[.ca] State of Mind (ISBN 0345422538)

From Amazon.com:
Susan Clayton, a professional puzzle maker, is stumped by this anonymous note left at her door: "THE FIRST PERSON POSSESSES THAT WHICH THE SECOND PERSON HID." Distracted by the sweltering Florida Keys evening and her cancer-stricken mother in the next room, Susan spends hours before she solves the riddle--it means "I have found you." Ominous words, considering that a serial killer is stalking Florida. And in this novel, Florida is ominous to begin with: it's set in a Robocop-like future society where people carry semiautomatics like breath mints, road rage reigns, and folks gladly trade their right to privacy for a place in a protected community called the Fifty-first State (Katzenbach's scary takeoff on Disney's planned town of Celebration, Florida). Meanwhile, Susan's brother Jeffrey, an authority on serial killers, is finishing up a lecture when his silent security alarm flashes. His metal-detecting alarm was set off by special agent Robert Martin of "State Security" (an American-style SS), who confronts the good professor with some bad news about his late father, a psychopath. Could he be the one who left Susan that threatening note? Can anybody stop the Fifty-first State from getting even scarier? With mounting suspense, Jeffrey, Susan, and their ailing mother put their heads together to keep the futuristic body count from getting wholly out of control. There is perhaps a touch less gore than Katzenbach fans may be used to, but no fewer thrills. He has seen the future, and it will make your hair stand on end. --Rebekah Warren

State Of Nervousness:
John Katzenbach has created an America of the future where anarchy reigns. It is a violent, dangerous place where employees have to be escorted from the office in groups to ensure their safety, and no-one walks the streets at night for fear of losing their life. Within this grim picture comes a proposed 51st state. A haven where crime will be unheard of. Entry into the state will be closely controlled and stable families will be welcomed with open arms. But it's here, in the budding crime-free zone that an alarming number of young girls have gone missing with a few of them being found dead. Officially they were reported to have met with an unfortunate accident, but those in the know can see that they are dealing with the work of a serial killer. This is something thought impossible in a crime-free state and is potentially devastating to the chances of the state being accepted into the Union. The concept of a new state raised a very interesting point. It was created to give people a place to live in safety, when really, all it achieved was the creation of a false sense of security in the minds of the residents. By instilling the thought that the state was crime-free, the residents did not take any precautions against crime. No one locked their doors or took the proper care when walking at night and the police didn't know how to properly process a crime scene. Basically, an environment was created where a criminal could work with virtual impunity. Although the book starts out with a very clever idea that made me pause for thought about where the world is heading, Katzenbach tended to take the long road to get to the final showdown, which then seemed to pass by with an air of inevitability. Once the concept of the new state was established along with all the differences it would bring, the rest of the book just read as a standard serial killer story, granted, with a couple of twists thrown in for good measure.

The Body count doesn't make sense:
Here's what I wrote the author, this will explain why the body count does not make sense. I am writing about the current book that I am reading, State of Mind. Now something does not quite make sense with the dialogue, or alternatively I have missed something, although I don't think so because I have gone back over the pages I have read a number of times. I will start with the dialogue that doesn't make sense on page 162 of the Warner Paperback it reads: "...., how much time between disappearance and discovery ?" "A month." "And the other two cases ?" "A week." "And twenty-five years ago ?" "Three days." Ok, that implies four cases: one took a month to discover the body, two cases a week, and twenty-five years ago, three days. Now let's work backwards, the crime that they suspected Jeffrey Clayton's father of committing twenty-five years ago took three days to discover the body. The other two cases: one was Jeffrey Claytons student who disappeared and the other the other one inside the Western Territory walking home from baby sitting. Ok. What other case of the two other cases ? Also on Page 60 it reads, "That's the current case....Body discovered two weeks later." I don't understand how many cases are there. By my reckoning there are three: 1. J.P. Mitchell. Body discovered 3 days later. 2. Jeffrey Clayton's student. Body discovered a week later. 3. Girl walking home from baby sitting. Body discovered a month later Now there's an open case of the girl who stayed back in school to help with the decorations but her body hasn't been found yet. So we have an extra body here that Agent Martin did not divulge to Jeffrey Clayton and Jeffrey Clayton is talking to Agent Martin about ? Huh ? Then there's the case of where the body in the current case, that's the girl walking home from baby sitting, where the body was discovered two weeks later and that's not even mentioned in the dialogue. I think you need to go back and revise the book and sort out the cases, the bodies discovered and the it took to discover them because it just doesn't make sense.

TANTALIZINGLY CREEPY - It's like no other book I've read.:
Wow! This is intriguing w/ a capital "I." I read lots of thrillers, and can always guess what's going to happen next. Not so with this book. I had no idea how it was going to end. It was so very creative and thoughtful -- not to mention scary. You've got to read this story. You won't be able to get it out of your head. Really!

Most uneven to me.:
After reading the book I can understand the disparity in the customer reviews. "State of Mind" was a disappointment to me as I found Mr. Katzenbach's "Hart's War" & "Shadowman" among the best books I have ever read. Parts of "State of Mind" just flew by and I became quite engrossed...then periods of dull nonaction. Perhaps it was just too long. Were it not for my faith in Mr. Katzenbach's writing there were many times I would have quit this one. Kept figuring it would pick up in the next chapter. Ending is a pretty good payoff, but takes too long to get there and it's a plodding journey. Set in a Blade Runner world the overall plot made sense and the characters were well drawn. Mr. Katzenbach has entertained me before and will again.

Katzenbach delivers again:
This is the third Katzenbach book I have read after reading "The Analsyt" and "Shadowman", whilst I consider the former his best work yet, "State of Mind" was not far behind. I read the book inside of 5 days and found myself consistently pulled through the book by the twists and turns the story took. To me the whole 51st state thing wasn't really needed being a non US citizen, as the characters and the plot really hit a chord with the unique situation the children of the suspected murderer find themselves. The whole story I thought was excellent and the ending was extremely clever and unexpected. I would definitely recommend reading this book.