Sophie Anderson

FAN MAIL is P. D. Martin’s third in the Sophie Anderson series and her strongest to date.  Martin follows Sophie and Detective Sorrell as they conduct the investigation.  So many detective novels are linear; we start at point A, go to point B and end at point C. Not so FAN MAIL.  It twists and turns; sometimes at breakneck speed, other times almost stalls as they hit dead ends.  There is backtracking to re-question witnesses and suspects and frequent revisiting of evidence in light of new information.

Martin has also managed to pull off something that I don't think too many can do successfully. That is to write in the first person, present tense. Too often when an author does this, it feels awkward and contrived but in the case of FAN MAIL it works very well.

There quite a few references to Martin’s previous novel,  THE MURDERERS’ CLUB and a resolution of some loose ends that were left in that book.  So if you are new to P.D. Martin’s writing I recommend you read them in order. 

Martin seems to be getting better and better with each book and I have become an unashamed fan of her work.  I eagerly await her next offering.

On her last day at FBI headquarters at Quantico before transferring to the Los Angeles field office, Australian FBI profiler Sophie Anderson is given the task of showing crime author Loretta Black around the facilities. She finds Black to be rude and overbearing, and is glad when the tour is over.

Within days of Sophie's arrival in Los Angeles, Black is found murdered in bizarre circumstances. She has been killed in exactly the same way as the victim in her latest book. It doesn't take long for Sophie to link this crime with the murder of another crime author several months earlier in San Francisco. She too had been killed in the same manner as one of her fictional victims.

When another author disappears in circumstances similar to the plot of her most recent book, Sophie is involved in a desperate race against time to catch the killer before he can kill again.

FAN MAIL is the third book featuring psychic FBI profiler Sophie Anderson. I have to admit that I don't normally like woo-woo in crime fiction, and Sophie's psychic ability initially made me wary of this series. However, thankfully Martin has resisted the temptation of having Sophie have a convenient vision and voila! - crime solved. Actually there was one such moment, relating to a side plot, but I didn't mind that instance as I'd already figured it out for myself some time before without any psychic intervention!

Rather Sophie's visions help provide her with a better picture of the victim and the crime scene, and she combines this with the more usual profiler techniques to build a better picture, more quickly, of the perpetrator. She chose to transfer to a field office so she could make better use of her psychic abilities at crime scenes when the details are likely to be fresher and her visions stronger.

Alongside the main plot, the finalisation of the investigation from the previous book, THE MURDERERS' CLUB continues. I would recommend reading the earlier book before starting FAN MAIL as it contains significant spoilers. As we follow the course of the investigations, a lot of detail about investigative and forensic procedures is included and, while mostly interesting, it sometimes gets a bit tedious and has a tendency to slow down the story.

It takes a brave crime author to write a story about a serial killer murdering crime authors! But luckily Martin had no such qualms because FAN MAIL is good fast paced thriller with an interesting and unique character in Sophie.

Opening Sentence: "...BlackWidow has entered the room..."

PD Martin's second novel is simply amazing. It is so chillingly plausible it leaves you feeling very uncomfortable. Most internet users belong to some sort of online discussion group or forum. Many of these forums are for the use of its members only. THE MURDERERS' CLUB opens in one such forum - only this one consists of four members - and they are all established serial killers.

Australian FBI Profiler, Sophie Anderson, is taking a break in Arizona with a colleague and friend, Detective Darren Carter. He knows her secret. That she can mentally connect with the victims through visions and dreams, she actually sees them through the eyes of their murderer.

No sooner has Sophie arrived in Arizona than a body shows up at the University - followed by a second and a third. Darren is assigned the case and Sophie joins him in the investigation . Can her visions of a woman's horrific death help solve the crime and stop any more victims?

The story is propelled through two main points of view. The investigators and the murderers. The reader soon knows what is going on - there is a group of captives that are locked away in an underground bunker. They are being watched by the four members of the murderers' club as they vie for the chance to murder their favourite captive through an auction. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you read the lighthearted discussions between the criminals - the complete lack of compassion and guilt.

Sophie and Darren have to work out the secret behind their latest serial killer and then try and catch them and stop them. There are twists and turns right up to the very end.

Sophie Anderson is an Australian profiler working in the USA for the Behavioural Science unit  with the FBI. She is also psychic, she sees through the eyes of the killer, and sometimes the victim, in her dreams.  She is currently based in  Washington DC and soon makes friends with fellow female investigator Sam who is the only person who knows Sophie's abilities.  Sam is assigned a case of a serial killer who has murdered two women and soon makes it clear that he is after her.  When Sam disappears the investigation team know they have between 3 and 5 days to catch the killer.

Sophie is assigned the case - along with her new love interest, Josh Marco. Together they and the other team members spread their hunt through several US States trying to track down the killer.  Sophie try's frantically to use her talents - but she can't control them - and can't quite get the whole picture from them.    She uses the investigation to hone her skills - can she get control of them to save Sam?

I really enjoyed BODY COUNT.  It is different to the other mysteries because of the "woo woo"  (paranormal) element.  PD Martin also wrote from the killers perspective from time to time giving the reader another insight into the plot.  I didn't suspect who it was until the same time as Sophie - in fact my main suspect was in another direction completely.

A well written page turner - there are two more in the series , THE MURDERS CLUB and FANMAIL.  Book number 4 is with the publisher, with a contract for at least one more after that.

From the book cover: "When a young woman's mutilated body is found in DC, Australian FBI profiler Sophie Anderson knows she's got real problems. She's 'seen' the victim before, raped and murdered in her dreams - and she knows this is just the beginning. With her fellow agents, Sophie delves into the mind of the killer, trying to predict his next move. Then another victim turns up and Sophie struggles to separate fact from fiction, reality from nightmare as she becomes more and more ensnared in the killer's mind. The body count is rising, the killer is moving closer and Sophie is running out of time..."

There's a lot happening in this book - probably ultimately a bit too much for my liking so that it all started to get a bit frenetic and messy. For some reason we have an FBI Profiler who is actually an Australian, involved in profiling offenders. She starts to "see" visions of victims in another case her best friend is put on when another agent is pulled off half-way through. When Sophie's friend is then snatched by the serial killer she has to rescue her (and then herself). There's a real feeling all the way through the book that Sophie's romantic interest (a fellow FBI officer) is more involved in these serial crimes than he is admitting, but this itself is fairly obviously a setup from the outset.

All in all, a first book, with a good premise that just got a little too crowded but is worth reading.