You Only Die Twice: Only one thing scares FBI Agent Andy Knight more than not catching a serial killer-becoming one, just like her father. (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

THE TORTURED HERO: Though FBI agent Andy Knight specializes in gruesome investigations, her success rate is astounding. Superiors consider her a loose cannon with a death wish. Like a mirror, haunted memories reflect images of lives she took and lives she couldn't save. These broken reflections include the outline of a butchered body, just removed in a black bag. Nor can she forget feeling the soft flesh of a murderer's throat under her thumb as his neck snaps. The monsters she tracks torment her in surreal nightmares. To maintain what's left of her soul, she meditates. To maintain what's left of her sanity, she recites from an old book of quotations, which she memorized while being held hostage in an underground catacomb: "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster." Nietzsche. THE BEAUTIFUL DAMSEL: "The woman who walks in beauty." Byron. Claire Forlani epitomizes innocence and hope. She is unconcerned and unaware of how she mesmerizes. As a defense attorney, her only concern is fighting for justice and truth. Even Forlani has issues. Like her mother and grandmother, she has visions, dreams, and flashes. Often these portents are nightmares about death, demons, and explosive destruction--not unlike the latest omen lingering in the air around her like a breeze before a hurricane. It involves terrified screams and tortured cries emanating from a Gothic cemetery known to her new client as the cathedral of blood. THE ASSASSIN: "Chop, chop, choppity chop." Mother Goose. This impish serial killer for hire and master of disguise is prone to reciting nursery rhymes before flaying another victim. The illusive killer learned the art of disappearing as a young tyke playing dress up. "It was like cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, psychiatrist and psychotic, or something like that." To keep his karma clear, the twisted scamp often does a pro bono killing, thus ridding the world of a child molester or ruthless tycoon. THE FEMME FATALE: "Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven." Milton. Olivia Black can make a man point his own gun at his head and fire. This master of secrets, seduction, and manipulation wears a mask of respectability and power. A cushy life as the influential daughter-in-law of the President of Argentina is not enough for her. She and her only true friends, her precious black widows, have sadistic goals yet to be fulfilled. THE SETUP: Breathing fire like a dragon, a South American drug cartel is spreading its wings. DEA agent Raul Julia links the cartel to a new designer drug infecting the West Coast--like a deadly cancer. THE CATALYST: Raul is brutally tortured. Before his death, he gets word to the only person he trusts, former partner, Andy Knight. How are these players connected to dirty cops, dead homeless people, a multi-national corporation--and to each other? Consumed by revenge, The Tortured Hero prowls the darkness, blending into the murky shadows, an existence familiar to the FBI agent. She is hunting monsters, those responsible for the murder of her best friend, Raul Julia. When Knight gets too close, she is framed for murder. The Bureau leaves her to bleed out like fresh meat over a shark pit, but she has friends in high places. Claire Forlani is sent to represent "the spy gone over the line rather than coming in from the cold." In court, Knight knows bail will be denied, so she has a plan. As she contemplates her innocent attorney, Knight wishes she could "beseech pardon" for her apparent betrayal--just before she takes The Beautiful Damsel hostage at gun point. Surprisingly, the hostage is later released. The bigger surprise comes when Claire refuses to leave. "This is too important. People are dying." On the run, they follow the cryptic clues to this complex puzzle while trying to stay alive. As the pieces fit together--and they deal with inner demons, they discover even more than murder and madness, much more.