley incubates high-tech companies. Maybe it’s something in the gene pool, or the water.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born in Detroit, William Wells is a graduate of Hamilton College with a B.A. in English literature.
He served aboard a Navy destroyer and as a Navy journalist, and was a radio disc jockey, newspaper staff writer, author of an internationally syndicated comic strip, speechwriter for the Governor of Michigan, marketing agency executive, and custom publishing company owner.
His previously published novels include Hope’s Road, Ride Away Home, Detective Fiction and The Dollar-A-Year Detective.
To learn more about this author, visit the following links:
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ABOUT THE PUBLISHER:
Riverdale Avenue Books is an award winning, innovative hybrid publisher at the leading edge of the changes in the publishing industry. We publish e-books, print, and audio books under 12 imprints: Desire, an erotica/erotic romance imprint; Riverdale/Magnus the award-winning imprint of LGBT titles; Pop featuring pop culture titles; Afraid, a horror line; SFF, a science fiction fantasy line; Truth, an erotic memoir line; Dagger, a mystery thriller imprint; Sports and Gaming featuring sports and gaming titles; Verve featuring lifestyle titles; Hera featuring both the true and fictional lives and loves of women aged 35 and up; and 120 Days, an LGBT pulp fiction line.
To learn more about this Publisher visit the following links:
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