Cold Kill

From Publishers Weekly Olsen (The Man with the Candy, "Son") has another winner in his account of the 1984 double murder of Texas lawyer James Campbell and his wife Virginia by their daughter Cindy and her lover, David West. It is a somewhat unusual true-crime study, not because the case was broken by a private detective rather than the police and not because the final disposition of the case is not included, but, rather, because of its searching psychological depiction of the killers. The analysis of the daughter suggests that she was a classic sociopath, a pathological liar incapable of any emotion or thought that did not involve her self-interest, unique in a close and loving family. The lover was far more complex, a weak man, an ex-Marine, who desperately wanted to appear strong, a man chivalrous toward women and uniformly unsuccessful with them. Their story makes for shattering reading. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Here is yet another book about a bizarre family murder, this one written by the author of the popular " Son " ( LJ 11/15/83). Believing his crazy girlfriend's false tales of horrible parental abuse, David West murders her wealthy Houston parents, James and Virginia Campbell, in their bed. This folie a deux goes undetected for more than two years until a wily young female private investigator romances West into confessing. Olsen is a superior crime writer and his novelistic account of the case, replete with artistic license, is compelling, but its abrupt ending will leave readers wondering what happened following West's arrest. For public libraries.Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., DavisCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.