Night Terrors

By Dennis Palumbo

"Authentic and fast-paced, Night Terrors is a thrilling plunge into the mind of an obsessed killer. This is something you don't want to miss!" —Stephen Jay Schwartz, LA Times bestselling author of Boulevard and Beat

Retired FBI profiler Lyle Barnes is falling apart mentally. Psychologist and trauma expert Daniel Rinaldi thinks he can help Barnes through his terrible night visions. Barnes, however, is also the target of an unknown assassin whose mounting list of victims paralyzes the city and lands Lyle in protective custody. Then Barnes disappears, drawing Daniel and the joint FBI-Pittsburgh PD Task Force into a desperate manhunt.

Meanwhile, the mother of a youthful confessed killer awaiting trial is convinced that her son is innocent and appeals to Daniel for help. Against his better judgment, he becomes involved, and soon suspects that much about the case is not as it appears.

Can Daniel and the law officials find the missing Barnes before the killer does? Are these two seemingly unconnected cases somehow linked?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Release date: May 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781615954445

Dennis Palumbo

Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter, Dennis Palumbo is now a licensed psychotherapist in private practice. He’s the author of a mystery collection, From Crime to Crime, and his short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Strand, and elsewhere. His Daniel Rinaldi series includes Mirror Image, Fever Dream, Night Terrors, Phantom Limb, and the next Rinaldi thriller, Head Wounds, was published in February 2018.

Reviews for Night Terrors

[bookswoman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Daniel Rinaldi is still serving as a special consultant to the Pittsburgh police, he gets called in to deal with victims or suspects who are showing signs of psychological stress. When he is called in to deal with the night terrors of a retired FBI Profiler, his life gets very complicated, very quickly. He is also asked by his cousin to help a mother who's son has confessed to being a kidnapper and killer.This one starts off with a bang and the action doesn't let up until the very end. There are twists and turn, red herrings and even some wrongful arrests. Dan keeps in the thick of things every step of the way.Dan Rinaldi is becoming one of my favorite characters and I can't wait to read more of his adventures.

[darcia_10 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story has an interesting premise. I don't want to give details away, so I'll only say that I enjoyed the unique spin on the killer and the motive. The plot moves at a quick pace and Palumbo does a great job of adding twists and keeping readers on edge.Unfortunately, I had a few problems that kept this from being a great read for me. First, Palumbo's writing style includes the use of a lot of incomplete sentences. I have no problem with sentence fragments sprinkled throughout a book. In fact, they can often emphasize immediacy and increase pace. But the overuse here made the writing feel jagged and kept jolting me out of the story.My other problem stems from this book having a large number of characters and a whole lot going on. Consequently, I felt the characters lacked development and I wasn't able to really connect with any of them. This was particularly true with Daniel Rinaldi and Lyle Barnes. Lyle's character here is vital, even being responsible for the book's title, yet I never really felt I knew him. In fairness to my disconnect with Daniel, I have to say I did not read the first two books in this series. It may be that those books unravel his story, giving a better idea of who he is. If that is the case, then this book doesn't work as well as a stand-alone and the series needs to be read from the beginning.All that being said, there is still much to love about this fast-paced story with a unique angle on the serial killer.