Title: What I Want
Author: Helen Walters
Publisher: XlibrisAU
Pages: 236
Genre: Thriller
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop

Read Book Review

The terror begins immediately in this gripping thriller about the twisted relationship between a serial killer and the detective assigned to stop him. While it might initially seem so, no spoilers are inherent in this review. The plot points about to be reflected here are actually revealed early in Helen Walters’ novel What I Want.

Her story is not so much about the solving of a protracted puzzle to uncover a murderer, rather it’s the unfurling of a heated manhunt plus an examination of a psychological struggle between two individuals bizarrely dependent on one another. One just happens to be conflicted—while the other is definitely psychotic.

Alice is an attractive police detective in her late thirties. Simon is a handsome jack-of-many-trades. Readers quickly learn that they have been in an ongoing relationship for almost two years. As the book opens, Simon has just left Alice in bed, bound hand to foot, with a knife sticking out of her side. He’s also revealed to her that the serial killer she’s been after for some time is in fact him. You can imagine how this makes Alice feel. Well, you think you can imagine it until some of her behavior after escaping from her initial predicament makes you wonder about her own mental stability. Still, the real shocker (again revealed early) is that Simon has perpetrated these heinous killings in order to give Alice the opportunity to show her superiors what a skilled and dedicated officer she is. That’s one of the reasons his fevered brain concocted. The other is the rousing sexual activity that apparently occurs between the two after the discovery of each additional victim. To her credit however, once Alice realizes what Simon had done, she’s as disgusted and morally outraged as you’d think one would be. So she begins an all-out effort to stop him—especially since he has let her know that he is planning to give her more “gifts” (as he refers to his victims) and since he has kidnapped a child to accompany him on his sordid spree. The majority of the narrative that follows traces Alice’s efforts to close in on Simon as she has to simultaneously cope with feeling marginally responsible for his sadistic acts.

Walters is a writer with a deft hand at suspense. She builds shocking situations and teeters precariously on the edge of overkill when it comes to brutality, but generally retrains herself before going full-core-slasher. She pushes credulity with some motivations and behaviors but always seems to keep things compelling enough that one is locked into turning the page or moving on to the next chapter. The pace of her story is swift and she definitely saves some interesting surprises for the latter stages of her tale.

If you’re into thrillers that are unquestionably out of the ordinary, chances are you’ll enjoy racing through the imaginative offering of What I Want from front cover to back.