True Evil

January 29, 2007
As well-tuned here as he was when he narrated Iles's last Deep South thriller, Turning Angel
, Hill takes a smart half-step back from the novel's near-hyperbolic but effective mixture of suspense and spooky science. The plot begins at full gallop, with the smugness of self-satisfied Dr. Chris Shepard shattered by the news from frantic FBI agent Alexandra Morse that his wife has been talking to a divorce lawyer. Not just any lawyer, but one whose clients' spouses, like Morse's sister, die seemingly of natural causes. Über-villain and genius scientist Dr. Eldon Tarver justifies the novel's title by developing deadly and undetectable biological viruses and testing them on unwanted better halves. Iles's characters are almost over-the-top, but Hill captures their personalities without overdoing it. He holds to the pace Iles sets in slowly upping the suspense ante, but he does it in a manner more modulated than breathless, adding to the building tension. When Tarver injects Shepard with a quick-acting cancer virus, Hill renders the event in subdued tones. The effect is as startling as if an insect suddenly flew into your ear. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 20).

December 4, 2006
Smooth prose, psychological depth and crafty plotting lift bestseller Iles's latest suspense thriller, which puts a fresh twist on a familiar theme-the cat-and-mouse game between an FBI agent and a fiendishly-clever serial killer. One personal tragedy after another has struck Alexandra Morse, a rising star in the FBI who specializes in hostage negotiation: her father's shooting death in a robbery, her mother's diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer, and a misstep on the job that left her face scarred and a fellow agent dead. Now Alex's sister, Grace, lies dying in a Jackson, Miss., hospital after suffering a stroke. Alex arrives from Washington just in time to hear Grace say that her husband has murdered her. After Grace's death, Alex learns that Dr. Eldon Tarver, a brilliant scientist in need of funds for research into developing a biological superweapon, has teamed with a Mississippi divorce attorney who offers select clients the opportunity to avoid a protracted court fight by arranging for their spouses to die. When Alex identifies the next intended victim, Dr. Chris Shepard, she goes undercover as one of the idealistic doctor's patients and soon finds herself in a race against Tarver as well as her own superiors, who have not sanctioned her investigation. This pulse-pounder is sure to be another bestseller for Iles (Turning Angel).