3 massacres, 2 detectives, 1 writer, 0 answers
“A riveting thriller… highly recommend to every mystery thriller fan.” Suspense Magazine
Discover the book readers are calling the most terrifying impossible-to-put-down thriller released this year, by the #1 Amazon best-selling author readers are calling the next Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) and the female Stephen King.
Freelancer Kendall … Girl) and the female Stephen King.
Freelancer Kendall Jennings writes fluff pieces for women’s magazines. When a horrific massacre occurs at Café Amaretto, she scores an exclusive interview with a survivor. Suddenly, she’s the go-to reporter for the crime.
Investigating veteran detective Lance O’Grady and his partner Trip are tasked with finalizing the open and shut case. Seven people are dead at the hands of an unprovoked killer wielding an axe.
Then another mass killing occurs. This time, arson, and ten eldercare facility residents die in the blaze. Again the killer dies at the scene. The crimes have no motive, and Lance O’Grady is left wondering how evil can strike twice in such a short space of time.
Then it happens again. Even more shocking: a mother with a gun goes on a rampage at a family birthday party.
The killers share one odd detail: none have a murderer’s profile. No history of violence. No connection to terrorists. No vendettas. Ordinary citizens suddenly just became killers.
Drawn deeper inside the crime investigation, Kendall finds herself not only clashing with O’Grady but also struggling with old demons. O’Grady resents this interfering reporter, whose presence provokes memories of a personal tragedy.
What Kendall and O’Grady don’t realize is they are caught in a plot far greater reaching than just these crimes. Someone is sending a message. And unless they can decipher the meaning, very soon, many more will die.
Deadly Messengers, an unputdownable thriller, poses the question: Does a killer lurk inside us all? The answer may prove more frightening than the crimes.
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I loved Deadly Messengers. It has enough reality mixed in that it makes you look at things differently. How closely are side effects monitored for medications you’re prescribed? What’s the old man next door really up to? Susan May gives us a horror story that will stick with you for weeks.
NOT music to fall asleep by!
Author Susan May lovingly supplies every detail in exquisite depth as three separate mass murders occur in a very brief timespan. The actions are so portrayed that we feel sympathy for the perpetrators even as we leave their minds and observe from without the appalling aftermath of such violence. Add in a troubled journalist and a policeman with his own secrets and watch as human emotions and reactions are explored and possible pharmaceutical side effects revealed. Bordering on the thrilling edge of horror, this psychological thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat. I enjoyed the extremely well-read AUDIO version and would suggest this is NOT music to fall asleep by!
I read to be entertained, and I read to be informed. Whether reading a piece of fiction or non-fiction, I actually want a bit of both. When I am engaged and turning pages and the urge to fact check a concept interrupts me, that’s a good read. While reading DEADLY MESSENGERS, that is exactly what happened! (A sort of spoiler: there is a YouTube video mentioned by name. Said video is real. I watched it.) I don’t do real spoilers, so what I may have Googled to do a bit of fact checking will have to remain my secret.
It is most important for a writer to have a unique voice to stand out in the crowd. That unique voice often expresses itself by presenting the story from an unexpected perspective. Susan May’s voice is crystal clear and loud enough to reach you on page one. What might she be saying? Reader! Pay attention!
Kendall Jennings is a strong, but flawed, female character. Honestly, I prefer my characters, both male and female, flawed. It makes them believable because real people are flawed. Here we have a stand alone novel populated with very real characters. Folks you might meet at sometime in your life. I mention that it is a stand alone novel because at several points I found myself thinking that this is a story with characters that have lives, and lives go on.
If you read the author bio on Amazon, you will see that Susan May hails from Australia, so you might think she would put her story in a locale down under. Not so. DEADLY MESSENGERS is set in a fictitious city in the U. S. You know this because guns are readily available, the FBI is mentioned, and the subject is mass murder. Where else on earth would multiple mass murders even make for a believable story? There are occasional places in the book where she may not get the Americanism just right but when you are reading a thriller like this one, who cares about such trivia. This is. without a doubt, one of the best books I have read this year. If I could give it six stars, I certainly would!
On a technical note, I did find several places where a word seemed like it had been left out of a sentence, the tense of a verb didn’t seem to fit, a singular noun that should have been plural… They seemed like the kind of mistakes made when thinking faster than one is able to commit them to page. My brain made the corrections so quickly they really didn’t much interrupt the flow of this very fast paced novel.
The bottom line is this is a book well worth the time you spend reading it.
This review is based on the ARC sent to me by Susan May.