Aberration

Aberration opens almost literally with a bang. Kassidy Bishop, a criminal profiler for the FBI, has just been attacked by Nico Sala, a serial rapist who she helped arrest. Unfortunately, he made it out on a technicality, and now he’s out for revenge. The faint-hearted would be well-advised to look away now; Sala tortures Bishop, and it’s only through luck that she manages to get free, get her gun, and shoot him. The rest of the book is just as fast-paced and thrilling, and while it’s certainly not a novel for the squeamish, the rest of us should be able to enjoy it just fine.

The main action of the book picks up five years later. Kassidy, despite having received some brain damage that affects her long-term memory, still works for the FBI and is still an expert criminal profiler. The FBI will need her skills when a new serial killer appears on the scene. He stalks his victims, learning about them and growing close to them before killing them and leaving their bodies for the police to find. The most chilling part about the way he kills is the fact that he always leaves a little note by the body. Each note is just two words: For You. Kassidy sets herself on his trail, trying to determine what connection each victim might have, only to find that the “For You Murderer,” as he has been called, also has a connection to her.

The book has two storylines: one from Kassidy’s point of view and one from the point of view of the murderer, Wyatt Anderton. I have to admit, at first I was skeptical about a book told half through the eyes of the killer – who normally is kept hidden in the shadows until the end – but Lisa Regan does a phenomenal job at giving us just enough information to push the storyline forward while keeping us just enough in the dark that we can’t figure it all out from chapter five. Better yet, she does so without even letting us know that she’s doing it. Never once did I think she was deliberately withholding information; it all spun out so naturally that I just dove right into the story. There was only once when I thought I guessed a twist too early, but even then, I wasn’t entirely sure because I was only a little less in the dark than the FBI. (Spoiler-free spoiler: I did guess the twist.)

It’s been a while since I read a thriller that really thrilled me, and I’m glad I came across Aberration to change that. It’s easily one I’ll pick back up in a while, after I’ve had a little time to forget some of it.