Chapters 1-18

As I'm sure most readers who are at this point of the book are wondering, I am wondering who the Impressionist is.  I have a few predictions as to who it might be.  From the first chapter, I thought the killer was Deputy Erikson because he seemed to be very suspicious at the first crime scene.  However, I'm beginning to question the validity of the claim that he is the Impressionist.  When the story switched the the view of the Impressionist, it was stated that Jasper Dent must not be harmed.  Erikson seems to want Jazz harmed - or if not harmed, at least jailed, which the Impressionist also doesn't seem to want.  Another guess that I had was G. William.  Perhaps after having captured Billy Dent, he snapped and started murdering people and was leading his own deputies to the scenes to taunt them and to make sure they saw the finger that he flipped to them.  He also seems to want to keep Jazz out of jail and out of harm's way.  Plus, he doesn't want Jazz working on the case or seeing any of the files which could be because he knows - or thinks that there's a chance - that Jazz has a better chance of figuring out that it's him than the police force does.  Doug Weathers is also a guess of mine.  He is so obsessed with getting back on the television and in the news that it seems possible for him to start a crime just to fulfill this desire.  He also seems to want no harm to come to Jazz because of publicity.  These last two, I think, are the best guesses that I have so far.  I don't think that it could be Connie or Howie.  Howie, for obvious, hemophiliac-related reasons, could not be the serial killer.  Connie seems too rational and level-headed to be the killer.  Plus, she keeps trying to convince Jazz that he's not a killer while the Impressionist surely wants Jazz to realize his potential in that respect.  Which brings me to Jasper Dent.  He can not be the killer, either.  This may seem obvious to some, but it was not always obvious to me.  I considered the notion that he might be killing and not be aware of it.  It seemed plausible at first.  After all, he did know exactly what the Impressionist was going to do for their next victim.  But, after reading on and analyzing the situation more, it became clear that it was not him and that the Impressionist was doing an Impression of his father and he had figured that out early on.

So, at this point, my best bet is that either G. William or Doug Weathers is the Impressionist.  However, it might be someone who I've not yet met or I may be overlooking someone.