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A Necessary Evil

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

As the killing spree continues unabated, it becomes clear to Maggie O'Dell—the FBI profiler assigned to the case—that more than one perpetrator is responsible. As she begins to drill down into the facts, Maggie discovers a disturbing Internet role-playing game for youths who have been victims of male authority figures—including Catholic priests.
With the first real lead in the investigation, Maggie wonders if this group has turned cyberspace justice into reality by dispensing their own brand of vengeance. As the ritualistic killings leave America's heartland reeling, Maggie gets a second lead—one that leaves her stunned.
For the past four years she has been driven by blind determination to find Father Michael Keller, the human monster whose acts of brutality continue to haunt her to this day. Sick and twisted, the priest seems to have vanished without a trace. But with an irony that only life can offer, now he has become a target.
When Keller offers to help Maggie solve the crimes in exchange for protection, she has no choice but to ally herself with the elusive child killer—the person she despises with a conviction that's almost religious in its fervor. Maggie must cross a dangerous line into a world of malevolence and evil from which she may not return unscathed. Maggie knows the bargain is a necessary evil...one that may be made in blood...

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 30, 2006
      In bestseller Kava's derivative fifth thriller to feature Maggie O'Dell (after 2003's At the Stroke of Madness), the beautiful FBI profiler and recovering alcoholic suspects that more than one killer is involved in a spate of nationwide murders of Catholic priests. When Father Michael Keller, himself a serial killer, becomes a target, he tries to strike a bargain with Maggie in order to save his life. Their relationship will remind many of that between Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter, just as Maggie's drinking problems sound a lot like those of the better realized heroes of James Lee Burke or Lawrence Block. The book's most original concept is an online computer game run by a not-so-mysterious figure called the Sin Eater that allows young victims to "kill" the priests who abused them. Heavy-handed clues, a tacked-on love interest and characters who behave less than credibly won't deter Kava's fans, who'll find the usual graphic gore, from the requisite maggots to autopsy details like "that sucking sound when the brain is pulled out after the top of the skull is sawed off."

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Women are being murdered in Washington, D.C., and Catholic priests are turning up dead elsewhere. The connection seems to be Kava's series character, FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell, who leaves the nation's capital for Omaha to investigate the situation. There she encounters a former beau, a killer priest, and an Internet game master called the "Sin Eater." Deborah Hazlett is a good choice to read this action-packed plot. Her pace and diction ensure that the listener can keep up with what's going on. She embodies Maggie, who is clear-thinking, intelligent, and vulnerable, and invests the remaining characters with personalities, if not voices. Kava's prefacing of each section with its location works particularly well for scene-shifting in audio. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

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  • English

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