Book Review: A Defense for the Dead

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

A Defense for the Dead     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Michael Fredrickson
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Serial Killer   Thriller
Series: Jimmy Morrissey
Forge, May 2004, $24.95, 320 pp.

The media dubbed the serial killer Van Gogh because he dissected an ear from his victims. After murdering ten people, the FBI caught up with him and shot him to death.

Boston attorney Jimmy Morrissey feels like Job. His wife has cancer and his legal practice is collapsing as he finds his caseload boring. Though he feels things cannot get worse, they do as FBI agents visit to discuss with him why his name and address is on the back of the photograph of a beautiful woman found in Van Gogh's apartment. Jimmy has no idea why Van Gogh wrote his name on the back of the picture. Unable to resist, Jimmy begins investigating why him. However, the clues he begins to find makes him wonder if his melancholy is taking him over the edge because more and more he ponders if Van Gogh somehow is reaching from the grave to continue his murder spree and make him seem like the culprit. When Jimmy ignores his findings and tries to use cold logic to interpret the happenings, he wants to believe that a competent clever copycat killer targeted him to be his fall guy.

A DEFENSE FOR THE DEAD is an exciting psychological suspense serial killer thriller that will keep readers wondering if the plot is a horror tale or a copycat storyline. Fans will agree with Jimmy that there is no way Van Gogh could be doing what he seems to be accomplishing yet the evidence starting with his handwriting on the photo affirms otherwise. Michael Frederickson pulls of this sleight of the hand novel by keeping readers guessing as the suspense grows until the climax reveals all.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner