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    A Perfect Evil
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    A Perfect Evil
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    A Perfect Evil
    Ebook482 pages7 hours

    A Perfect Evil

    By Alex Kava

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    Rediscover where it all began for Maggie O'Dell in this intense thriller by New York Times bestselling author Alex Kava


    On July 17, a convicted serial killer, Ronald Jeffreys was executed for three heinous murders. He went to his grave with a terrible truth no one would listen to. Three months later another body is found killed in the same style as Jeffreys' victims.

    Sheriff Nick Morelli knows he isn't equipped to handle the killer who is terrorising his small Nebraska community. He's grateful when the FBI sends one of their best criminal profilers, special agent Maggie O'Dell. Maggie quickly recognises this is someone who has killed before.

    When another victim is found dead and a third kidnapped, Nick and Maggie realise they're running out of time. And the terrible truth becomes clear. Ronald Jeffreys may have been convicted of crimes he didn't commit.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers Australia
    Release dateSep 1, 2011
    ISBN9781741166965
    Unavailable
    A Perfect Evil
    Author

    Alex Kava

    ALEX KAVA GREW UP IN THE COUNTRY outside Silver Creek, Nebraska. She earned a bachelor's degree in art and English from College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska.  She has done a variety of jobs, from working as a hospital tech, cleaning and sterilizing utensils from surgery, pathology and the morgue, to running her own graphic design firm, designing national food labels and directing television and radio commercials. IN 1996 SHE QUIT HER JOB as a public relations director to dedicate herself to writing a novel and getting published. To pay the bills, she refinanced her home, maxed out her credit cards and even took on a newspaper delivery route. TODAY, ALEX IS A NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR of psychological suspense novels.  Her Maggie O'Dell series, comprised of A Perfect Evil, Split Second, The Soul Catcher, At the Stroke of Madness, A Necessary Evil, Exposed and Black Friday along with her stand-alone novels, One False Move and Whitewash, have been widely praised by critics and fans. They have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Her books have been published in twenty-four countries and have hit the bestseller lists in Australia, Germany, Poland, Italy and the UK.  She is also one of the featured writers in the anthology Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night, edited by James Patterson. ONE FALSE MOVE WAS SELECTED AS Nebraska's 2006 One Book One Nebraska.  (My Antonia by Willa Cather was the 2005 selection).  In 2007 Alex was awarded the Mari Sandoz Award by the Nebraska Library Association. Whitewash made January Magazine's list of best thrillers for 2007. Exposed,Black Friday and 2011's DAMAGED received starred reviews by Publishers Weekly.   2010 marked Alex's ten year anniversary as an author with the publication of her tenth novel, Damaged (Doubleday, July 13th). HOTWIRE, her ninth Maggie O'Dell will be released July 12th, 2011. She also has co-authored two short stories in anthologies to be published in June and August: First Thrills, edited by Lee Child (After Dark, co-authored with Deb Carlin) and Florida Heat Wave, edited by Michael Lister (A Breath of Hot Air, co-authored with Patricia Bremmer is now on KINDLE. ALEX WRITES FULL-TIME AND LIVES IN Omaha, Nebraska and Pensacola, Florida (where her 2010 book, Damaged is set).  She is a member of International Thrillers Writers.    

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    Reviews for A Perfect Evil

    3.5/5

    295 ratings15 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is the fourth Alex Kava novel featuring FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell, but the first I have read. I had no trouble getting into the story and found O’Dell to be an interesting character. However, while the story stimulated a mild curiosity I am not moved to go back and see what I missed in the earlier books. I will probably read the next book in the series but I have reservations (see below) that temper my enthusiasm.O’Dell is a profiler who assists in the identification and apprehension of violent criminals and, specifically, serial killers. She is assigned to assist a Nebraska county sheriff in solving the murder of a young boy. O’Dell quickly determines that the murderer had earlier killed two young boys whose deaths were mistakenly attributed to another person. Soon another boy is abducted and murdered, and O’Dell begins to develop romantic feelings for the sheriff while helping him investigate. The situation becomes dire when the sheriff’s nephew is abducted. O’Dell has personally met young Timmy, making the search more personal than in past cases.Series writers often repeat plot elements and over time they become predictable, boring, and irritating. For example, Sara Paretky’s novels come to mind as a series in which sleep deprivation is evoked repeatedly as a ploy for increasing tension. In the preceding novel in this series O’Dell was captured by the serial killer and slashed with a knife. The same thing happened to her in this novel. The likelihood is high that Kava will repeat this and other dramatic elements from her previous books in her next book—“A Necessary Evil.” The two-chapter teaser published at the end of this book strongly hints that O’Dell and the sheriff failed to apprehended the actual killer and that he escaped to Venezuela. Furthermore, in this book O’Dell has nightmares as a result of her capture in the preceding book and in a concluding plot twist the serial killer who is the cause of O’Dell’s nightmares escaped from prison. I was also troubled by one element of “A Perfect Evil” that did not ring true. The county sheriff is a former star University of Nebraska quarterback. He received expressions of interest from NFL teams, but chose to obtain a law degree from Harvard University Law School. However, Kava portrays him as lacking self-confidence and unable to handle criticism. Nonsense. Successful quarterbacks at Power Five universities rank high in self-confidence and the ability to perform effectively despite criticism. It is perhaps too early to draw comparisons based on a single novel, but I am struck by the similarity of this work to that of Tami Hoag, one of my favorite writers. Several of Hoag’s plots revolve around efforts to identify and apprehend a serial killer, but Hoag manages to bring a fresh approach to each situation. Hopefully, Kava will not fall into a rut and repeat herself in book after book.
    • 4/5
      What a gruesomely fun read! A serial killer is killing little boys, carving them up and leaving them on the riverbank. The FBI's best profiler, Maggie O'Dell is called in to assist the local Sheriff, Nick Morelli, on the case. This story moves pretty fast, so you really need to buckle in. I also really like how it wasn't only about the case, there were other issues, feelings, and situations all going on and making it difficult to trust your instincts on who was really the killer. The ending was satisfying in it's dissatisfaction if that makes any sense (I do believe it will when you read it). I most definitely will continue on with the series, I'm hooked!
    • 5/5
      Just wonderful
    • 4/5
      Kurzweilige und spannende Unterhaltung, die Lust auf mehr von Alex Kava macht.
    • 3/5
      This story started out really slow, to the point that I considered switching to another book. But I've read some later books in the series that I've enjoyed so I stuck in there and I was rewarded for my patience. A serial killer of young boys on the loose, but their top suspect was already executed for his crimes. Soon the additional suspects start stacking up and you can't decide who's your front runner. You're rooting for FBI agent Maggie O'Dell and County Sherriff Nick Morrelli to find their killer, and each other. Kava did a great job of incorporating a back story into this first book of the series, so these characters didn't just appear out of thin air, and made them likable (or not) that you want to get know them better. Despite the shakey start, I'm looking forward to tracking down the next in the series.
    • 3/5
      The rating for this book would have been higher if I didn't feel that the author was manipulating us to pick up the next in the series by the ending. If the manipulation is done well, I usually don't mind (after all, authors have to make a living!) but this one felt forced.
    • 4/5
      Somewhat predictable but engrossing nonetheless.
      The main characters are outlined well and there are hints of an underlying story that is still to come.
    • 4/5
      When I read the last page of A Perfect Evil, I wanted more. No...scratch that....I needed more. And I found myself frustrated that I didn't have the second book sitting right there ready to be read. Because obviously I didn't know that I was going to NEED to read the second book instantly especially when the beginning of this book didn't really blow me away. But by the end....oh the end just left me wanting to continue on and keep reading. But I'm getting ahead of myself so let me tell you what this book is about.A Perfect Evil is a thriller that begins when a young boy is found murdered after he had gone missing a few days earlier. The murder is eerily similar to a couple of previous killings with the problem being that the convicted murderer for those crimes has been recently executed. The question remains if the police have a copycat killer on their hands. And then another boy goes missing....I'm going to admit that at first I didn't think that I was going to like this book. As a parent it is never easy for me to read books where the crimes being perpetrated are against children. Plus, the author isn't afraid to share all of the gory details that went along with the killings and I started to pull away a bit as a reader. The saving grace of the book for me was Maggie O'Dell and Sheriff Nick Morrelli. Both main characters came across so realistically to me and both were flawed. I loved that! I found it all too easy to connect with both of the main characters which is always a positive in my opinion. I found that for me these two made the book. I loved the chemistry that developed between them, I appreciated the obstacles that they were up against, and I cannot wait to see what future books have in store for them. Because nothing in this book was easy to figure out including the mystery itself. And just when I thought that it was done and everything was figured out, I realized that there was more. And maybe even a little more after that. Let me tell you that these twists and turns really had me turning the pages. I've already mentioned the ending but it bears repeating that the ending left me wanting. I'm so eager to continue on that I'm already planning on grabbing the 2nd book when I visit the used bookstore next time. Or if I decide I can't wait until then a library trip will be in order. Overall, this was a very solid thriller that was made better because of the main characters. I liked that the author didn't give us all of the answers, and I found that it just made me more curious about future books. My only warning before recommending this book is the violence against children issue. If you are squeamish at all (and I was at times) when it comes to this, then you might not enjoy this book as much as I did. I was able to get past it though mainly because of my curiosity and connection to the characters. Otherwise, highly recommended!Bottom Line: A thriller that made me wish I had book 2 instantly!Disclosure: I bought my copy of this book from the used bookstore. I just passed it on to my Mom because I thought it was that good :)
    • 3/5
      I was drawn to read "A Perfect Evil" because Ms. Kava is scheduled to end her current book tour nearby and I hoped to attend. I also recall much about the Joubert killings as I was living in Omaha at the time and just starting my family. The book read quickly. After a third or so I saw a certain predictability to the plot that I did not enjoy. It reminded me somewhat of a tv pilot show. Suspension of disbelief was a bit strained as the plot continually drew in additional family members. At the end, I remained curious about the perversions of the Catholic priest Fr. Killer, and whether any of the sadism described derived from the Joubert case or perhaps that of Michael Ryan, another Nebraska killer.
    • 3/5
      Readable and largely unremarkable murder mystery marred by stereotypical characters.
    • 4/5
      An excellent debut novel, the first one featuring FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell. This is superb to read. Cliched in places but fast and pacy. Mention the fact that the profiler is female and the sheriff is male and you should be able to guess the cliches. If you can look beyond this you've got an excellent read ahead of you. The story is set in the close-knit community of Platte City in Nebraska. A killer has been executed, convicted of killing 3 people in a most horrific manner. He knew the truth but no one would listen. Maggie O'Dell is called in 3 months later when a body turned up killed in the same style as executed Jeffreys' victims. A kidnap, another victim and more people discovering the truth - where does it end? A fabulous plot and great writing from Kava. I will certainly be looking out for her other books.
    • 4/5
      Maggie O'Dell, an FBI profiler works with a Nebraska sheriff as they track a serial killer of young boys.
    • 4/5
      A small town is again the target of a serial killer, with the same M.O. as the original... who's been executed. The sheriff has to figure out if it's a copycat, or if the previous sheriff, his father, let the real killer go. Some inconsistencies, and a little uneven in spots, but it's a first book.
    • 4/5
      A Perfect Evil takes place in Platte City, Nebraska where a serial killer of young boys is terrorizing the community. Maggie O'Dell, an FBI profiler, is called in to help Nick Morelli, the local sheriff, track down the killer.

      This book is a definite page turner which I read in one sitting. It has numerous plot twists and turns and a surprise ending which sets up the second book in the series. I am looking forward to reading Kava's next book, A Split Second, in order to see how the rest of the story unfolds.

      Disturbing subject matter but very interesting read - 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      I am back on track with my reading after a very busy weekend. I started A perfect Evil before the weekend, which was a dumb thing to do. I have been so busy over the last week I’ve just been able to read a chapter here and there. I had some down time at work last night, so I managed to get the book finished.I have all the books in this Maggie O’Dell series, sitting on my shelf. I thought it was time I start reading the series. A Perfect Evil is the first in the series. It is also Alex Kava’s debut novel. The story takes place in a small town in Nebraska. I actually enjoyed it. Kava did a good job keeping the reader guessing as to who the killer was. There were several possible suspects. What I liked most about the book was the characters. Maggie and Nick worked well together. There was a lot of depth to their characters. I hope, they are back in future books. Speaking of future books after you read the ending you know there will be a sequel. If there was anything disappointing about the book it would be the originality of the story. I am looking forward to the next in the series, Split Second.