David Robbins. Twisted (2004) 248 pp. [pbo]
Novelization of the motion picture screenplay written by Sarah Thorp and filmed by Philip Kaufman, starring Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, and Andy Garcia. Jessica Shepard is a SFPD Homicide Detective with a lot of secrets. Her father, a former cop, was a serial killer who killed her mother and then himself, when she was a young girl; she is addicted to picking up men in bars for one-night stands; and she tends to drink too much and then suffer from blackouts. When the body of one of her former lovers turns up near Pac Bell Park (remember: this is 2004), after one of her blackouts, she thinks it is a strange coincidence. When another of her lovers is found murdered—after yet another blackout—she becomes the prime suspect. Is she following in her father’s murderous footsteps? Or is she the victim of an elaborate frame? Includes eight pages of color stills from the film.