Bone Deep: A John Becker Novel

John Becker #5

by David Wiltse

A bone washes up in a small Connecticut town, and lands at John Becker’s feet. It takes three months of rain for the bone to float up from its hiding place. It drifts to the door of a local housewife, who puts in a panicked call to the local police. The chief takes the call himself, and happens to bring John Becker along. Becker, a former FBI agent known nationwide for killing serial killers, has come here to get away from murder, but the bone washes up like a message in a bottle—a message that says death has found him again.

The bone is human, with saw marks on either end, and it draws Becker into a gory game of cat and mouse. The killer, who calls himself Captain Luv, seduces every woman he can, and murders a select few. To find him, Becker will have to think like a madman—a part he plays all too well.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Fiction, Suspense

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 28, 2000

About the author

David Wiltse was born in 1940 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He graduated from the University of Nebraska and currently lives in a small town in Connecticut. He has written plays for stage, screen and television and won a Drama Desk award for most promising playwright for Suggs (first produced at Lincoln Center in 1972). Always popular with Bookhaunts readers, his novels include the John Becker Novels and Billy Tree/Falls City Novels.

Reviews

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

He calls himself Captain Love. His kind of serial killing takes time, because he insists on slowly, carefully seducing his victims until they have fallen hopelessly in love with him. They will give him all the sex he can handle and more because they are eager to do it based on his methodical seduction. The sex is great, but eventually things inevitably go sour. The girls can’t breathe because he chokes them to death. His rage takes over. Once they’re dead, he cuts them apart bone by bone.

The upper-middle-class folks in Clamden, Connecticut aren’t used to a serial killer, but that’s what they’re dealing with. The first body becomes unburied in an orchard after a flood. Police Chief Terhune and his friend FBI Agent John Becker work to uncover a serial killer, and they struggle with marital problems at home. Terhune’s outdoor tryst with a small-breasted 30-something athletic woman could go public if one of his officers spotted him cavorting with the woman, as Terhune fears he did. Becker and his wife become acquainted with a local surgeon and his wife, and that dynamic is bizarre. All the while, the serial killer is seducing his next victim.

I found this graphic in its detail. The descriptions of the deaths gave me the creeps. The other downside is I figured out way early who the killer was. Still, the writing keeps you listening, and your interest won’t falter.

[Viccy · Rating 4 out of 5]

5th. Back to his winning ways with Becker and a new character.

[Jayne Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. Some parts are a little too "wordy"when less could be said to get the point across. It was predictable but that's ok. Still an interesting read in the crime thriller genre.

[Filiberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenido pero totalmente previsible.

[Bruno Dios · Rating 3 out of 5]

En mis libros es un buen libro. No lo leo hace bastante y no estoy seguro de querer volver a hacerlo.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the most indicative book title I've ever encountered, and yet it was not porn. Not QUITE porn. Indeed there was a lot of boning. There's no mystery really, but it was an entertaining read.

SPOILERS:

I liked this book the least in the series because 1) Tee's character got tainted and screwed left and right and he was actually my favorite so far, now I have no favorites 2) Karen didn't die, I was really hoping

[Andrew Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story. Interesting reading. Becker is a good central recurring character.

[Jay Bee]

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[Brenda]

Bought from WPL for $0.25