The writing was a little uneven, but overall this was a really compelling book. I had to wonder if this guy (who is a journalist by trade, if I remember right? been a few years since I read this) had been involved, at least peripherally, in at least one actual case. It read at times like true crime rather than a novel. And I suspect that his character of "Jack Scott" may have been based on John Douglas, the guy who created the FBI's behavioral analysis unit (or whatever the FBI really calls it.)