My Five Word TL:DR Review: A book that hooks immediately

This is not my first book by this author but I will say that it is without doubt my favourite.  This is a creepy thriller that hooks you from the first chapters and keeps you hooked until you finish.

As the story begins we meet Dan Garvie, he’s on a family outing with his parents, accompanied by a friend when a quick stop at a roadside service station leads to a terrible encounter, a lucky escape – for Dan at least – and a tale of regret and redemption.

I couldn’t put this book down.  Told with different timelines and POVs the whole story weaves together to form a dread inducing package of horror.  Literally, the ‘baddie’ of this piece gave me the heebie jeebies and I was definitely happier reading this in the daylight hours, although the light of day was no shield against this despicable character.

Dan, now grown up, is a criminal profiler.  He returns to his family home when his father passes away under strange circumstances and begins to uncover a strange trail of crumbs.  Dan has never forgiven himself for not helping the young boy he encountered all those years ago at the service station – who was clearly in the clutches of evil and in desperate need of help. Dan was so scared that he was incapable of doing anything short of hiding and has lived with remorse ever since.  The ‘evil’ man in question was a serial killer known as ‘The Man Made of Smoke’, his one constant refrain ‘nobody sees and nobody cares’.

This is without doubt a chilling tale that had me reading like some sort of maniac, desperate to know the outcome, unwilling to put the book down, but, at the same time, not wanting to sit alone into the early hours to continue reading.  The serial killer is actually incredibly scary, he almost feels supernatural – although that isn’t the case – there’s just this incredible feeling of power or lack of fear, the knowledge that he can go anywhere and do anything and everyone will turn a blind eye.

The writing is good, full of tension and fear, both on the parts of the characters living out this current nightmare and the reader.  I mean, I was literally afraid during parts of this story – and I was worried about the main characters who seem to constantly put themselves at risk.

I can’t really say too much without giving away spoilers but this is a dark tale with the creep factor ratcheted up.  It’s also a story of guilt, misunderstood feelings, trauma and redemption.

Dan has a lot to figure out and along the way the voice of his father in his head guides him on the journey.

A really good read that I couldn’t put down.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 5 of 5 stars