| Title | : | Victim Six |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 408 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2010 |
Praise for Gregg Olsen's Novels
"Grabs you by the throat." --Kay Hooper
"Wickedly clever! Genuinely twisted." --Lisa Gardner
"As Good As It Gets." --Lee Child
"An Irresistible Page-Turner." --Kevin O'Brien
Victim Six Reviews
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This book understandably will not appeal to many people and while the story itself is well written, the content is very disturbing.
The book details a serial killer and he is a true monster. There is very graphic detail on how he tortures and degrades his victims in the most despicable ways.
Fortunately I have read other books by this author and know that he can write a very good yet disturbing book.
Not his best, but unfortunately I have read a lot worse. Be warned this is no cosy and not suitable for people who are distressed by very graphic content. -
Ahhh...2 or 3 stars, that is the question. When I think about this book as a whole, it did not work for me. But....if I break it down into smaller parts, I can always appreciate something. What I did like was the MC. She was unique. I also didn't mind that this wasn't really a whodunit because you know who the antagonist is and who is helper is.
The biggest turn off was that the 'Shock & Awe' campaign outweighed the plot and the character development. It provided many "Ewww" moments and not enough "Aha" moments. The characters weren't ones I could like, let alone root for.
Karin Slaughter tends to lean heavy on the violent side when it comes to women, just like this book, but her characters are strong and easy to like. I need something like that to keep me in, and I couldn't find that here. So I guess 2 stars it is. -
The bodies are found in towns and cities around Puget Sound. The young women who are the victims had nothing in common...except the agony of their final moments. But somebody carefully chose them to stalk, capture, and tortured depraved killer whose cunning is matched only by the depth of his bloodlust. But the dying has only just begun. And the next victim will be the most shocking of all…
One of the very first things that attracted me to Gregg Olsen’s Victim Six book was undoubtedly the jacket cover. A solitary man stands resolute, peering over a wide expanse of water, a deep and inviting body of tranquil water that draws you in as if your very life depended on it. A chilling fog is rising slowly over the lake giving the book a haunting and eerily hypnotic appearance, all this before I’d read the very first page. All I wanted to do was run to the very edge of the small wooden jetty and jump in. I announced to the twitter world that I wanted to do just that but when author Gregg Olsen replied with a simplistic “Don’t do it” I should have realised there and then I was in for a scary ride! The problem is I didn’t listen and I jumped into the book with both feet!
Victim Six is wrong in so many ways, in parts it made me catch my breath, shudder, shake my head and wonder how on earth a serial killer as depraved and unhinged as this could exist. It made me question not only Olsen’s sanity but how an author could come up with something as imaginative, brutal, perverse and downright wrong – yet so right!! This book isn’t for the fainthearted but one thing I will guarantee is that when you reach the ending it will leave you thoroughly exhausted!
The narrative is shockingly good, some may say arresting; it flows well and apart from the crippling torture scenes and a distinct lack of human compassion shown by the killer that forces you to take stock, it moves effortlessly along until its intriguing dénouement that leaves you, the reader, with one very big question! As I’ve already alluded to, Olsen somehow manages to capture the essence of a serial killer and as he switches the story from the hunted to the hunters – in the guise of detectives Kendall Stark and Josh Anderson – the change is palpable and immediate.
Adding a little light to the proceedings is Kendall Stark as the main protagonist. I found her believable and appealing. She plays the dual role of a doting mother who cares deeply for her autistic son and a compassionate detective hell-bent on tracking down the person responsible for a spate of deaths in Washington State’s Puget Sound. With the discovery of each fresh victim – and I use that term loosely – the pressure begins to take its toll and mistakes are made by those investigating and reporting the crimes. There’s an intensity in this book that gradually develops, slowly at first, but once it starts moving there’s no stopping it. As far as Josh Anderson is concerned the jury is still out! I’m not sure what to make of his character; he showed a certain naivety throughout and made a number of mistakes that could have been avoided. That said the pair work well together as characters and just like the serial killer’s desire to progress their partnership has depth.
Victim Six is an adult themed crime novel, there are parts that will make you squirm and some scenes that will make you laugh – although they are few and far between! This is an incredibly dark thriller that leaves very little to the imagination; you leave all that to Gregg Olsen and his wonderful prose! One thing I would advise is sleeping with the lights on – just for the first night – for any sound will feed your fraught senses and have you up all night!
Realistic, imaginative, terrifying and tense, Victim Six is one of those books you’ll want to read with one eye closed and the other eye squinting – one page at a time – while seriously wishing you had a third eye in the back of your head to ward off any attackers. Gregg Olsen is one to watch – Highly recommended. -
Victim Six by Gregg Olsen was a very interesting read – it was like no other book I have ever read.
General thoughts:
• Not a book for everyone
• Very sadistic, violent, egotistical, no respect for women - antagonist
• Multiple sexual situations or references to sexual situations – non consensual, rape, torture, necrophilia
• Words that come to mind when thinking about this book – grizzly, vile, cruel, hateful, insensitive, sadistic, dark, bleak, abusive, twisted, lack of human compassion
• No support from outside (of the town) law enforcement agencies for assistance in finding a serial killer
• Leading, investigating officer – Kendell has a challenging home life, amazing she can work this case with its heavy emotional toll
• I didn't like the female supporting cast – petty, egotistical, some were just TSTL
• Antagonist is known to the reader before the end of the book, it’s part of the plot to make it known
• Well written, most loose ends tied up by the end of the book
I have to say that it did hold my attention, but not a book I would call entertaining. -
This is one of those murder/mysteries that stays with you. I'm not talking about being so incredibly good but rather it was in the disturbing sense. While I've come to expect some amount of horror while reading murder myseries I was not expecting the graphic nature or deviant behavior that was described. Not one of Mr. Olsen's better novels.
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It was a five star story, well written and very suspenseful BUT.............
i knocked off two stars for the 100 pages of filth. Gruesome, gory, grizzley descriptions of sex and the autopsies. After my first encounter with these depravities I skipped all the rest. They added nothing to the story except to turn my stomach. Does Mr Olsen add this garbage for shock effect? Leave it out and shorten the book!
Next gripe, tons of characters, nine of which start with the letter M. Why? Is the author challenging my memory or just unaware of how disconcerting his name choices are?
This is Book #1 in an otherwise great series. I’ve read a lot of Gregg Olsen’s books and don’t remember so much detailed sex - what happened here? -
While it was a suspenseful thriller, the very brutal language and the way too graphic descriptions of all kind of deviant sexual behaviour sexual predators have, was really disturbing.
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Very gruesome but over-all well done
This is a very gruesome, morbid story. But, the plot is well done, the characters well thought out (The main ones), and the over-all suspense of it was very good. -
Honestly this read more like misogynist snuff porn than a crime thriller. I was disappointed.
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Uhhh, labai jau grafinis trileris.
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I very rarely give five stars to books on here because its listed as "it was amazing" and usually i list the book for what i think it was "good" or "really good". Well, this book definitely deserved 5 stars!!
The writing is amazing, I must admit though when i first started reading i was a little confused because it would switch point of views from the characters and it threw me off but i got used to it once i realized what was going on. And now that i've finished i loved that it was written that way. The part that really gets you into it is how in depth the details of the murder victims is and reading how the family of the killer is. It's very twisted but that's what makes it so good. You just sit there and think "who would do that?" or even write about it because it's not something you think people would do. Gregg Olsen is now one of my favorite authors. I used to read nothing but teenage love story stuff but i decided to branch out and read other things, i'm so glad i did because if not i would have never come across this book.
Victim Six is a story told from multiple points of view. Sometimes written from the detectives view, the reporters view, the killers view, and the victims view. Girls are going missing and finally are being made a connection for serial killing. The girls don't have much in common and the killer is very careful so the detectives hardly get anywhere on the case, of course in the end there is one little thing that gives it away and a few other things that tie it all together. You'll love reading the details of what the killer is doing to the girls, the autopsy reports, the calls the killer makes to the reporter and believe it or not in some ways you wont want him or her to get caught because its just so good.
My only complaint is that i felt like the ending was too short for what built up to it, but at the same way i can't imagine it ending any other way. I'm definitely going to be reading all the other books by Gregg Olsen, as i said.. i've found a new favorite. -
No matter how many times I tried to get into this one, I just couldn't. And the sad thing is it wasn't just any one reason either, but a combination of them that made them hard to overlook.
To start with there was just so much going on that I often had trouble not only figuring out who was who, but who was saying what. It became distracting and frustrating as I had to go back time and again and re-read passages. I also felt absolutely no connection to Kendall - there were times when I questioned not only her motives but her intelligence as well.
Sure, the reader was privy to the knowledge of who was behind the killings ahead of the detectives, but that didn't excuse the way they seemed to bumble about. It made me wonder how exactly they became detectives in the first place when the obvious seemed to be overlooked.
Finally, the graphic, borderline snuff film quality to the killings when seen "through the killer's eyes" was just too much. I am all for violence when it moves the plot forward, but this did nothing but try and shock the reader.
Overall, this was not a good introduction to this author for me. At this time it is doubtful whether I would read more from this author or not. -
I stopped 37% of the way into the story.
So many characters. So many random beginnings. Not enough world building or to give a clear view of where this is happening; I'm not from the Pacific Northwest, so I have no idea what many of the geographical references meant.
And I just didn't care the characters. They're curiously flat. -
This author gets bogged down in too many insignificant details which makes the first half slow going. The book is about the distortion of love and intimate abuse. The plot is good but the reader knows who the murderer is basically from the beginning.
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This is a pretty violent and dark book. It is very similar in writing to Chelsea Cain’s Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell series. The book is very graphic and if you can’t stand rape or any type of sexual assault to women pass on this book.
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I just started this book yesterday and am almost on page 100 it is very much a page turner hate to put it down...
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Two-haiku review:
Women disappear
Found later, dead and abused
Cops, reporter search
Not best Olsen book
Horrible and violent
Hated the ending -
This book was very disturbing and I really don't know how to rate it.
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3.5 stars
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3.5***
A serial killer is terrorizing towns around Puget Sound. Kitsap County Sherriff’s Detective Kendall Stark begins the investigation and identifies the common threads linking these murders. Serenity Hutchins is a hungry young reporter intent on making her name on this story, but where is she getting her inside information?
I really liked Kendall as a lead character. I’m glad that Olsen included some of her back story and home life, to give the reader a more rounded character. She is a really strong female lead character – smart, resilient, resourceful, intelligent and compassionate.
I was less enthralled with Serenity. Though I think I understand some of her thought process, given her upbringing, I just can’t reconcile her behavior with that of a committed journalist. I’m struggling with how to describe my dissatisfaction with her as a character, because I don’t want to include any spoilers.
Still, I could barely put it down. This is a tightly-written, fast-paced psychological thriller. It’s not for the faint of heart; it’s about a sexual sadist serial killer, and there are some very graphic scenes. -
Although I have plenty of Gregg Olsen true crime books, this is my first novel of his that I have read.
Set in Port Orchard in my home state of Washington, a serial killer is loose -- and he is nasty!! A sexual sadist. We find out who he is quite early in the book. So the story is more about what he is doing and how they catch him.
I liked the book and was pleased the lead detective didn't follow the current practice of making all female detectives tough, gritty, unfeminine, and psychologically damaged.
I got this copy via interlibrary loan from the Everett Public Library. -
What a page-turner! Wow, I started reading this late last night and couldn't put it down until 3 am, and by then I was freaked out and couldn't even sleep. ha! Gregg Olsen did it again. He wrote a book filled with characters I liked and a plot that kept me scrambling for more. It was like a glimpse into the mind of a mad man, and a glimpse into the minds of the victims and the detectives. A great book I will be recommending to everyone who enjoys crime and mystery stories.
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Started May 30th, 2013.
Not too bad, but at least one glaring mistake in the storyline: the reporter agrees early on that her phone can be tapped for recording the calls by the police - without approval of her editor and without telling him. That is not followed up and given the setup it would have helped and solved the case much earlier.
Ending not too convincing, was mostly what I expected early on.
Could have been a bit tighter, sometimes the side-roles where too long explained in the text. -
I like most of Mr. Olsen's fiction works and I will give them a fair unbias five stars the only thing I didn't like, but won't remove a star for, is when he decided to make it known who the killer was. Why he did this is beyond me...hopefully Mr. Olsen will read this and maybe help me understand this tactic. All I know is that in the end, I can't wait for Mr. Olsen's next book WOO!
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This is a story of sexual abuse, torture, and murder with some fairly graphic descriptions. There is not really a mystery here because you know who is committing the crimes very early in the story. This is listed as book one so maybe that is why the ending left so much unresolved.
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A very good thriller read!!!
