Alex Kava A Necessary Evil

A Necessary Evil

Alex Kava

Mira, Feb 2006, $21.95, 416 pp.

ISBN: 0778322742

In DC and in Nebraska someone is killing men who have abused power with an emphasis on priests. Though the M.O. is similar and the victims all tainted, FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell begins to think two different perpetrators are at work with a common bond. That assumption leads her, with the help of her mentor Dr. Gwen Patterson and Detective Julia Racine, to search for the link between the killers, which she believes is an Internet role-playing game for those who have suffered abuse at the hands of powerful males.

As Maggie worries about her friend Gwen, who is acting strangely and wants distance from Julia, the case takes a weird spin when the man she hates most in the world, brutal Father Michael Keller, is forced to return, based on a package he received while hiding in a remote part of South America, with an offer to help her stop the killings in return for his ability to vanish once again in Venezuela. Maggie debates making a Faustian deal with the child killing devil, while vengeance continues.

Alex Kava's latest exhilarating O'Dell thriller showcases the profiler struggling with a complex case, made more difficult by the actions of her beloved teacher Gwen, whose fears of field work hampers her ability to help. The fast-paced storyline, for the most part contains the two subplots that move back and forth between Omaha and DC, before tying together in an exciting action-packed tale. Fans of the series will enjoy Maggie's dilemma as to whether to deal with A NECESSARY EVIL or not.