Michael Segedy

The Bed Sheet Serial Killer Michael Segedy

The Bed Sheet Serial Killer begins with Agent Rick Clark and his colleague, Agent Marty Robin, investigating a number of brutal serial murders all committed within a three-year-period. The victims are women, and although they share few if any physical traits, they do share similar social backgrounds. With Clark's help, Robin, a forensic psychologist, pieces together a profile of the killer.

From what Marty Robin gathers, the serial killer sees his acts of murder and perversion as his God-given mission on earth. As the perp's backstory unfolds, Agent Robin takes note of key psychological factors that account for the killer's psychopathic personality. While she speculates on the personal events that created this moral monster, the reader becomes, if not sympathetic, at least more understanding of the role child abuse and religion play in his twisted life.

Like any respectable work of fiction, it is the characters who make this story succeed. Early in the novel, Agent Rick Clark's life is transformed by the death of a young woman who becomes like a daughter to him, shortly after losing his own daughter in a terrorist bombing. Clark's regret over not being there for his friend begins a journey that will gradually fuel his incipient cynicism. Agent Marty Robin has also undergone a number of personal loses that greatly affect her relationship with Rick and engage her in bouts of soul-searching. What the two share seems to be enough to heal their wounds, but then the worse happens, which sends Rick's life into a downward spiral.

Like the protagonists' personal trials and travails, the antagonist's tragic past is also integral to the main story. He is not just a scary psychopathic serial killer on a murderous rampage. His character is treated in its fullness, which entails serving up ugly slices of his past that draw both the readers' sympathy and disgust. Disgust not just for the twisted soul who abused him, but for an archaic and sordid worldview predicated on intimidation and the choice between eternal retribution or salvation. If anything, it is this worldview that stands as a third type of character in The Bed Sheet Serial Killer narrative. In the Jungian sense, the third character is the antagonist's shadow whispering in his ear.

This short synopsis probably paints a darker picture than is intended. The novel is more a story about regenerative hope than it is a grim crime thriller. Regardless of what tragedies befall Agent Clark, there exists the promise at the end of the novel that he can be restored to wholeness. The ending shows an unfortunate man rising from his own ashes-a fate battered phoenix committed to healing and seeking justice.