Head Games — Michael Newton

By night he hunts human heads—a ruthless madman whose taste for grisly trophies has made screaming national headlines. By day he walks the streets, a trusted and popular member of a close-knit mountain community. Until some innocent woman passes by and something reminds the killer of… Her….With his partner tied up on a witness stand, Special Agent Flynn races into the mountains to take this one solo. Panic and bloodshed have pushed a quiet High Sierra resort past the flash point…ingniting a firestorm of raw violence. Amid the confusion of near-riot conditions, inspiration strikes the killer’s twisted mind—his next piece of butchery will cleave the heart of Agent Flynn….Excerpt: He heard the sound of footsteps close behind him, a stranger almost on his heels. “I’ve got a message for you.” The hunting knife came out of nowhere. Flynn, astonished by the big man’s speed, retreated fast enough to save his eyesight—the knife’s point drawing a crimson line across his cheek.His face on fire, blood soaking his shirt and jacket. The big man breathing easy, too close for Flynn to try the automatic slung beneath his arm. A heavy fist that jolted Flynn and knocked him back a pace. A stray thought, surfacing. “So this is how it ends.” His assailant’s thick arm whipping out as he released the blade.Flynn palmed his Smith & Wesson, determined not to die alone…._______Though this series is fiction, VICAP is a real organization initially conceived in the late 1960s when the crimes of the Boston Strangler, Charles Manson, and other “motiveless” killers began to make national headlines. The case files of Special Agents Flynn and Tanner are a scorching record of brutal crime. Their Los Angeles is an urban nightmare ruled by psychotic lords of violence. But VICAP agents are tough and relentless—they never give up.Head Games is #4 in the acclaimed series of nine Flynn and Tanner VICAP novels.Other titles in the VICAP series featuring FBI agents Flynn and Tanner:Blood SportSlay RideThe Necro FileHead GamesRoad KillsBlack LaceWet WorkJigsawDead Heat