Night Terrors: A Daniel Rinaldi Mystery

by Dennis Palumbo Narrated by Tom Taylorson

Overview

Night Terrors is the third in the critically acclaimed mystery series featuring psychologist and trauma expert Daniel Rinaldi.

In the midst of a brutally cold winter in Pittsburgh, Daniel Rinaldi is asked to treat Lyle Barnes, a retired FBI profiler whose terrifying nocturnal visions cause him to wake up screaming. Barnes, after twenty years spent inside the minds of the nation's worst serial killers, is not only falling apart psychologically but also finds himself the target of an unknown assassin, whose mounting list of victims is paralyzing the city. Hidden for his own protection by his former bureau colleagues, Barnes secretly escapes, drawing Daniel and a joint task force of the FBI and the Pittsburgh Police Department into a desperate manhunt. They must try to find the missing agent before the killer does.

Meanwhile, another case competes for Daniel's attention. The mother of a young confessed killer, now in jail in nearby West Virginia and awaiting trial, is convinced that her son is innocent and appeals to Daniel for help. Against his better judgment, he becomes involved but soon realizes that much about the case is not as it appears.

As time is running out, Daniel uncovers an unexpected web of murder and madness that not only connects the two investigations but also puts his own life at risk. Complicating matters further is his deepening relationship with the beautiful Detective Eleanor Lowrey. Will the danger closing in around him threaten to ensnare her as well?

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In Palumbo’s riveting third Daniel Rinaldi mystery (after 2011’s Fever Dream), the Pittsburgh, Pa., doctor applies his therapeutic skills to a prickly former FBI special agent, Lyle Barnes, who suffers from night terrors after a career of tracking down serial killers. Adding to Barnes’s woes is a murderer out to get every person who helped put serial killer John Jessup behind bars, including Barnes, who goes into protective custody. Meanwhile, Rinaldi agrees to help Maggie Currim prove the innocence of her troubled adult son, Wes, who has confessed to the gruesome decapitation of a local businessman. Answers prove elusive as the murders begin to pile up, and Barnes escapes from FBI custody. Palumbo ratchets up the stakes in this grisly psychological thriller, but maintains the emotional complexity as Rinaldi weighs his loyalty to his patients against his faith in the FBI. (May)

From the Publisher

"Palumbo’s riveting third Daniel Rinaldi mystery (after 2011’s Fever Dream), the Pittsburgh, Pa., doctor applies his therapeutic skills to a prickly former FBI special agent, Lyle Barnes, who suffers from night terrors after a career of tracking down serial killers. Adding to Barnes’s woes is a murderer out to get every person who helped put serial killer John Jessup behind bars, including Barnes, who goes into protective custody. Meanwhile, Rinaldi agrees to help Maggie Currim prove the innocence of her troubled adult son, Wes, who has confessed to the gruesome decapitation of a local businessman. Answers prove elusive as the murders begin to pile up, and Barnes escapes from FBI custody. Palumbo ratchets up the stakes in this grisly psychological thriller, but maintains the emotional complexity as Rinaldi weighs his loyalty to his patients against his faith in the FBI."—Publishers Weekly

"Authentic and fast-paced,'Night Terrors' is a thrilling plunge into the mind of an obsessed killer.  Palumbo draws on his vast knowledge as a licensed psychotherapist to bring his characters into focus, and his success as a Hollywood screenwriter to bring his story to a satisfying, climactic end.  This is something you don't want to miss!" —Stephen Jay Schwartz, LA Times bestselling author of Boulevard and Beat.

"In NIGHT TERRORS, Dennis Palumbo takes a brilliant premise and turns it into the kind of thriller most of us wish we could write.  Thrills, surprises, and memorable characters. A terrific book." —Timothy Hallinan, Edgar-nominated author of the Poke Rafferty and Junior Bender thrillers.

"NIGHT TERRORS sends forensic psychologist Daniel Rinaldi on another thrilling, risky ride through the Pittsburgh area’s crazies and-not-so-crazies. A brilliant, gripping emotional journey, full of the great characters and satisfying, unexpected turns we’ve come to expect from author/shrink Dennis Palumbo." —Thomas B. Sawyer, author of the bestselling thrillers THE SIXTEENTH MAN and NO PLACE TO RUN

"Dennis Palumbo is a master of character, psychology and setting; and Night Terrors showcases these skills to great effect.  Highly recommended!" —-John Lescroart, NYT best-selling author of THE OPHELIA CUT

"Another terrific ride from Dennis Palumbo's Daniel Rinaldi series.  A page turner of the first order. I'm looking forward to the next one."  —Bobby Moresco (Oscar-winning writer/producer of Crash and Million Dollar Baby)

"Each time Dennis Palumbo returns to the world of psychotherapist Daniel Rinaldi and his colleagues in Pittsburgh law enforcement, his narrative is surer and his understanding deeper. Don't miss Night Terrors. It's his best yet." —Thomas Perry (Edgar-winning and NYT best-selling author)

"From the discovery of a truncated corpse in a deserted West Virginia farmhouse in the dead of winter to a breathless shootout in an abandoned Pennsylvania steel mill, the suspense never lets up in this new addition to the Daniel Rinaldi series. Author Palumbo uses both parts of his psychologist-crime writer hyphenate to a create a thriller that nearly kills his hero while giving the minds of his readers several playful twists." —Dick Lochte,  L.A. Times bestselling author (SLEEPING DOG, BLUES IN THE NIGHT)

"In Palumbo’s exciting second mystery featuring Pittsburgh psychologist Daniel Rinaldi (after 2010’s Mirror Image), the police bring in Daniel as a trauma expert to care for Treva Williams, the sole survivor of a bank robbery hostage situation gone bad. Though she’s clearly traumatized, Treva has her own secrets, including a former relationship with a cop, another with an abusive thug, and a string of questionable choices. As the center of a messy crime with high stakes, Treva appears to be a link between several unrelated events tainting district attorney Leland Sinclair, who’s running for governor of Pennsylvania. When the governor’s race heats up, Daniel is thrown into a dangerous mix of political intrigue, murder, manipulation, and explosive revelations that could rock Pittsburgh. Palumbo takes the reader into the seamy side of the Steel City, chock-full of corruption and crime, love and loss."—Publishers Weekly reivew of Fever Dream

"This debut novel from psychotherapist Palumbo features a psychologist, Daniel Rinaldi, whose client, a college student, is murdered. But here’s the twist: the victim, for therapeutic reasons, has lately been imitating Rinaldi’s appearance and manner of dress. So naturally Rinaldi believes that he, and not his client, was the intended victim. Wracked with guilt over the incident—he believes his encouragement of the victim’s behavior got him killed—Rinaldi sets out to find the killer. Palumbo, a screenwriter with credits as varied as Welcome Back, Kotter and the classic film My Favorite Year, does an excellent job of building suspense, and Rinaldi, who comes off as likable if a bit self-absorbed, makes a complex protagonist. A solid first novel, especially recommendable to fans of Jonathan Kellerman, Keith Ablow, and Meg Gardiner."—Booklist about Mirror Image

Library Journal

Snowstorms only make a nightmarish case worse for Dr. Rinaldi and the others trying to save a former FBI profiler whose life is in grave danger in this thrilling case, number three for the psychologist (after Fever Dream).

Kirkus Reviews

Pittsburgh clinical psychologist Daniel Rinaldi (Fever Dream, 2011, etc.) finds to his sorrow that even serial killers have fans. Now that Wesley Currim has confessed to killing wealthy Wheeling coal-mine executive Edward Meachem and led Chief Avery Block and Detective Sgt. Harve Randall to the headless corpse, you'd think the case would be closed. But Wes' mother, Maggie, swears he's innocent and provides him with a cast-iron alibi he's determined to repudiate. Do Block and Randall have the right man in custody? Dr. Rinaldi, who went along with them since Wes had refused to talk unless he was called in, can't say. And he has no time to yield to Maggie's pleas and break Wes' confession because he's been snatched off the street by FBI agent Neal Alcott and plunged into a different nightmare. Even though John Jessup, convicted of killing four prostitutes, has been beaten to death during a riot in an Ohio prison, the pen pal calling himself "Your Biggest Fan" is determined to avenge him by carrying on in his tradition. In short order, the prison guard who killed Jessup, the judge who sentenced him to four life sentences and the Cleveland ADA who prosecuted him are shot. Not surprisingly, Lyle Barnes, the retired FBI profiler who helped nail Jessup, is having night terrors, and Alcott wants Rinaldi to meet with him and calm him down. For his part, Rinaldi wants to be left alone to consummate his stymied romance with Detective Eleanor Lowrey of the Pittsburgh PD. How likely is that when the entire tri-state region is full of serial killers and killers-in-training? Some thrillers are beach reads. Palumbo's are strictly for late at night and for readers who have no pressing engagements early the next day.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169916416
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	05/07/2013
Series:	Daniel Rinaldi , #3
Edition description:	Unabridged

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