What do you think?
Rate this book
Pen Pals and Serial Killers #3
Intensification
Detective Hank Reynolds has just been handed the case of a lifetime. Another reality TV star has gone missing, and it’s up to the Atlanta police department to find her before it’s too late. While he’s digging around, he discovers there have been nearly twenty similar kidnappings in the surrounding areas over the last twenty years, and while trying to find out more—and a witness that’s still alive—he’s dragged into a past he wishes he could erase. His dreams become nightmares about the women, and his sanity unravels. Even his eyes begin to play tricks on him, but no hallucinations are as devious as the antics of the killer—who’s always one breath away—waiting for the chance to strike again.
265 pages, Paperback
Published May 4, 2018
4 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Jo Michaels
90 books273 followersJo Michaels loves writing novels that make readers gasp in horror, surprise, and disbelief. While her browser search history has probably landed her on a list somewhere, she still dives into every plot with gusto, hoping "the man" will realize she's a writer and not a psychopath about to go on a rampage. Her favorite pastimes are reading, watching Investigation Discovery, and helping other authors realize their true potential through mentoring. She's penned the award-winning Pen Pals and Serial Killers series and the best-selling educational book for children, Writing Prompts for Kids, which has rocketed the kids that use it into several awards of their own.
Most of Jo's books feature the places she's lived: Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia. That's given her a special amount of insight to what makes those locations tick. Her works are immersive and twisty, and she wouldn't want it any other way.
Most of Jo's books feature the places she's lived: Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia. That's given her a special amount of insight to what makes those locations tick. Her works are immersive and twisty, and she wouldn't want it any other way.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 9, 2020
Intensification
Pen Pals and Serial Killers, Book 3
By: Jo Michaels
Narrated by: Jason Clarke
The Audio Flow
There is something about Jo Michaels' books that intrigue me. I love a good psychological thriller and this series brings it. The third book in her Pen Pals and Serial Killers, we are treated to the mind of a serial kidnapper. Hank Reynolds tries to unwind the mystery of over 20 kidnappings, and what he finds is the last thing he could ever expect. The suspect is diabolical and the scenes he creates are cringe-worthy, all building the suspense. And just when you think it's going to break, Michaels throws a little humor in including herself in the mix. It's fantastic and mind bending. Loved it and all of it's darkness.
Choosing Jason Clarke to be the narrator is genius. He is one of my favorite romance narrators and this shows just how versatile he is. He plays the earnest detective, determined to find the culprit and in an heartbeat switches to the creepy mind of a serial killer with ease. It's an amazing narration and I will be highly recommending this.
Pen Pals and Serial Killers, Book 3
By: Jo Michaels
Narrated by: Jason Clarke
The Audio Flow
There is something about Jo Michaels' books that intrigue me. I love a good psychological thriller and this series brings it. The third book in her Pen Pals and Serial Killers, we are treated to the mind of a serial kidnapper. Hank Reynolds tries to unwind the mystery of over 20 kidnappings, and what he finds is the last thing he could ever expect. The suspect is diabolical and the scenes he creates are cringe-worthy, all building the suspense. And just when you think it's going to break, Michaels throws a little humor in including herself in the mix. It's fantastic and mind bending. Loved it and all of it's darkness.
Choosing Jason Clarke to be the narrator is genius. He is one of my favorite romance narrators and this shows just how versatile he is. He plays the earnest detective, determined to find the culprit and in an heartbeat switches to the creepy mind of a serial killer with ease. It's an amazing narration and I will be highly recommending this.
July 31, 2019
Intensification is Story Three by Jo Michaels in a Pen Pals and Serial Killers series. I extracted this novel from the five-book bundle I purchased. Reviews for Book One and Book Two are finished, I gave both five-star reviews on Amazon. A period of a couple of days between reviews is essential for me to avoid “author burnout.” Think of reading a book with the title “1000 Jokes.” Your sense of humor might become jaded around joke number 900.
Intensification has an element in common with Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King. Hitchcock liked to show up in his movies in some innocuous role and, of course, at an unpredictable point. Stephen King also appears unexpectedly in his films. Michaels also wanted to be part of the story. Even though it is not a spoiler, I will not reveal where the author first appears, but I will mention a somewhat puzzling comment/quote. The author becomes the subject of an internet search. The result is: “She was a writer and had several books on the market. Her social media profiles were full of non-informational stuff.” Usually, I would cite the Kindle location. With this quote, I won’t do that. Read the story to find the quote. The sentences amused me because I see frequent requests by authors to join their Twitter and Facebook feeds. The sentences quoted assure me I will find little information. A conundrum? I follow the websites for this author.
Michaels presents this story in thirteen chapters. Readers who have not figured out the twist by Chapter Four, at the latest, are not frequent readers of mystery or psychological thrillers. The story is still interesting because of its presentation. The fun stuff is in the process, not in anticipation of an inexplicable, twisted ending. Because I knew the end well in advance, this became a quick read for me as I looked for markers that signaled elements I knew had to be present.
For the same reason, I gave this novel four and one-half Amazon stars. The writing is good, but I was looking forward to a more twisted ending. For that reason, anticipation each book will be more twisted than the one previous, I don’t read an author’s novels back-to-back.
Hank and Tony are a team of detectives with a desire and a mission to protect and serve. Police protect us from the bad guys. Claude is a supremely creative bad guy. As readers begin the journey, there has been a string of four or five murders. It is not a spoiler to reveal that the figure will soon turn out to be more than twenty. Victims are not just killed; they are tortured. Organs are removed, many times before the victims’ deaths. Victims will die; Claude assures them of that. What is life without certainty? What the victims don’t know is that Claude will reassemble them after death in a more suitable form for his enjoyment.
I find dark humor in novels by Michaels. With Intensification, I found only one passage that made me smile. Not many stories involve a grand piano, but that was Claude’s special gift to a planned victim. The piano had to be delivered at a time the delivery people thought inconvenient, and one member of the team voiced his displeasure in the following exchange. I empathized with Claude.
“Claude shook his head and backed up as he apologized for standing in the way. “No problem, dude. Not like it’s heavy or anything,” Doug said between grunts as he pulled on the creeper. His partner sneered at the sarcasm. Briefly, Claude wondered if the other man would be interested in helping to murder Doug. It would be a short friendship forged in the need to have him taken out of the human race. Darwinism clearly hadn’t caught up.” (Kindle location 6853 of the bundled set). This type of humor is my favorite.
I look forward to reading Story Four to see if Michaels returns to unpredictable endings. This story is a good read but ranks a bit below novels One and Two, which is why I did not round up the rating to five stars.
Intensification has an element in common with Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King. Hitchcock liked to show up in his movies in some innocuous role and, of course, at an unpredictable point. Stephen King also appears unexpectedly in his films. Michaels also wanted to be part of the story. Even though it is not a spoiler, I will not reveal where the author first appears, but I will mention a somewhat puzzling comment/quote. The author becomes the subject of an internet search. The result is: “She was a writer and had several books on the market. Her social media profiles were full of non-informational stuff.” Usually, I would cite the Kindle location. With this quote, I won’t do that. Read the story to find the quote. The sentences amused me because I see frequent requests by authors to join their Twitter and Facebook feeds. The sentences quoted assure me I will find little information. A conundrum? I follow the websites for this author.
Michaels presents this story in thirteen chapters. Readers who have not figured out the twist by Chapter Four, at the latest, are not frequent readers of mystery or psychological thrillers. The story is still interesting because of its presentation. The fun stuff is in the process, not in anticipation of an inexplicable, twisted ending. Because I knew the end well in advance, this became a quick read for me as I looked for markers that signaled elements I knew had to be present.
For the same reason, I gave this novel four and one-half Amazon stars. The writing is good, but I was looking forward to a more twisted ending. For that reason, anticipation each book will be more twisted than the one previous, I don’t read an author’s novels back-to-back.
Hank and Tony are a team of detectives with a desire and a mission to protect and serve. Police protect us from the bad guys. Claude is a supremely creative bad guy. As readers begin the journey, there has been a string of four or five murders. It is not a spoiler to reveal that the figure will soon turn out to be more than twenty. Victims are not just killed; they are tortured. Organs are removed, many times before the victims’ deaths. Victims will die; Claude assures them of that. What is life without certainty? What the victims don’t know is that Claude will reassemble them after death in a more suitable form for his enjoyment.
I find dark humor in novels by Michaels. With Intensification, I found only one passage that made me smile. Not many stories involve a grand piano, but that was Claude’s special gift to a planned victim. The piano had to be delivered at a time the delivery people thought inconvenient, and one member of the team voiced his displeasure in the following exchange. I empathized with Claude.
“Claude shook his head and backed up as he apologized for standing in the way. “No problem, dude. Not like it’s heavy or anything,” Doug said between grunts as he pulled on the creeper. His partner sneered at the sarcasm. Briefly, Claude wondered if the other man would be interested in helping to murder Doug. It would be a short friendship forged in the need to have him taken out of the human race. Darwinism clearly hadn’t caught up.” (Kindle location 6853 of the bundled set). This type of humor is my favorite.
I look forward to reading Story Four to see if Michaels returns to unpredictable endings. This story is a good read but ranks a bit below novels One and Two, which is why I did not round up the rating to five stars.
May 22, 2018
Took me long than I thought to finish this book. Not because I didn’t want to read hut the fact adulting and responsibilities took over. Regardless, I love Pen Pals and Serial Killers series. Didn’t know Jo was so sick and twisted but would explain my absolute obsession for her books. Intensification is no different. Sure it’s predictable and you realize who the killer is, off the bat, but very entertaining how the realization unfolds. How Jo writes herself into her book is so clever. LOVE IT! Why i am an author groupie and loyal reader of all Jo Michaels book and highly recommend them, even if this is your first book you read from her.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
May 26, 2018
What?!?!
What in the world did I just read???? This was intense. Majorly messed up and wicked AWESOME! I had a hard time putting this down, read it all in a day. Strongly recommend this is you like twisted suspense.
What in the world did I just read???? This was intense. Majorly messed up and wicked AWESOME! I had a hard time putting this down, read it all in a day. Strongly recommend this is you like twisted suspense.
May 11, 2018
Crazy good
I was so excited to get a story with Hank in it. Claude is such a well written villain and I couldn’t wait for Hank to catch up with Claude in their deadly game of chess. I almost lost my mind when things took a completely insane turn! I ended up staying up way, way past bed time just because I could not put it down. Amazing writing.
I was so excited to get a story with Hank in it. Claude is such a well written villain and I couldn’t wait for Hank to catch up with Claude in their deadly game of chess. I almost lost my mind when things took a completely insane turn! I ended up staying up way, way past bed time just because I could not put it down. Amazing writing.
June 2, 2018
Intensification was a straight through read for me. Two POVs are switched back and forth. I wasn’t really sure what would happen but the twist is pretty easy to catch on once you can wrap your mind around it all. It’s not a pretty read and you don’t get a HEA but it’s twisted, dark and a good what the heck did I just read read.
Review by Raychel
Review by Raychel
April 10, 2021
Story: 4 stars. Performance: 5 stars (if I could give more, I would)
This book is full of twists and turns, some obvious and some not, it’s difficult to really talk about it without ruining any of it. So let me just say that it is a great story. A little on the short side but I can see why. It kept me captivated and wanting to know what was going to happen next. Now, I would have liked a little more at parts, especially the end, I would have liked to have seen a switch in POV to see how a certain character reacted and felt about the revelations. But I can also understand leaving it where it did. I’m a conflict of opinions lol.
Jason Clarke as a serial killer is new for me and once I got over the ‘WTF? No, this is my flowers and chocolate romance guy’ moment, and could really appreciate him in this role. Hank and Claude are so different and the way he performed them was fantastic. It was obvious which character was which and this performance is just more evidence to Jason being the most versatile voice actor in narration right now.
The production was brilliant with no issues.
This book is full of twists and turns, some obvious and some not, it’s difficult to really talk about it without ruining any of it. So let me just say that it is a great story. A little on the short side but I can see why. It kept me captivated and wanting to know what was going to happen next. Now, I would have liked a little more at parts, especially the end, I would have liked to have seen a switch in POV to see how a certain character reacted and felt about the revelations. But I can also understand leaving it where it did. I’m a conflict of opinions lol.
Jason Clarke as a serial killer is new for me and once I got over the ‘WTF? No, this is my flowers and chocolate romance guy’ moment, and could really appreciate him in this role. Hank and Claude are so different and the way he performed them was fantastic. It was obvious which character was which and this performance is just more evidence to Jason being the most versatile voice actor in narration right now.
The production was brilliant with no issues.
October 17, 2020
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW:
OVERALL: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PERFORMANCE: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
STORY: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wow...........I have no words to say about this story as I sit here pondering about how I am going to write this review and not giving anything away. My fiance and I can't seem to wrap our heads around the ending to this story. My mind is a jumble of emotions with shock being the top of the list.......but here it goes.
The characters were remarkable. We truly enjoyed getting to know Hank. He was an incredible character and was an extremely smart and caring guy. Then we meet Claude and, well...the more we got to know Claude the more we loathed him.
The story-line was well......shocking as hell. At first we had no clue what was going on until the author was ready to give us the crazy plot twist. Michaels did a fantastic job of keeping us in suspense and on the edge of our seat up until the very end. Intense is THE exact word that comes to mind to fully describe what we listened to. It was a good story and was written very well and had one hell of an unforgettable shocking ending.
The narrator was phenomenal. Clarke has a royal knack for voice overs and keeping us drawn into the story and his way of showing emotions at the right time kept us intrigued and terrified during the story. I could feel what the characters felt throughout the whole book just because of the performance from this narrator.
Ed and I highly recommend this book to read and/or listen to.
CAUTION: Due to the graphic scenes within this story, reader discretion is advised
OVERALL: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PERFORMANCE: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
STORY: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wow...........I have no words to say about this story as I sit here pondering about how I am going to write this review and not giving anything away. My fiance and I can't seem to wrap our heads around the ending to this story. My mind is a jumble of emotions with shock being the top of the list.......but here it goes.
The characters were remarkable. We truly enjoyed getting to know Hank. He was an incredible character and was an extremely smart and caring guy. Then we meet Claude and, well...the more we got to know Claude the more we loathed him.
The story-line was well......shocking as hell. At first we had no clue what was going on until the author was ready to give us the crazy plot twist. Michaels did a fantastic job of keeping us in suspense and on the edge of our seat up until the very end. Intense is THE exact word that comes to mind to fully describe what we listened to. It was a good story and was written very well and had one hell of an unforgettable shocking ending.
The narrator was phenomenal. Clarke has a royal knack for voice overs and keeping us drawn into the story and his way of showing emotions at the right time kept us intrigued and terrified during the story. I could feel what the characters felt throughout the whole book just because of the performance from this narrator.
Ed and I highly recommend this book to read and/or listen to.
CAUTION: Due to the graphic scenes within this story, reader discretion is advised
October 18, 2020
This is the third book in the Pen Pals and Serial Killers Series. OMG! This story is creepy, dark, and captivating! This is definitely a thrilling ride, filled with twists and turns. The characters are well developed. The storyline is well written, with both POV of the serial killer and the detective. Jason Clarke did an wonderful job with the narration. If you like psychological thriller, this one is definitely for you. #caffeinated #audioflow
June 7, 2025
Mind blown
Ha the twist in the book was something I wasn't anticipating at all. Claude with an E was a peach of a person.
Ha the twist in the book was something I wasn't anticipating at all. Claude with an E was a peach of a person.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews