Bloody Mary

This book has one seriously good villain. He's vicious, crazed, and entirely off his nut. There's a fair amount of carnage. Aside from this being a good book, that might be what stands out the most for me. For all of the villain's rampaging badness, Konrath manages to write everything in a way that is neither too graphic or distasteful. I would have thought it a fine line to navigate, but he does it will skill and subtly. The end result is a compelling book with one hell of a whack-a-do antagonist and a plot that doesn't lose the audience in the unpleasant and unnecessary details of that character's acts.