Police officer Toby Parkman pursues a psychopathic rapist who is stalking the women of a small college town, while the vicious attacks move ever closer to his own neighborhood and family. A first novel. 50,000 first printing.
A multi-faceted artist, Washburn's etchings and paintings are in major collections throughout the country and his first novel, Intent to Harm, was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection in 1994, drawing upon his experience as a police officer.
The story starts off with toby being assigned to work sex crimes as a special unit Theres a streaker or flasher on the loose. But then it heats up. Theres a serial rapist on the loose. Who beats the victims. Then there on patrol. They have suspects. There collecting evidence. A prostitute has a lead. There office is upgraded. The serial rapist even brakes in to Toby's house. Then dorn is arrested. But is released due to lack of evidence. They catch him in a brake in where he falls out a window. From scandalous home brake ins. To tuff police work. Every risky sex crime delt with. Descent crime novel read.
Not a terrible thriller, but nothing to make time for if there are other books on your shelf that need to be read. It has one plot twist that's kind of interesting, but it's otherwise fairly predictable and doesn't really present much information that grabs the reader and demands attention. While I wanted to finish the book, I didn't have much trouble putting it down when other things came up.
This one starts a bit slow. Sometimes Washburn gets bogged down in the detailed drudgery of police work. By the middle the story is rolling and is interesting. The ending seems weak straining to just wrap up the story. Not one I would recommend.