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Jessica Coran #5

Darkest Instinct

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A new cat-and-mouse crime thriller featuring FBI medical examiner Jessica Coran who travels to Florida to track down a murderous misogynist. Follows FATAL INSTINCT, KILLER INSTINCT and PRIMAL INSTINCT.

341 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1996

11 people are currently reading
175 people want to read

About the author

Robert W. Walker

184 books77 followers
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.

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5 stars
45 (30%)
4 stars
48 (32%)
3 stars
41 (27%)
2 stars
11 (7%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Jennifer.
36 reviews13 followers
July 16, 2012
This is definitely not for the faint of heart. It's a very intense tale of a serial killer making his rounds in southern Florida and the Carribean. What I especially love is there isn't just one perspective. The author shows you many character points of view. The reader gets a very in depth look at the whole story. The killer is cunning and crafty, and the law enforcement is dedicated and forceful. It is definitely a great read. I so look forward to reading the other books that are a part of this series.
Profile Image for Athena.
747 reviews4 followers
May 31, 2024
I thought this would never end. I have rarely been so bored by the hunt for a serial killer, real or fictional. Good gracious.

The writing is not very good. The characters are meh. I didn't know it was part of a series when I first downloaded it and started reading it about 10 years ago. Seriously, I'll have to check the exact number of years, but it's been such a slog. I've been picking it up here and there, only to make it through a page or two at the time before giving up again. Anyway, you're expected to know these characters already and, I guess, care about them.

Other than typos and formatting issues with the ebook, my other problem is the number of random characters who pop up and bog things down. Because it seems we have to hear the history and detailed inner workings of each and every one. Not sure why we need an entire chapter about what some new person is thinking and feeling, only to have them play a miniscule role and vanish.

I can't say it better than this actual quotation when one (minor) character is rumored to be publishing a book: "it takes a certain amount of arrogance on the part of anybody to write a book, to believe they have enough to say to the world and that people—strangers to them— are going to actually be riveted to ink markings on a page."

Apply cold water directly to the burn.
Profile Image for Ewoton Kinyanjui.
35 reviews71 followers
June 18, 2013
whereas this is a good read, i think it ends with an anticlimax. i guess it stems from my deep need to see what the court's of justice wold have done with the villain. but as it is, all is well that ends well
Profile Image for Robin.
2 reviews1 follower
January 14, 2013
Only read if you're into graphic depictions of postmortem exams, autopsies and modes of death. Other than that its got an easy plot line, though it can ramble off topic here and there. I would read this author again.
Profile Image for Rashmi Pant.
266 reviews26 followers
July 17, 2013
The kindle version could use a lot of editing. The plot is ok.. but the story rambles on a bit and would look better if pruned.
Profile Image for Cindy B. .
3,899 reviews219 followers
December 29, 2014
Lots and lots of pro-evolution sermonizing hides a good mystery. It wasn't worth the drudge work to get my to it for me. TTS-enabled eBook ©1996 Not recommended for pro-creationists.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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