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Used Book ~ The Girls He Adored by author Jonathan Nasaw
The Girls He Adored
Author: Jonathan Nasaw
Book Information
Publisher: Pocket Star
Book Type: Paperback
Rating: 29

ISBN-13: 9780671787455 - ISBN-10: 0671787454
Publication Date: 2/1/2002
Pages: 448

Book Description:

For ten years, the charmingly disheveled veteran FBI Special Agent E.L. Pender has been investigating the apparently random disappearances of a dozen women across the country. The only detail the cases have in common is the strawberry blond color of the victims' hair, and the presence of a mystery man with whom they were last seen.

Then, in Monterey, California, a routine traffic stop erupts into a scene of horrific violence. The local police are stunned by a disemboweled strawberry blond victim and an ingenious killer with multiple alternating personalities. Pender is convinced he has found his man, but before he can prove it, the suspect stages a cunning jailbreak and abducts his court-appointed psychiatrist, Irene Cogan.

In a house on a secluded ridge in Oregon, Irene must navigate through the minefield of her captor's various egos -- male and female, brilliant and nave, murderous and passive -- all of whom are dominated by Max, a seductive killer who views her as both his prisoner and his salvation. Irene knows that to survive she must play along with Max's game of sexual perversion. Only then will she be able to strip back the layers to discover a chilling story of a shattered young boy -- and all the girls he adored.

A sexually charged thriller of extraordinary originality and page-turning suspense, The Girls He Adored moves furiously from the inner recesses of the psyche to its final, startling climax. Jonathan Nasaw brilliantly portrays two equally intense characters -- a deviant killer and the expert who can unlock his darkest secrets -- and introduces one of the most likable sleuths in recent fiction.


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Genres:
Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover


Top Member Reviews

Dorothy R. (obsidianfire) from NORFOLK, VA wrote on 3/6/2006...

10 member(s) found this review helpful.

One of the best crime novels I've read, and I've read many. What I like particularly about this one is the added aspect of a multiple personality, or DID as it's called in the book. I've read all the true life multiple personality books I could find. So bringing together my love of crime and the power of the mind is the perfect mix. Kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Never a slow moment!

Alan G. (arkrebel) from ROGERS, AR wrote on 3/16/2007...

2 member(s) found this review helpful.

A serial killer with multiple personalities-most of them bad. He's vicious, sadistic, sad and sweet all at the same time. You ALMOST feel sorry for the guy...or at least, for some of his personalities...but then...there are the victims to think about. A unique and mesmerizing story. Highly recommended.

William Q. (Bamatip) from DEATSVILLE, AL wrote on 7/4/2006...

2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Hannibal Lecter better get busy-his reputation as the scariest of the worlds fictional and diabolical monsters is at risk.Max is a twisted collection of personalities.One of those personalities is vicious,insatiable,and a hunger for women with strawberry blond hair!

Kirstin M P. (Sleepy26177) wrote on 1/27/2008...

1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Psychiatrist Dr. Irene Cogan is called to evaluate the mental state of a man who's got captured killing the young woman on his passenger seat in a routine traffic control. Nobody knows who he is or where he´d come from.
Soon she discovers that the man in front of her isn't just a man, he's at least six men and a child. There are Max, Christopher, Mose, Kinch, Ish, Peter and Lyssy hidden in one fast thinking and moving mind with such enormous amount of intelligence and skills.

While Dr. Cogan interviews the subject the doghoused FBI Special Agent E. L. Pender feels for the first time in over 10 years they finally might have captured a serial killer nicknamed as Casey. Casey's victims are strawberry blonds just like the disemboweled girl the unknown subject in jail killed.

High in the Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon a strawberry blond haired woman sits on her porch with a sewing basket full of separate reddish blond strands.

When "Casey" escapes from jail he knows Dr. Cogan might be able to help him control all his alters just a bit better and that her hair's just been colored frosty blond. There is a glimmer of reddish under the blond. He kidnaps her and begins his, and now her's as well, journey home.

Pender's fishing for clues. So far police and FBI have been able to follow Casey just because he left dead bodies every now and then but his final destination's hidden in the dark. When he finds Dr. Cogans taped interview sessions he finds the one clue that might be able to direct him in the right direction and the chase begins.

While I liked the strong beginning of the book very much, it got pretty plain and thin, somehow boring, around the middle. Reading Casey's story of how he'd become what he was wore me out, couldn't really grab me. In the end I wasn't surprised about the ending as it was more then predictable.
Nasaw did a very good job to explain what Dissociative Identity Disorder is but clearly failed to create a mystery.

Amy B. (ajteach) from YAKIMA, WA wrote on 6/26/2006...

1 member(s) found this review helpful.

The publisher's synopsis is: Call him Max. But don't shake his hand. Don'g get too close at all. Because Max isn't just Max. He's a lot of people, a twisted collection of personalities struggling to find a way out. One of those personalities is vicious. Insatiable. A man with a talent for the blade a hunger for women with strawberry blond hair.


Rate These Member Reviews

Shauna S. (avid-reader-for-life) from APO, AE wrote on 3/26/2008...


Call him Max. But don't shake his hand. Don't get to close at all. Because Max isn't just Max. He's a whole lot of people, a twisted collection of personalities struggling to find a way out. One of those personalities is vicious. Insatiable. A man with a talent for the blade and a hunger for women with strawberry blond hair.

Max's latest quarry, Dr. Irene Cogan, is about to learn two things firsthand: what makes Max tick, and what happened to

THE GIRLS HE ADORED

Jonathan Nasaw brilliantly portrays three equally intense characters--deviant killer, the expert psychiatrist he abducts, and the charmingly disheveled veteran FBI agent on their trail--in this sexually charged thriller of extraordinary originality and page-turning suspense.

"Hannibal Lecter better get busy. Forget the nice Chianti and fava beans, his position as pound-for-pound the scariest of the world's fictional and diabolical monsters is clearly at risk."
-The Toronto Sun

"Compelling and intellectually stimulating, Nasaw's novel draws a complex portrait of the multiple-personality serial killer...not easy to put down or forget."
-The Dallas Morning News

Idalia M. from HENRIETTA, TX wrote on 3/24/2008...


Oh my Gash....I could not put this book down!!! It'll keep you going till the end!!

Cindy V. from PALM SPRINGS, FL wrote on 5/3/2007...


I enjoyed this book. Interesting so it was a fast read for me

Kevin C. (SpongeBob) from ENGLAND, AR wrote on 9/23/2006...


Page-turning Thriller

Kim P. from FOUNTAIN INN, SC wrote on 9/19/2006...


Quick read... interesting thriller plot!

Tammy T. (TNT) from CONCORD, CA wrote on 5/7/2006...


Meet Max a vicious killer with a collection of twisted personalities! Johnathan Nasaw takes you to all kinds of scary places in this thriller!

Carol C. from GADSDEN, AL wrote on 4/18/2006...


A thrilling murder mystery. Hard to put down.

Lorrie M. (ilovedale3) from LOGANVILLE, GA wrote on 11/28/2005...


Super frightening main character... or characterS (the man has multiple personality disorder)!!!

Scary psychological page-turner!!!!!