State of Mind

An authority on serial killers wrestles with an unspeakable secret. A puzzle writer is caught in a terrifying game to the death. A madman thirsts for revenge--and reckoning. In State of Mind, John Katzenbach turns these elements into a pulse-pounding ride of nonstop action and psychological suspense.

A professor of abnormal psychology, Jeffrey Clayton struggles with a dark past. Twenty-five years before, Jeffrey and his mother and sister fled his tyrannical father--a man who was later suspected in the heinous murder of a young student. Though the father was never charged, he committed suicide. Or so it seemed.

Since then Jeffrey's mother and his sister Susan have concealed themselves in the remote tangled swamps of the Upper Keys, where Susan creates word games for Miami Magazine. But someone has sent her a cryptic note. Once deciphered, it carries a terrifying message: I have found you.

At the same time, a serial killer has invaded a community whose citizens seek a haven of old-fashioned values. And one new-fashioned guarantee: unconditional safety. But no one is safe from this intruder--who murders young girls in unspeakable ways. Is Jeffrey Clayton's father the source of this latest killing spree? The authorities think so--and they present Jeffrey with an ultimatum: find the butcher responsible for the newborn spate of carnage. Find your father.

As this race-against-time scenario unfolds, each player--brother, sister, mother--becomes a pawn in a cunning killer's elaborate maze. "He plays at death," Jeffrey says. "That's the game. And now, we're the pieces. . . ."

Surpassing his earlier acclaimed achievements, John Katzenbach here devises a masterful cat-and-mouse exercise in suspense--with the storytelling prowess of Just Cause and a psychotic villain as menancing as The Shadow Man. In State of Mind, Katzenbach has created his most chilling novel yet.