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RED 1-2-3 by John Katzenbach Grove Atlantic, January 2014 386 pages $26.00 ISBN: 0802122051 Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

RED 1-2-3 by John Katzenbach grabs you in the first few pages by putting you into the mind of a killer seeking notoriety by planning to kill three unrelated women on the same day. He names them Red 1, Red 2 and Red 3 and he taunts them with letters and videos showing them how close to them he can get. The three women are as different as can be. One is a successful doctor, one is a housewife mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, and the third is a high school student. And each of them reacts in her own way to the threat. As we watch the killer plan the murders and revel in his own genius, we also watch the women pull together and start to grow strong in their counterplot to stop him.

The book gives us a long look into the mind of the killer. We see how truly monstrous he is, and somehow it's worse knowing that, to most people, he's a normal guy with a normal life and family. Those around him never know how horrible he is or what he's capable of. And watching things unfold from his point of view is unsettling. But watching the women find each other and plan to turn the tables on him is also heartening. Each woman has her own unique voice and reaction to the challenge and together they realize how strong they are. Katzenbach makes effective use of each woman's strengths and weaknesses. And the idea of the hunted becoming the hunters is enjoyable. Katzenbach is an excellent writer and adds vivid details to really bring his characters to life.

However, I also found the book disappointing. The book starts out painting the killer as a diabolical mastermind who has already gotten away with four murders in his life and is now plotting his final and greatest crime. He's been planning this for a long time and believes he has thought out every detail. He starts out by taunting the women and the reader expects a long cat-and-mouse game, with a great chase and an edge-of-your-seat "will they all survive?" story, except that never pans out. The women find each other very easily, due to a huge and obvious mistake on the killer's part, and from there on the story is primarily about the killer thinking he's smarter than they are, but the reader knowing otherwise. It ruins the suspense.

I didn't want him to win. I wanted a good chase and then the women finally, at the end, turning the tables on him and beating him. It would have been such a triumph. Instead, the book never lived up to its potential. The women defeated him rather easily, so easily that early on it was a foregone conclusion. And from that point, the story just lacked excitement.

§ Paris Abell is blogger and writer who works as a lawyer in New York City.