When she was bad

Former FBI agent E. L. Pender returns in a gripping, tricky thriller from veteran Nasaw. Lily DeVries and Ulysses Maxwell, both with multiple personalities and horrifically messed-up backgrounds (she was sexually abused as a child; he's a one-legged murderer), hook up in a mental institution. After they engineer a particularly violent escape, they're on the run, and it falls to Pender, ably assisted by psychiatrist Dr. Irene Cogan, who knows both Lily and Ulysses (she's her patient, and he nearly killed her once), to track them down before more mayhem ensues. Rarely has the multiple-personalities device been handled as adroitly as it is here. In Lily and Ulysses, Nasaw has created two memorable characters (or six characters, if you count their various personalities), cold-hearted killers who are also tender lovers. Pender, as always, is delightfully unkempt, with a Columbo-like disarming shabbiness that conceals a razor-sharp mind. This is Nasaw's eighth novel, and the fourth to feature Pender. May there be many more to come.--Pitt, David Copyright 2007 Booklist

While novels featuring a love affair between the multiple personalities of two psychopathic serial killers are certainly rare, any points Nasaw might have earned for originality are canceled out by the improbable plot of this fourth E.L. Pender adventure (after 2004's Twenty-Seven Bones). British psychiatrist Alan Corder has spent years trying to cure Ulysses Maxwell, an in-patient at a prestigious Oregon treatment facility, of his murderous alternate identities. Maxwell, who's obviously clever enough to game the system, gets an unexpected ally when the attractive and deranged Lily DeVries arrives at the center. After Corder hosts the two killers at his house, they butcher him, his wife and their psychiatric attendants and make their escape. Soon ex-FBI series hero E.L. Pender and Dr. Irene Cogan, a psychiatrist who was kidnapped and tortured by Maxwell, take up the pursuit. Though Nasaw raises interesting questions about identity and sanity, his superficial answers leave this blood-soaked action yarn lacking genuine thrills or chills. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The sequel to The Girls He Adored (2001) uses multiple personality disorder as a come-on for a Jekyll and Hyde horror story. There is good news and bad news about Ulysses Maxwell, the serial killer of the earlier novel. The good news is that his Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) has been brought under control by Dr. Corder, his therapist at a psychiatric institute in Oregon; evil Max has been replaced by sweet Lyssy. The bad news, unknown to Corder, is that Max is still lurking in Lyssy's psyche. The latest arrival at the institute is another DID patient, gentle Lily, a young woman who acquired Lilith, an alter (alternate identity), while being raped by a biker; fierce Lilith bit off his nose. The rehabilitated Maxwell is facing trial for 12 murders; under the stress, Max surfaces and makes contact with Lilith, who wants to escape. Nasaw sets the stage for a massacre, which occurs when Corder invites the two patients into his family home. In walk two Jekylls, out walk two Hydes, having slashed to death Corder, his wife and their two escorts. This is gut-level exciting because another couple, Lily's former shrink Dr. Irene Cogan and retired FBI agent E.L. Pender, try and fail to prevent the tragedy. The trouble is, Nasaw peaked too soon; we're not yet at the midpoint, and nothing will top that massacre. The killers flee to the California hideout of two notorious drug dealers, Carson and Mama Rose; the latter had rescued Lily from the biker. There will be more mayhem before Lily/Lilith and Lyssy/Max move to a cabin in the woods and the inevitable confrontation with Cogan and Pender. Nasaw tries to keep things interesting with constant alter switches, but they just become distracting. As Pender says, "you can't tell the players without a scorecard." Nasaw's overriding interest is an impressive body count, but even nine corpses can't guarantee thrills. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Former FBI agent E. L. Pender returns in a gripping, tricky thriller from veteran Nasaw. Lily DeVries and Ulysses Maxwell, both with multiple personalities and horrifically messed-up backgrounds (she was sexually abused as a child; he's a one-legged murderer), hook up in a mental institution. After they engineer a particularly violent escape, they're on the run, and it falls to Pender, ably assisted by psychiatrist Dr. Irene Cogan, who knows both Lily and Ulysses (she's her patient, and he nearly killed her once), to track them down before more mayhem ensues. Rarely has the multiple-personalities device been handled as adroitly as it is here. In Lily and Ulysses, Nasaw has created two memorable characters (or six characters, if you count their various personalities), cold-hearted killers who are also tender lovers. Pender, as always, is delightfully unkempt, with a Columbo-like disarming shabbiness that conceals a razor-sharp mind. This is Nasaw's eighth novel, and the fourth to feature Pender. May there be many more to come. Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews.

While novels featuring a love affair between the multiple personalities of two psychopathic serial killers are certainly rare, any points Nasaw might have earned for originality are canceled out by the improbable plot of this fourth E.L. Pender adventure (after 2004's Twenty-Seven Bones ). British psychiatrist Alan Corder has spent years trying to cure Ulysses Maxwell, an in-patient at a prestigious Oregon treatment facility, of his murderous alternate identities. Maxwell, who's obviously clever enough to game the system, gets an unexpected ally when the attractive and deranged Lily DeVries arrives at the center. After Corder hosts the two killers at his house, they butcher him, his wife and their psychiatric attendants and make their escape. Soon ex-FBI series hero E.L. Pender and Dr. Irene Cogan, a psychiatrist who was kidnapped and tortured by Maxwell, take up the pursuit. Though Nasaw raises interesting questions about identity and sanity, his superficial answers leave this blood-soaked action yarn lacking genuine thrills or chills. (Sept.)