Synopses & Reviews
Psychologist and Pittsburgh Police Department consultant Daniel Rinaldi has a new patient. Lisa Harland, a local girl, once made a splash in Playboy and the dubious side of Hollywood before bottoming out. Back home, down and out again, she married one of the city's richest and most ruthless tycoons. Lisa's challenge to Danny is that she intends to commit suicide by 7:00 PM. His therapist skills may buy some time--but, exiting, she's kidnapped right outside his office. Summoned to the Harland estate, Danny is forced, through a bizarre sequence of events, to be the bag man on the ransom delivery. This draws him into a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a brilliant, lethal adversary. Complicating things is the unhappy Harland family, whose members have dark secrets of their own along with suspect loyalties, as well as one of Danny's other patients, a volatile vet whose life may, like Lisa's, be at risk. What is really at stake here? Phantom Limb, fourth in the acclaimed series of Daniel Rinaldi thrillers, will keep readers guessing until the very last page.
Review
"Authentic and fast-paced,'Night Terrors' is a thrilling plunge into the mind of an obsessed killer. Palumbo draws on his vast knowledge as a licensed psychotherapist to bring his characters into focus, and his success as a Hollywood screenwriter to bring his story to a satisfying, climactic end. This is something you don't want to miss!" --Stephen Jay Schwartz,
LA Times bestselling author of
Boulevard and Beat on
Night Terrors
"In NIGHT TERRORS, Dennis Palumbo takes a brilliant premise and turns it into the kind of thriller most of us wish we could write. Thrills, surprises, and memorable characters. A terrific book." --Timothy Hallinan, Edgar-nominated author of the Poke Rafferty and Junior Bender thrillers on Night Terrors
"NIGHT TERRORS sends forensic psychologist Daniel Rinaldi on another thrilling, risky ride through the Pittsburgh areas crazies and-not-so-crazies. A brilliant, gripping emotional journey, full of the great characters and satisfying, unexpected turns weve come to expect from author/shrink Dennis Palumbo." --Thomas B. Sawyer, author of the bestselling thrillers THE SIXTEENTH MAN and NO PLACE TO RUN on Night Terrors
"Dennis Palumbo is a master of character, psychology and setting; and Night Terrors showcases these skills to great effect. Highly recommended!" ---John Lescroart, NYT best-selling author of THE OPHELIA CUT on Night Terrors
"Another terrific ride from Dennis Palumbo's Daniel Rinaldi series. A page turner of the first order. I'm looking forward to the next one." --Bobby Moresco (Oscar-winning writer/producer of Crash and Million Dollar Baby) on Night Terrors
"Each time Dennis Palumbo returns to the world of psychotherapist Daniel Rinaldi and his colleagues in Pittsburgh law enforcement, his narrative is surer and his understanding deeper. Don't miss Night Terrors. It's his best yet." --Thomas Perry (Edgar-winning and NYT best-selling author) on Night Terrors
"From the discovery of a truncated corpse in a deserted West Virginia farmhouse in the dead of winter to a breathless shootout in an abandoned Pennsylvania steel mill, the suspense never lets up in this new addition to the Daniel Rinaldi series. Author Palumbo uses both parts of his psychologist-crime writer hyphenate to a create a thriller that nearly kills his hero while giving the minds of his readers several playful twists." --Dick Lochte, L.A. Times bestselling author (SLEEPING DOG, BLUES IN THE NIGHT) on Night Terrors
Review
At the start of Palumbo's twisty fourth Daniel Rinaldi mystery (after 2013's Night Terrors), the psychologist, who consults for the Pittsburgh PD, receives a visitor one afternoon he last saw posing in Playboy almost 30 years earlier. Lisa Campbell, ex-starlet and current trophy wife to elderly, wheelchair-bound tycoon Charles Harland, plans to kill herself at 7 o'clock that evening. Daniel has only 50 minutes to talk her out of it. Soon after Lisa leaves his office, the police inform him that she's been kidnapped. As a doctor who may have heard critical information that he's ethically bound by confidentiality not to share, Daniel is in tricky position as he seeks to help the Harland family and the police get Lisa back. He serves as the perfect point of view character, central to the action without needing to clamor for attention. Daniel's personal story continues to evolve in this satisfying entry, which ends on a cliffhanger. Publishers Weekly
Review
Dennis Palumbo's Daniel Rinaldi books are cerebral thrillers of the first order, with twisting plots, terrifying villains, and a narrative driven by the insight and compassion of the psychologist at the center of it all. If I ever find myself trapped inside a thriller, I hope Daniel Rinaldi can find some time in his schedule. Timothy Hallinan, author of the Junior Bender mysteries and the Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers
Review
Dennis Palumbo's terrific, exciting, fascinating Daniel Rinaldi novels just get better and better! His latest, Phantom Limb, is a nonstop blast, with moments as gut-wrenching for the reader as they are for Dr. Rinaldi and his fellow players. Thomas B Sawyer, best-selling author of Cross Purposes and No Place to Run
Review
Phantom Limb is another of Dennis Palumbo's remarkable tales set in our native Pittsburgh as told through the eyes of iconoclastic police psychologist Daniel Rinaldi. This time it's monied old Pittsburgh society meets Hollywood glitz in a page-turner that has you racing to the end. Jeffrey Siger, author of the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series
Review
In "Phantom Limb," Dennis Palumbo has given us another fast-paced, suspenseful case in the career of Dr. Daniel Rinaldi. This time Rinaldi is up against an array of antagonists who will make your skin crawl, and it's a pleasure to see him back. Thomas Perry, Edgar-Award-winning author of the Jane Whitefield series
Review
Dennis Palumbo's latest, Phantom Limb, keeps his adrenaline-soaked Daniel Rinaldi series going at full blast as the Pittsburgh cop/psychologist gets tangled up in a complex case of kidnapping, murder, sexual deviance, and so much more. Fueled and lent gravitas by his tempered idealism and no-nonsense professionalism, Rinaldi is a joy to follow as he leads us on a top-notch, original and harrowing high-wire act of the first order. John Lescroart, New York Times best selling author of The Keeper
Review
Amputees say a missing arm or leg can itch and demand to be scratched, as though it were still there. That's a "phantom limb," and its ghostly presence is one of the keys to this lively novel. The premise is conventional enough: a has-been film star, married to a gazillionaire coot, is kidnapped. The stock characters are present: the old boy's bitter, boozy son; officious police and feds; a woman cop who chafes at not being taken seriously; and even the hero, the penetratingly analytical psychologist Daniel Rinaldi. A minor figure, who lost a leg in Afghanistan, waits in the wings as the plot races to its conclusion. But after the kidnap drama ends, there are about 170 pages to go. What follows is a reexamination of the evidence, when the phantom limb makes its nonpresence known. Could it be that the kidnap-ransom plot was really about something else? We're on the psychologist's turf now, and the revelations are more interesting than the author's attempt to turn this into an actioner. It's about fragmented people's attempts to be whole. Booklist
About the Author
Former Hollywood screenwriter Dennis Palumbo is now a licensed psychotherapist in private practice. He's the author of a mystery collection, From Crime to Crime, and his short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, The Strand, and elsewhere. Night Terrors is third in his Daniel Rinaldi mystery series.