John Katzenbach Books

Happy fifty third birthday, Doctor. Welcome to the first day of your death. Dr. Frederick Starks, a New York psychoanalyst, has just received a mysterious, threatening letter. Now he finds himself in the middle of a horrific game designed by a man who calls himself Rumplestiltskin. The rules: in two weeks, Starks must guess his tormentor’s identity. If Starks succeeds, he goes free. If he fails, Rumplestiltskin will destroy, one by one, fifty-two of Dr. Starks’ loved ones—unless the good doctor agrees to kill himself. In a blistering race against time, Starks’ is at the mercy of a psychopath’s devious game of vengeance. He must find a way to stop the madman—before he himself is driven mad. . . .

It’s been twenty years since Western State Hospital was closed down and the last of its inmates reintegrated into society. Francis Petrel was barely out of his teens when his family committed him to the asylum, after his erratic behavior culminated in a terrifying outburst. Now middle-aged, he leads an aimless, solitary life housed in a cheap apartment, periodically tended to by his sisters, and perpetually medicated to quiet the chorus of voices in his head. But a reunion on the grounds of the shuttered institution stirs something deep in Francis’s troubled mind: dark memories he thought he had laid to rest, about the grisly events that led to Western State Hospital’s demise. It begins in 1979, when twenty-one-year-old Petrel descends into the state-run purgatory of an overcrowded, understaffed Massachusetts mental hospital. Surrounded by inmates roaming the halls like drugged zombies and raving behind locked doors, well-meaning orderlies, jaded nurses, and patronizing doctors, Francis finds friendship with a motley assortment of fellow patients: a would-be Napoleon, a wise ex-firefighter, and a man obsessed with battling imagined devils. But there’s nothing imaginary about the young nurse found sexually assaulted and brutally murdered late one night after lights-out. The police suspect an inmate, while patients whisper about visions of a white-shrouded “angel.” But the striking and mysterious prosecuting attorney who arrives to investigate has her own chilling theory—about the grim, telltale “signature” left on the victim’s body, a string of unsolved sex killings, and a very real devil who, by chance or design, has come to turn a madhouse into a slaughterhouse. Now, with the past creeping back to haunt his thoughts, and nothing but a pencil and the bare walls of his bleak apartment, Francis surrenders to the overwhelming need to tell the story of those nightmarish days. But because the crime was never solved, it’s a story doomed to remain unfinished. Until, like Francis’s long-buried recollections, the killer resurfaces . . . with a vengeance. A tour de force narrative journey through the eerily unpredictable mind of an utterly unusual hero, The Madman’s Tale will keep even the most astute thriller reader uncertain, unnerved, and unable to resist the tantalizing twists and turns of this fiendishly suspenseful shadow show. From the Hardcover edition.

Second Lieutenant Tommy Hart, a navigator whose B-25 was shot out of the sky in 1942, is burdened with guilt as the only surviving member of his crew. Now he is just another POW at the fiercely guarded Stalag Luft 13 in Bavaria.Then routine comes to a halt with the arrival of a new prisoner: First Lieutenant Lincoln Scott, an African American Tuskegee airman who instantly becomes the target of contempt from his fellow soldiers. When a prisoner is brutally murdered, and all the blood-soaked evidence points to Scott, Hart is tapped to defend the soldier. In a trial rife with racial tension and raw conflict, where the lines between ally and enemy blur, there are those with their own secret motives, and a burning passion for a rush to judgment, no matter what the cost.

IN THE HEAT OF THE SUMMERThey call July the 'mean season' in Miami, and this hot summer a clever, elusive killer is terrorising the entire city. The death of the first victim was just a good story for reporter Malcolm Anderson, but the killer liked his style and begins to feed him a stream of front-page exclusives. His journalism makes Anderson a national celebrity - and they could make him the next victim ...'Desperately scary and suspenseful' CosmopolitanTHE SHADOW MANIn the horror of Nazi Germany not all Jews were hunted. There were hunters, too - traitors to their race, paid by the Gestapo with the promise of survival. And among the hunters none was more feared than the Shadow Man. Now, half a century later in Florida, he has returned and for those who escaped the Shadow Man's fingers, the past is catching up with them. And for Holocaust survivors, the past means death - unless they can find the Shadow Man first ...

Scott Freeman a college professor grounded in the rational and practical, he becomes uneasy after finding an anonymous love letter hidden in his daughter's room. But the reality of Ashley's plight far exceeds Scott's worst suspicions. One drink too many had led Ashley, a beautiful, bright art student, into what she thought was just a fling with a blue-collar bad boy. But now, no amount of pleading or reasoning can discourage his phone calls, ardent e-mails, and constant, watchful gaze. The harder Ashley tries to break free, the deeper Michael burrows into every aspect of her life, in desperation she turns to her divorced parents and her mother's new partner. Despite lingering resentment their devotion to Ashley is the common bond that will draw them together to face down a predator.

Twenty-five years ago, Jeffrey and Susan Clayton fled their tyrannical father--a man who was later suspected in the heinous murder of a young student. Though the father was never charged, he committed suicide. Or so it seemed. For someone has sent Susan a cryptic note. Once deciphered, it carries a terrifying message: I have found you. " "Meanwhile, a serial killer has invaded a tightly controlled community. Is Jeffrey Clayton's father the source of this latest killing spree? The authorities think so--and they present Jeffrey, now a noted expert on serial killers, with a challenge: Find the butcher responsible for the newborn spate of carnage. "Find your father," . . .

Retired psychology professor Adrian Thomas has spent a lifetime delving into other people's disturbed minds. Now he's been diagnosed with degenerative dementia, and all his thoughts are of ending his own life while he still can. But his clouded mind clears when he witnesses a kidnapping: a teenage girl, snatched off the street and bundled into a white van. The police dismiss him as a confused old man. But Adrian knows what he saw. And he knows he might be this young girl's only hope for rescue. His search will lead him into the chilling world of online pornography, and the elite community who subscribe to the website What Comes Next. A website where the viewers decide what happens to their on-screen hostage. A website that is about to feature a new star: a frightened teenage girl known only as Victim Number Four...

The narrative revolves around Matt Cowart, a disillusioned reporter who receives a letter from death row inmate Robert Earl Ferguson, claiming innocence in a racially charged murder case. As Cowart investigates, he uncovers deep-seated prejudice and realizes Ferguson may be the true victim. His articles not only exonerate Ferguson and earn him a Pulitzer Prize, but they also unleash a series of horrific events. This gripping tale explores themes of justice, societal fears, and the psychological complexities of both the characters and the justice system.

'Timothy 'Moth' Turner is a postgrad student and recovering alcoholic. Estranged from his family, Moth's only lifeline is his uncle Ed, a recovered alcoholic and Moth's AA sponsor. When Ed doesn't turn up for a meeting, Moth gets worried. And he has every right to be. Ed is found shot dead in his apartment in an apparent suicide. Moth can't believe his uncle would take his own life. And soon, after a little bit of digging, Ed is on the trail of a psychopathic killer known only as Student #5. But why would he want to kill Ed? And who is next on his list...

In the war-torn chaos of Berlin the Jews ran from hide-out to hide-out, hunted down in the name of Nazi purity. Survival was all - staying one step ahead of the next train to Auschwitz, one step ahead of almost certain death. But not all the Jews were hunted. There were hunters too, traitors to their race paid by the Gestapo with the promise of life. And among the hunters none was more feared than Der Schattenmann - The Shadow Man, lover of death. Now, half a century later in Florida, the symbol of the ultimate betrayl has some unfinished business. For those who had the strength or luck to outlive the camps the past is catching up with them - and the past means death. A suicide that may have been murder, a robbery that hides a darker truth: behind both lies the Shadow Man, and Miami's remaining handful of elderly Jews know they're next on the list - unless they find him first ...