PANIC ATTACK (2021)

Panic Attack by Dennis Palumbo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
On sale: September 21, 2021

I love thrillers and the better written and circuitously plotted, the faster I consume the story. Suspending disbelief, sometimes I don't even attempt to solve the mystery. I'm just along for the ride and what a ride this book is! I actually tossed aside a literary novel that I've been reading for weeks and finished "Panic Attack" in a couple of days. At 1 o'clock in the morning.

FIRST SENTENCE: "On a bitterly cold afternoon in late October, I was one of twenty thousand witnesses to a murder."

THE STORY: In front of a football stadium filled with students and parents, the college mascot, dancing on the field, is struck down by a sniper. Pandemonium breaks out. While the authorities scramble to calm the public and find the shooter over the next few days, more deaths occur. Although the victims seem randomly chosen, Dr. Rinaldi suspects there is something that links them all together. Can he find the key to stop these dreadful attacks before it's too late?

WHAT I THOUGHT: This is the sixth entry in the Dr. Daniel Rinaldi series and I have read and reviewed them all. Author Dennis Palumbo hooked me by setting the stories in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I lived for many years. His narrator, a psychologist who consults with the Police on difficult cases, is surrounded by interesting characters, who don't always behave normally, Dr. Rinaldi ends up in all kinds of trouble.With great dialogue, well-drawn characters, and sense of place, you won't have any trouble seeing this as a television series or movie.

For an earlier entry in the series I wrote that although there is the requisite violence and sex, Palumbo knows when to back off and let the reader's imagination take over. I'll have to change that to say violence and sex has been ratcheted up a bit. As a matter of fact the body count in "Panic Attack" is pretty high.

Luckily there are five other Dr. Rinaldi titles and, although you can read them as stand alones, reading them in order is much more fun. In order "Mirror Image"; "Fever Dream"; "Night Terrors"; "Phantom Limb"; "Head Wounds"; and "Panic Attack". Find them. Read them.

BOTTOM LINE: A solid entry in the series. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

DISCLAIMER: Thank you to NetGalley / Poison Pen Press for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

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