Book Report: Anatomy of Fear

Seems I've hit a run of great books, and 'Anatomy of Fear' by Jonathan Santlofer is no exception.

This is another book I picked because first, the title and cover grabbed me, and second, the plot grabbed me. I never even opened this book, which is a shame, because I would have read it months ago. 'Anatomy of Fear' is not a regular old novel, you see. It's got pictures.

Santlofer has created an experience I've never seen before: what he dubs 'A Novel of Visual Suspense'. This is not a graphic novel, mind you, but more simply a great crime story sprinkled with illustrations that compliment his unique character, Nate Rodriguez, a highly talented (and somewhat physic) police sketch artist. About half-way through this book I learned it was a series, but that only left me excited to read more. Nate is a likeable guy: honest, single, a racial minority, still bows to his grandmother and joins her every week for dinner. He's got a scared past and still carries a great deal of pain from his father's murder. He's smart, having graduated at the top of his classes and earned a double major in psychology. Plus, he's got the incredible gift of being able to pull images from victims--details they don't think they even remember seeing--and creating sketches so life-like, one out of every two leads to an arrest. He calls it transference , the ability to pull an image from someone else's head into his own. That's where the visual concept of this book comes in: as Nate draws, the reader can see his progress, see the stunning quality Nate can produce from an Ebony pencil and some paper.

In this story, Nate joins detective Terri Russo on a case in which the killer, a white supremacist who takes his deadly orders directly from God, leaves his own drawings at the crime scenes (also printed in the book). Nate turns to his Puerto Rican grandmother, a santera ("a sort of neighborhood priestess"), for help. Together, they come up with drawings that point to a suspect closer to home than any of them have imagined. Plot devices include a trail of red herring clues that threaten to implicate Nate, overbearing FBI agents and a female-in-peril chase scene at the end, while the romantic relationship that develops between Nate and Terri leaves room for more to come.

The writing style is not fancy, but is the dialogue that moves this story. My eyes tumbled over the pages, able to hear the voices with exceptional clarity. Being able to see the pictures made me feel like a part of the story, able to react to the images right along with the characters. This story has a massive ensemble, particularly when the FBI merges with the local police teams, but Santlofer handled them well and paid attention to all the major players. He is clearly a passive voice in his own story, giving the characters the spotlight they deserve. He's also done his homework, giving Nate the ability to read people's faces and know the names of all the facial muscles and what each movement means. I look forward to reading more.

5 out of 5 stars!