Well Hot, clever, Diggity, brilliant DANG this one is one of the best thrillers we have read in a long time! Get it now!! Don’t miss out on this well crafted, exciting thrill of a chill read!
Brenda’s review
Well, all I am going to do is rave about this one and it’s not a hyped-up thriller!! It’s one well crafted, original thriller with chilling and thrilling twists and turns that relies on just great writing to keep us turning the pages!
I have read books within a book before however, Catherine Ryan Howard uniquely weaves in a true-crime memoir about The Nothing Man who has disappeared after killing her family while the nothing man-killer Jim is reading it. The story brilliantly alternates between passages from Eve’s book and Jim’s reaction to them. I found it fascinating to see Jim’s reaction to the memoir while he is reading it and it makes for an exciting and interesting twist to the story.
Eve is obsessed with finding the Nothing Man and she won’t stop writing until she finds him and he is hooked and can’t stop reading it. With each page, the tension rose for me and with each page, Jim becomes angrier with Eve. The twists to the story are heart-pounding exciting and while we can imagine what is ahead, Catherine Ryan Howard had some surprises for me with those exciting twists.
Eve’s book concentrates on the victims rather than the killer himself. The crimes of The Nothing Man are horrifying and distributing however, Eve does not focus on that and leaves the disturbing details up to the reader to think about or not.
I received a print copy and audiobook copy from the publisher and I ended up reading it because listening to it just didn’t work for me as well as I would have liked. I thought narrators Alana Kerr Collins and John Keating did a great job capturing the voices of the characters and it worked well when Jim responded to parts of Eve’s book but for some reason, I didn’t find it as thrilling to listen to as I did reading it. The setting is in Ireland and Eve’s voice has a strong Irish accent and I found that bit hard to follow even though I thought it fit the character well. Kind of doesn’t make sense does it but I think it just came down to I found it more exciting to read it.
Lindsay’s review
This brilliant and creepy book blew my mind! I was utterly addicted — my mind was thinking of this book even when I wasn’t reading it — anxiously awaiting the next time I could steal a few moments (or hours) to sit down and inhale this story.
Eve Black’s family was murdered in their family home when she was a child. Twelve-year-old Eve was the only survivor after her mother, father and younger sister were found brutally murdered. Two decades later, the murderer still has not been found. He is a serial killer known only as The Nothing Man who has been linked to several other murders and rapes in the area. As a form of therapy and with the hope of igniting fresh perspective on the unsolved murders, Eve writes a book outlining each of The Nothing Man’s victims including her own family. The publication of her book sparks a lot of interest and creates a new generation of “armchair sleuths” intrigued by the cases and wanting to help find the murderer.
The creep factor is high! I felt nervous as I read about how The Nothing Man stalked and killed his victims. I checked the locks on my doors more than a couple times while reading this. The way this story unfolds is ingenious — extremely clever, unique and thoroughly captivating.
This easily earns a top spot in my 2020 Favourites List. — make sure you get your hands on a copy ASAP!
We received copies from the publisher!
Penny For Our Thoughts 