Very Bad Deaths

THE HEARTBROKEN RECLUSE . . .
THE HARDBOILED COP . . .
THE WALKING WOUNDED TELEPATH . . .
AND THE SERIAL KILLER

Aging baby-boomer Russell Walker wants only to retreat from the world and the shattering death of his beloved wife, into the woods of British Columbia. But the real world won't let him become a hermit. Instead, he finds himself thrust into the mystery of a series of mass murders by a monstrous sadist and serial killer who makes Hannibal Lector look like a boy scout.

And he is caught in a frightening predicament: He is the only possible intermediary between telepath called Smelly, so sensitive he can't stand to be near most people, and a skeptical police officer who needs to hear and believe what Smelly knows about the fiend.

This involuntary trio may be the only ones who can catch the inhuman butcher before he kills again—if he doesn't catch them first.
A suspenseful science fiction thriller from the award-winning author of the Callahan novels.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning author Spider Robinson is renowned for his "Callahan's Place" series of bestselling novels—eleven novels so far, and still going strong—the most recent being Callahan's Con (Tor). With his wife, Jeanne, he has written the Hugo- and Nebula-winning "Stardance" series. He has been a favorite with readers from his earliest stories, which won him the John Campbell Award for best new writer. Since then he has garnered many other awards for his amusing, Heinlein-inspired SF, including three Hugos and a Nebula Award. Born in the Bronx, he has lived in Canada for three decades, currently residing on an island near Vancouver, and writes a regular editorial column, "Future Tense," for the Canadian newspaper, The Globe & Mail. He is frequently a guest at SF conventions across the US and Canada.

Illustration by Stephen Hickman
Cover design by Carol Russo Design

Hardcover

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, December 2004

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 0-7434-8861-X

A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com

Production by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com

Dedication:

This book is dedicated to Daniel Finger

Acknowledgments:

This book would not have been possible without the generous and knowledgeable assistance of two of my neighbours, noted Simon Fraser University Criminology Professor Neil Boyd, author of The Beast Within and the forthcoming Big Sister [Greystone], and his wife Isabel Otter, who since graduating from Osgoode Hall Law School has been an advocate assisting—at various times—physically, mentally and/or emotionally handicapped adults and children, prisoners, and people having trouble with Worker's Compensation. Additional valuable aid was provided by my good friend Dr. Guy Immega, as usual. Walter and Jill, proprietors of Vancouver's superb Dead Write Books (<www.deadwrite.com>) as well as the equally superb White Dwarf Books (same URL), have long been my native guides through the worlds of mystery, suspense, thriller and detective fiction, and were of enormous help to me with the writing of this book. The books of Lawrence Gough, police procedurals set in Vancouver, were a particularly fruitful recommendation of theirs; I hope you'll try one. At least one other substantial contributor of relevant information has specifically declined the honour of being identified here; my heartfelt thanks nonetheless.

As always, none of these people should be held responsible for the way I've misunderstood, misrepresented, mistyped or forgotten what they told me, unless it's the only way to get me out of a lawsuit.

—Howe Sound, British Columbia
6 February, 2004

Books by Spider Robinson

Telempath
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
* Stardance (with Jeanne Robinson)
Antinomy
The Best of All Possible Worlds
Time Travelers Strictly Cash
* Mindkiller
Melancholy Elephants
* Night of Power
Callahan's Secret
Callahan and Company (omnibus)
Time Pressure
Callahan's Lady
Copyright Violation
True Minds
Starseed (with Jeanne Robinson)
* Lady Slings the Booze
The Callahan Touch
* Starmind (with Jeanne Robinson)
Off the Wall at Callahan's
Callahan's Legacy
* Deathkiller (omnibus)
* Lifehouse
The Callahan Chronicals (omnibus)
* The Star Dancers (with Jeanne Robinson)
* User Friendly
The Free Lunch
Callahan's Key
God is an Iron and other stories
Callahan's Con
* Very Bad Deaths

(* = Baen Book)