The Impostor by David Temple
In author David Temple’s newest police procedural, The Impostor (82 Mercer Publishing), book two in his series featuring Hollywood Detective Pat Norelli, the search for a serial killer becomes a global hunt for a man Norelli no longer recognizes but vows to take down.
Dubbed “The Poser” because he poses his victims to look like they committed suicide, Dr. Darius Tercel had been the “Therapist to the Stars.” Because he’d also been Norelli’s psychiatrist, he was privy to her thoughts and secrets. He knew her inside out.
Norelli has spent the last year dealing with memories of the serial killer who haunts her, both in her dreams and on the job. She’s been seeing a different therapist, trying to reverse Tercel’s mind-programming. A year ago, he’d tied Norelli to a bed and injected her with a body-paralyzing narcotic. Fortunately, she’d been rescued. But Tercel’s “love letter” delivered to her hospital room reminds her every day that he’s still out there.
She can’t come to grips with the fact that Tercel is still on the loose. He’s been committing murders for almost 20 years, and Norelli had thought they’d put an end to his psychopathic killing. But he’s evaded them.
THE PURSUIT
Now Norelli’s fears have materialized — Tercel has killed again, and this time, the victim is someone close to her. When the police find evidence that implicates Norelli as the killer, she knows Tercel is setting her up; she’s got to track him down. His “love letter” mentioned Australia — would he really tell her exactly where he was going?
Without other options, that’s where she’s headed, although she knows it will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. But she’s got to do something. And the fact that Tercel is insanely rich makes finding him that much harder. Money can do a lot when you’re trying to hide.
Stuart, Norelli’s partner and close friend, doesn’t think it’s the greatest idea, and neither does her brother, Pete, a New York City police captain. But they agree to help her anyway — they know how stubborn she is. Pete provides Norelli with an ally to accompany her: Carter, a shadow she’s not sure she needs but later proves necessary.
And neither Norelli nor Carter can deny the sexual spark between them.
THE MASQUERADE
Thwarting law enforcement’s search is the fact that Tercel has surgically modified his appearance. He called it his “second chance”: “Since no one found any of my DNA at the scene, it’s like the real me — or rather, the former me — no longer exists.”
Tercel could be anyone.
Because of Tercel’s wealth, Norelli’s team knows he lives in luxury wherever he goes. He loves beaches and surfing, gravitates to the art world as a collector and though he has changed his appearance, they are banking on him turning up in these circles. Yet these are pretty slim clues to go on as they pursue The Poser in an international game of cat and mouse.
But what Tercel wants more than anything is Norelli. Will he pursue her for himself?
Is Norelli the hunter or the hunted? Although she’s not sure she can bring in Tercel before Internal Affairs arrests her for his most recent murder, she is sure of one thing — she will get him.
In the vein of the classic movie Face/Off, Temple’s Tercel will stop at nothing to elude capture, even using science to provide a brand-new appearance. Temple creates a creepy camouflaged villain readers will love to hate while cheering for the gritty female detective who vows to stop his madness.
