Psycho-Tropics

A genuinely creepy sadist is the high point of Box’s dark thriller set in Florida in 1995. The unnamed murderer selects Albert Thumpet, an accountant living in North Dakota, as his first victim because Thumpet was “the most boring member of the Seminole High School Class of 1975.” The killer takes Thumpet’s identity in time to attend Thumpet’s 20-year high school reunion. His next victim is another member of the class of ’95, John Mangrum, slaughtered in a particularly gruesome way. As part of the villain’s evil plan, he frames Danny Teakwell for Mangrum’s murder. Danny has been lucky enough to win the lottery, but remains haunted by a tragic night decades earlier for which he can never truly atone and which cost him the love of his life, classmate Sari Hunter. The net gradually tightens around Danny as he desperately tries but fails to avoid prosecution. The antics of attorney Bennie Finkel, a friend of Danny’s from Seminole High who defends him in court, provide some comic relief. [em](BookLife) [/em]