Absolute Instinct

Jessica Coran #11

by Robert W. Walker

Forensic pathologist Jessica Coran discovers that her latest homicide victim has had her spine removed from her body, and her subsequent investigation reveals that a man has already been convicted of a similar crime years earlier.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 3, 2004

About the author

Aka Geoffrey Caine, Glenn Hale, Evan Kingsbury, Stephen Robertson

Master of suspense and bone-chilling terror, Robert W. Walker, BS and MS in English Education, Northwestern University, has penned 44 novels and has taught language and writing for over 25 years. Showing no signs of slowing down, he is currently juggling not one but three new series ideas, and has completed a film script and a TV treatment. Having grown up in Chicago and having been born in the shadow of the Shiloh battlefield, near Corinth, Mississippi, Walker has two writing traditions to uphold--the Windy City one and the Southern one--all of which makes him uniquely suited to write City for Ransom and its sequels, Shadows in White City and City of the Absent. His Dead On will be published in July 2009. Walker is currently working on a new romantic-suspense-historical-mainstream novel, titled Children of Salem. In 2003 and 2004 Walker saw an unprecedented seven novels released on the "unsuspecting public," as he puts it. Final Edge, Grave Instinct, and Absolute Instinct were published in 2004. City of the Absent debuted in 2008 from Avon. Walker lives in Charleston, West Virginia.

Reviews

[Katy Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is harrowing from the onset. The character Giles a twisted malign character with an equally malevolent mother. The art work is highly visual and unforgettable. It makes for stomach clenching reading. The maikn characters Sharpe and Jessica are original and strongly featured. The twists and turns are breathtaking and Darwin again a strong character. Loved him in his fight to save his brother. Maybe your prose could be a little less purple but apart from that a scorcher of a book. Excellent.

Best wishes,
Katy.xx

[Helen Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book from Robert W Walker that I have read. It is wonderful. I liked Kathy Reichs, J D Robb, Cait London and all authors who penned good mystery. Will definitely go back for his other books of the same series. A little blood-thirsty and too much info on "backbone" than I liked but overall a wonderful book. Highly recommend to all who enjoy mysteries.

[Sooze10]

Really gruesome - to start with I almost didn't carry on readin but it gets a bit better as you go through and get more into the plot and used to the storyline.
The plot develops really quickly and I didn't really get that much detail on some of the characters but I still enjoyed the book.
Think I may try the next in the series and see from there if I want to read any more.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor little Squeakums and then Louisa!!! Who is next? Certainly not Archer!!! But many more. However, he really wants someone else. Can he get her??? Is it all his mother’s fault for pouring poison on top of poison? Or his father, or… This was ‘a little’ rough, but I enjoyed the journey with Jess and rec0mmend the book.

[maria davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wee gem of a book

This was a story that grabbed me from the start. Believable characters very neat storyline. Would definitely recommend this book.

[Delta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite a story. Not much of a mystery, but quite gory thriller. If that's your thing, then this is definitely the book for you. It didn't feel like the serial killer had any sort of reason for killing people, and it was just explained away with a hereditary reason. I don't think it really worked for the story.

I listened to the audio version and Jill Maglione did a pretty good job. She was a bit slow and I had to listen to the story at 3x speed and some of the characters had really odd voices. But she gave all the characters lots of personality.

Very gory thriller.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a gift for an honest review, I almost returned this when I realised it was the last in a series, but I was very glad that I didn't.
the story was easy to follow, dispite not know any of the characters before, there was quite a lot of referance to a single previous book, but I still feel that I could go back and read/listen to that one too.
Very creepy, exciting, edge of your seat plot, grabs your atention from start to finish. good likable , good guys , totally evil "baddie".
Narration was well done
A series I will go back and find more of .

[Stephanie Tuell · Rating 1 out of 5]

i finally finished this book. let me tell you, i was not too thrilled with it. there were several errors with quotations and grammar. the beginning of the story started off good, but it quickly got boring. the ending was good also, but you had to sit through the whole boring middle part to get to it. to me, it just wasn't worth it.

[Rhonda Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely spine-crawlingly, shivering read!

[Paul Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, solid end to the series.

[Elaine]

Book 11 in the Jessica Coran series

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

At last, the last of a series! I will miss "the further adventures of Jessica Coran"!