Psychologist Dr. Daniel Rinaldi consults with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. His specialty is treating victims of violent crimeтАФthose whoтАЩve survived an armed robbery, kidnapping, or sexual assault, but whose traumatic experience still haunts them. Head Wounds picks up where RinaldiтАЩs investigation in Phantom Limb left off, turning the tables on him as he himself becomes the target of a vicious killer.
тАЬMiles Davis saved my life.тАЭ With these words Rinaldi becomes a participant in a domestic drama that blows up right outside his front door, saved from a bullet to the brain by pure chance. In the chaos that follows, Rinaldi learns his wealthy bad-girl neighbor has told her hair-triggered boyfriend Rinaldi is her lover. As things heat up, Rinaldi becomes a murder suspect.
But this is just the first act in this chilling, edge-of-your-seat thriller. As one savagery follows another, Rinaldi is forced to relive a terrible night that haunts him still and to realize that now heтАФand those he lovesтАФare being victimized by a brilliant killer still in the grip of delusion. Determined to destroy Rinaldi by systematically targeting those close to himтАФhis patients, colleagues, and friendsтАФcomputer genius Sebastian Maddox strives to cause as much psychological pain as possible before finally orchestrating a bold, macabre death for his quarry.
How ironic. As Pittsburgh morphs from a blue-collar town to a tech giant, a psychopath deploys technology in a murderous way.
Enter two other figures from RinaldiтАЩs past: retired FBI profiler Lyle Barnes, once a patient who Rinaldi treated for night terrors; and Special Agent Gloria Reese, with whom he falls into a surprising, erotically charged affair. Warned by Maddox not to engage the authorities under the threat that random innocents throughout the city will die, Rinaldi and these two unlikely allies engage in a terrifying cat-and-mouse game with an elusive killer who will stop at nothing in pursuit of what he imagines is revenge.
A true page-turner, Head Wounds is the electrifying fifth thriller in a critically acclaimed series by Dennis Palumbo. Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter, Dennis Palumbo is now a licensed psychotherapist in private practice.
Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter, Dennis Palumbo is now a licensed psychotherapist in private practice. HeтАЩs the author of a mystery collection, From Crime to Crime, and his short fiction has appeared in Ellery QueenтАЩs Mystery Magazine, the Strand, and elsewhere. Head Wounds is the fifth in the Daniel Rinaldi series.
Tom Taylorson is an Earphones AwardтАУwinning narrator and Chicago-based actor with over a decade of stage experience. In that time he also built a voice-over career and now primarily works as a voice actor. Tom is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago, teaching voice-over for interactive media.