Interestingly, in Hannibal Lecter style, this cop needs madness to catch madness but at a personal cost, a development I particularly liked in this punchy, staccato style serial killer thriller. You know it’s the start of a series, for Carson Ryder is just too good a character to lose. The second, The Death Collectors, comes in hardback in August. Comparison: James Patterson (Alex Cross novels), Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly. Similar this month: Mark Billingham, John Katzenbach.
A body is found in the sweating heat of an Alabama night; headless, words inked on the skin. Detective Carson Ryder is good at this sort of thing - crazies and freaks. To his eyes it is no crime of passion, and when another mutilated victim turns up his suspicions are confirmed. This is not the work of a ‘normal’ murderer, but that of a serial killer, a psychopath.
Famous for solving a series of crimes the year before, Carson Ryder has experience with psychopaths. But he had help with that case - strange help, from a past Ryder is trying to forget.
Now he needs it again.
When the truth finally begins to dawn, it shines on an evil so twisted, so dangerous, it could destroy everything that he cares about...
‘A chilling journey into a pitch-black mind’ Michael Marshall
‘The Hundredth Man delivers a sturdy hero with a clear-cut mission and a setting that holds possibilities for fresh adventures. Kerley writes in a thrusting style that pushes the action...’ New York Times Book Review
‘A serial killer novel with a difference. The whole story is told in prose as inventive as a fight to the death between embattled virtue and monstrous evil ought to be’ Kirku
Author
About Jack Kerley
Jack Kerley worked in advertising and teaching before becoming a full-time novelist. He lives in Newport, Kentucky, but also spends a good deal of time in Southern Alabama, the setting for The Hundredth Man.
His love of the suspense genre was sparked at age thirteen, when his father gave him a collection of Saint stories by Leslie Charteris. Other cited influences include William Shakespeare, Louis Armstrong, and any large and moving body of water.
