All The Beautiful Sinners

First, there is the body count, which approaches the carnage of a Tom Clancy war novel. Two Sheriffs, a dozen FBI agents, numerous firemen, two psychiatrists, countless civilians, and dogs, cats, and horses. And that doesnt include all the victims of the twisters! One expects death in mysteries and suspense novels, but Jones seems to be striving for some kind of macabre record for gore.

Second, the arch-villain is far too superhuman for my taste -- an all-knowing Hannibal Lechter with wings. The Tinman flits between Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Connecticut, and Tornado Alley as if born by flocks of flying blue monkeys. Jones offers us no explanation for where his killer acquired all the skills he displays nor the wealth needed to support his farflung operations.

Third, the unlikely plot contrivances were too much for this reader to swallow. Example: the only explanation offered for how the killer manages to be johnny-on-the-spot for every tornado is that he was raised by Mennonites. The series of events that end the book are nightmarishly unconvincing. Yet in those same pages Jones gives us the striking simile of National Guard helicopters landing at a tornado site "...like Valkyrie, to ferry off the dead."

Lets hope that Jones next book displays his gifts as a fiction-writer -- minus the glut of blut.