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Ryan Howard’s characterisation of Jim, and of Eve through her writing is powerful stuff. Jim is a misogynist, powerful once as The Nothing Man before he stopped killing and now he’s trapped in a powerless life. The Nothing Man is a compelling and considered crime thriller. More than just fodder for crime fiction fans, it is an astute examination of our problematic modern obsession with serial killers, and the importance of truth as well as thrills. Sunday Times Jim's POV was particularly horrifying, as we got to peek into the disturbing mind of this hateful psychopath. I was frightened and chilled to the bone. I convinced myself that someone was watching me from the shadows, and had to stop reading this at night! It was so creepy! It also alarmed me that he had got away with it for so long, by basically being so ordinary, nothing special, and yet it fascinated me to see his thoughts! That Ryan Howard manages to give Eve a presence in this book, as Jim reads her novel, is a testament to just how damned good a writer she is. The media calls him The Nothing Man because they have nothing on him." No witnesses, no fingerprints, no DNA.
We join him to read Eve’s memoir. We want to scream at him to keep on reading to learn more about his history and we also want to stop him so we can skip the gruesome details about his rapes, the traumatic experiences he caused with his torturing ways to ruin his victims’ souls forever.The Nothing Man is currently available on the Hoopla library app in both the e-book and audiobook formats. The formatting of this story was fascinating. It’s an interesting concept to think about a killer reading a book about their crimes after having gotten away with it for so long. All the elements I would expect to be possessed by the killer were present. He was narcissistic, misogynistic, and had a small victim complex. Getting into his head was both fulfilling but equally disturbing considering this is probably exactly what James DiAngelo was like.
The characters are also deeply drawn, the insights into the family’s anguish was palpable through their stories and their sense of loss unmistakable. The author gives us very real insights into the minds and trauma of victims from murder and rape. However, Howard did well to not stop there, as we are led into the mind of the serial killer, who continues to lead a normal life, their crimes oblivious to their families and their identity unknown. Their evil deeds meticulously planned, many serial killers give ‘nothing’ away. So Eve’s strategy to unmask this serial killer is simple; appeal to his ego or insult it!!!When I began reading The Nothing Man, I was relatively unfamiliar with Catherine Ryan Howard—a mistake I’m sure to remedy soon. Sure, I was aware that Howard, a fellow Irish person like myself, had been nominated for the 2019 Edgar Award for her novel, The Liar’s Girl, but I had not read that novel or her other two works. After reading The Nothing Man, I cannot see anything beating it for this year’s Edgar—or any other award for that matter.
An unputdownable thriller that's not afraid to explore the darkest impulses of humanity. It's also a compassionate study of grief and guilt. I dare you to read it on your own, in the dark. -- Erin Kelly After she assigned the creative writing classes at the college, she started to come clean her secret identity and share her experiences in her articles which resulted with the start of her own investigation to fill the blanks and find the connections between the nothing man’s victims. She wants to be a normal child. When she starts her new school... she never tells anyone the truth about how her parents died. The Nothing Man is t he most original and chilling thriller I've read in a long time, and is perfect for fans of Serial and The Fall. * Mark Edwards *Bastian is then drawn in Fantasia (which is reduced to a single grain of sand) by the Childlike Empress, who gives him the wish-granting AURYN so that he could wish Fantasia anew. In the movie, a single wish is enough to recreate all of Fantasia, while in the novel, it marks the second half of the story, which would set the basis of the film's sequel. 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.
The format of a book within a book is not an easy writing technique but this author does it flawlessly. Each part was easy to understand, equally interesting and flowed well. The more Jim reads, the more he realizes how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won’t give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first.. This was a great ride!! A bit anti-climatic at the end, but overall a well done suspenseful novel! I will be looking to see what else this author has written! Eve covers the stories of all of the Victims and she knows that people don’t just read true-crime books anymore. a fictional story about a serial killer and a survivor who wrote about her ordeal, this one caught my eye on GR a few years ago;
Featured Reviews
It took me a little bit to get into The Nothing Man, but once it got going, wow! I couldn't stop reading, and as the tension built and built, I was terrified, jumpy and obsessed! My husband says that I've not stopped talking about it, and I just cant help it! This book consumed me, and by the end I could barely breath! Disturbing, dastardly and totally gripping, “The Nothing Man” will scare the bejesus out of you. It is a brilliantly plotted, ingenious mystery thriller that is twisty, turny and wholly captivating. If you’re looking for a fabulous thriller with a great scare factor, this is it. A] fiendishly clever psychological thriller … Howard uses serial killer tropes in original and surprising ways in this tour de force. Publishers Weekly (starred review) I loved the concept of the book within the book, and that you were reading along with the killer, watching as his fragile mental state unfolded. I won't offer any spoilers but I will say that concept alone ratcheted up the tension considerably and I was on pins and needles waiting to see how things would play out.
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