Three young people, two females and one male, have been found dead with bizarre poetry carved into the flesh on their backs. Oddly, at each scene there is no sign of a struggle, indicating that the victims readily cooperated with their killer. Each death was the result of poisoning, presumably from a toxic substance contained in the “ink” that the poet used to inscribe the words on his victims’ backs.

An unlikely team of individuals is assembled to discover the identity of the literary killer. The task force includes the lead investigator for the Philadelphia Police department, Detective Lieutenant Leanne Sturtevante, the FBI’s psychic expert, Kim Desinor, the FBI representative from the local office, James Parry, and the aforementioned Jessica Coran. What makes the team especially awkward for Jessica is the presence of Jim Parry, her former lover, with whom she had parted rather abruptly and unpleasantly. The case is intriguing, however, and Jessica feels she will be an asset to the team. Perhaps, she will even smooth the edges to the rather jagged cut that marked the end of her relationship to Jim Parry.

Bitter Instinct is Robert W. Walker’s latest addition in a long line of “instinct” books. (Killer, Fatal, Primal, Pure, Darkest, Extreme, and Blind) It will probably be greatly enjoyed by fans of the series as there are numerous references to earlier cases, past collaborative efforts among Jessica, James, and Kim. For a reader new to the series, these references seem like too much padding, having no bearing on the present case. They add nothing to the development of the plot, and they do little to elucidate the traits of the main characters.

The plot has a decidedly literary bent especially in regard to Lord Byron, for whom the killer apparently has a great affection. Readers with a background in literature should be able to compare their knowledge and interpretation of Byron and the poetry in the text of the book with the assessment given by the characters. Some devices such as a computer program which purportedly analyzes poetry to determine whether it is the work of the same individual are intriguing, and the various profiles given by different people as to the character of the killer are thought provoking.

The plot itself is novel, especially the murder weapon - a pen containing toxic ink, but the development is slow and the solution to the crime depends heavily on advice from the psychic who gets her input from dreams she has while observing the murder scenes, or handling supposedly significant objects linked to the murder scenes. The reader has to accept the validity of much psychic information for the solution to work. More than I can handle, I must confess.

If you enjoy books in which you play detective along with the fictional ones, this book may annoy you. In addition to the psychic clues, the author gradually reveals other information essential to the resolving of the crime which the reader has no way of discovering on his own.

Another minor shortcoming in the book is the inconsistency of the dialogue of a non- native English speaker. The author carefully points out that the character’s English syntax is strange because English is not his first language. Some of his sentences reflect this assertion. Some of his sentences reflect this, with an abnormal word order. However, in the sentence following the word order is just as it should be in English. The idea is a good one but the author does not carry through with it.

The many references to other cases in Bitter Instinct will recall some enjoyable memories for fans of Jessica Coran. However, I don’t feel at all compelled to haunt the library or bookstores to find them.

--Andy Plonka