Rusty Nail”Rusty Nail” by J.A. Konrath c.2006, Brilliance Audio $32.95 7 CDs / about 8 hours
Trouble, as they say, comes in threes.
If you have one bit of bad luck, you can bet you’re facing two more annoyances before you’ve gotten through the triad of turmoil. Even Hollywood knows that; everybody says that when one star dies, two more will follow soon. In “Rusty Nail”, the third book in the Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels mystery series by J.A. Konrath, there’s one more killer loose in Chicago. At least one more.
The videotape was delivered to the Chicago PD by a young man with a blonde beard. It had Detective Jacqueline Daniels’ name on it, and when Jack popped the tape in the machine, it felt like déjà vu. Jack and her partner, Herb Benedict, watched for as long as they were able, but the video was stomach-churning. This tape, this method, the struggling girl’s murder… everything was eerily reminiscent of the Gingerbread Man case, a bloody, terrible series of crimes that were solved two years ago.
But Charles Kork, the Gingerbread Man, was dead. Was this the work of a copycat or was this a video of a Kork killing that the CPD didn’t know about?
Then people start disappearing. The handwriting specialist that Jack used on the Gingerbread Man case vanishes. The home of a major Gingerbread Man witness is torched. The FBI’s computer thinks it’s the work of two killers, but Jack thinks the Feebies are weird. One copycat, yes, but three different murderers committing identical crimes? Highly unlikely.
And then the second tape arrives. The second tape shows a torture more disturbing than anything Jack has ever seen. Worse, the tape showed up at Jack’s apartment, which means that the killer knows where Jack lives.
In another area of Chicago, a psychiatrist has an appointment with his patient, Alex. Alex is obviously troubled, and admits to killing cats as a stress-reliever. When the doctor instructs Alex to try avoiding cat-killing for just one week, Alex thinks that might be do-able. That’s because Alex is planning on killing a far, far larger animal.
At some point or other in the near future, you might see a review of this audio book that says it’s a “roller-coaster ride”.
That would be wrong.
“Rusty Nail” is a screaming hundred-mile-an-hour detour down a winding mountain road in a sports car, standing on the seat with the top down.
Author J.A. Konrath is known for some gruesomely bloody details in his books and this one won’t disappoint his fans one bit. Readers of Konrath’s first two novels will also be happy to see that Jack hasn’t lost her bite. Narrators Dick Hill and Susie Breck do an incredible job with voices of various characters, including a dead-on Chicago accent for Herb Benedict and an uber-creepy voice for Alex.
Be aware that “Rusty Nail” is positively not for kids and will certainly mean nightmares for them if they listen along. But if you’re ready for a triple shot of crime, murder, and mystery, then be sure to nail a copy of this audio book for yourself.