At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life.
Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man—the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family’s killer. As he turns each page, … turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim’s not just interested in reading about the Nothing Man. He is the Nothing Man.
Jim soon begins to realize 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
more
What a great mind blowing read!
It was absolutely brilliant and chilling read!
The story is told from the killer’s point of view and the victims.
It is a book within a book and that works well .
I will not give anything away and will only say don’t miss The Nothing Man, you will be looking over your shoulder and it will stay with you for some time.
Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone publishing for a fantastic read!
Clever and captivating
SHORT REVIEW for THE NOTHING MAN by Catherine Ryan Howard
While working security at his local shopping mall, Jim walks by the book section and sees a new release titled THE NOTHING MAN, a true crime book about the titular serial killer—written by his only survivor. Curious, Jim picks it up thinking, “I let this kid live and she wrote a book about me!?”
The narrative brilliantly switches back and forth between Jim in the present, and the book about himself which he’s reading. In all, it’s a fascinating, disturbing, thrilling tale that I couldn‘t put down. Jim is one hell of a menacing main character, I’ll just leave it at that.
Awesome book.
I liked the book-within-a-book concept written as a true crime story and the story being read by the serial killer twenty years after his killing spree. The murderer’s irrational fury with the author builds to the point where he decides he must retaliate, even while he believes he won’t make mistakes, that his identity has been hidden for decades and he’ll never be caught.
The ensuing cat-and-mouse game is the point of the story.
I enjoyed this book. While I didn’t find this a totally riveting read, there were plenty of compelling twists and turns. I would love to have heard more about the Nothing Man’s point of view and what triggered his psychopathic killings. Yes, we gain an understanding of a little of his background, but more menace would have upped the ante for me.
Most interesting to read is the damage a killer does to the victims who survive, and how their lives are changed forever.
An interesting tale told from both the victim and the killer’s point of view with a twist in the middle. I enjoy it.
Irish author Catherine Ryan Howard is a mystery writer who was an Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee in 2019. The Nothing Man is her fourth standalone novel, about a survivor of a serial killer who murdered her family when she was twelve years of age. Eve Black, now an adult, has her true crime memoir published and unleashes forces she is unaware of. When the killer reads her book, he realises Eve may have come close to the truth, so he must stop her. A psychological thriller that is creepy and skilfully dials up the tension to a climatic finale. A four-star read rating with the necessity to read Catherine Ryan Howard earlier books.
The Nothing Man is a book within a book, which can go either way for me. Here, it’s the thing that keeps things moving along. – not always steadily, but moving nonetheless. The book gives away the bad guy from the start, so the suspense doesn’t come from who, it comes from why he did it, and how they are going to catch him. The chapters move back and forth between the killer’s thoughts as he reads this book about his crimes and the book itself. Honestly, I liked the killer’s perspective better than the book he was reading. Maybe it was intentional since he was reading, but his chapters had more feeling to them where the book chapters were a bit dry at times and had some lags in the pacing, especially when there was a lot of backstory. There were a couple of interesting twists, but the lags in the story kept it from being the compulsive thriller it could’ve been.
Alana Kerr Collins and John Keating breathe life into the characters, and they do a good job of it. Keating does the killer’s chapters, and I’ll admit that he’s a big part of what kept me listening to this story. Collins does the chapters from the book, which was an intriguing choice. We hear the inside book in her voice even though the killer is reading it.
What it all comes down to is, this one is an interesting story, but it’s one that you need to keep reading even when it gets a bit slow because the rest of the book, the parts with a steadier or faster pace, are worth the effort.
”Yes, I was the girl who survived The Nothing Man. I am the woman who is going to catch him.”
This book is amazing. I liked that it was from the killer’s perspective even though I feel like there was some unnecessary information. I also liked the way the book is set up, a book within a book.
You get like Jim Doyle who is the serial killer’s current life and then there’s him, The nothing man in Eve’s book where we’re finding out about all of his horrendous crimes until his last victims which were Eve’s family where she was the only survivor.
Also, you get to know why and how everything started. What made him become the nothing man. That’s when It started to get really interesting for me. What I didn’t like is that it dragged down a lot. The last 10 chapters or so were the best for me. I really loved his reactions toward the book every time he was reading it.
Overall, I’d highly recommend this book. Loved the true-crime vibe!
Barely readable
If you haven’t read it yet and you’re looking for a great fall read, I highly recommend The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard. I love the fact that it is a book within a book and that mixed with Jim Doyle’s viewpoint made it a very layered and suspenseful novel. So many people were blown away by this one, and although I’m not quite there, it was still a very solid 4 stars for me and definitely a thriller I will be recommending! It is also a great one to go into blind so I will try to keep this review short (probably won’t happen).
I started by reading the eBook and it has such an amazing beginning, but then I started getting a little distracted, so I decided to wait and listen to the audio. The audiobook helped keep me fully engaged and I really liked the narrators. Alana Kerr Collins voices the parts from Eve’s book while John Keating voices Doyle. I think listening to it makes it even creepier, especially for Doyle’s POV. I loved the dark humor, and the way the author wrote this one was just so incredibly clever. I ended up really loving the end and was very satisfied with it, although it may be slightly anticlimactic for some readers. The Nothing Man is a very unique take on a book where you already know who the killer is and watching his progression as he reads Eve’s book was a great take on a serial killer thriller.
Overall I really enjoyed The Nothing Man and I’m looking forward to reading more by this author. I have already read Distress Signals which was a bit of a miss for me, but I can tell how she has progressed in her writing and I will definitely be reading her newer books!
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book via Edelweiss and NetGalley, all opinions and thoughts are my own.
Nicknamed ‘The Nothing Man’ because he leaves no traces, a man goes on a vicious raping and killing spree and then, inexplicably, stops. Despite their best efforts, the Irish police fail to track him down.
Years later, a twelve year old girl – the only survivor of the night he slaughtered her parents and little sister – is now all grown up and looking for answers. Her whole life has been blighted by what happened. She writes a bestselling book about the murders entitled ‘The Nothing Man’ hoping more clues will emerge so that he can finally be brought to justice.
In this cleverly constructed, tense thriller, Howard is careful to portray the killer as a friendless nonentity who violates and murders in order to compensate for his inadequacies – a real ‘Nothing Man’. Highly recommended.
I was really looking forward to this book. A few other bloggers who read thrillers had raved about this book. Because of them, I was all hyped up to read this one.
This book moves very slow. I think a big part of the reason is the way it’s written. I admit, it’s written in a unique way, which I think in some cases might work. However, it didn’t work for me with this book. It drug on and on for the first sixty percent or so. I almost gave up on it.
Once this book picked up, I was mostly all-in. The problem for me at that point was the characters. I just wasn’t feeling them and their story. I think my mind had already checked out and gave up. I’m not sure.
I have seen many say they didn’t see that ending coming. I did. It was inevitable. I had it pegged about a third of the way through. It seemed like the only logical ending to this story.
I am sure many will be over the moon with this one. It’s not a bad book, it just didn’t hit the mark for me.
This is a review of the audiobook version of “The Nothing Man”, this is also the first book that I have read/listened to by Ms. Howard. Wow, what a talented writer she is. I will definitely be looking forward to reading more of her novels.
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.
Eve Black has been known as the “girl that survived The Nothing Man” since the age of 12. It has haunted and impacted her life and now, she has decided that she wants to be known as the woman who caught The Nothing Man. He was given this name because he never left any clues behind and the Garda could never find him. But, he never left any survivors before.
The narration in this book is fantastic!!! We are able to hear the voice of Eve, who sounds intelligent and determined. At the same time we hear the voice of The Nothing Man, and it will scare the heck out of you, it sounds so fiendish and cold!
Hard to believe that Jim Doyle has been living in plain sight for all of these years. He has a family and is still working as a security guard. It will make you look at your neighbors in a whole different way!!!!!!
Without going into the gruesome killings, etc. I can reveal that this man is a psychopath. He had no regret for the crimes he committed and never felt a bit of compassion. He killed children as well as adults, Eve’s sister was only six years old. He is now reading Eve’s memoir and is infuriated that he left this survivor to tell her story, he plans to change that.
I had heard that this book was good and I can now vouch for how moving the audiobook was.
This is terrifying without being too gory, it’s expertly written with great character development. It has everything I love in a great mystery/thriller.
I highly recommend this audiobook, you will not be disappointed.
I received this audiobook from the publisher through NetGalley. I
The title & blurb is so intriguing, knowing the name of the killer on the first page is rare & I love it! Its’s a story within a story. Story “The Nothing Man” is written by Evelyn “Eve” Black who witnessed the murder of her parents and sister at the age of 12. Years later dealing with the guilt, trauma, and memories of details that she didn’t understand before are now connecting. The Nothing Man is Jim Doyle, a serial killer who printed his prints & face is closer to being caught thanks to the book! Jim is now a 63 year old supermarket security guard married and with a daughter. His past is his secret! The middle was a bit muddled with the back stories of the other victims, kinda felt lost with all the names. But overall this is a page turner with a shocker of an ending! Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for an ebook ARC. This is my honest review.
“…an exclusive, awful club”
This is a story about a serial killer in Cork County, Ireland. It is told from the points of view of the killer and of the final victim who survived. So from the beginning of the story we know who the killer is. Also, the victim’s story is told from a book she writes about the killer’s crimes. The “book” is published twenty years after the killings the author survived.
I was not particularly fond of the storytelling methods of this book. By almost entirely quoting from the victim’s “book” her character is not explored in too much depth. I would have liked to know more about her inner thoughts over the years after the crime.
If you want to know more about the serial killer himself, he is explored in depth throughout this story but he wasn’t very interesting (and that’s one of the points the story puts across – he is ordinary, just an everyday man who happens to be a serial killer).
So, this was an okay book but there are a lot of other books out there on serial killers and their victims that I consider to be much better. Not a high recommendation for me, I’m afraid. I rate this 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 just because I did enjoy the ending.
I received this book from Blackstone Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
When she was just 12 years of age, Eve Black was the only member of her family who survived a serial killer’s attack. It’s been 20 or so years and she is still obsessed with the man tho stole her family and has never been caught.
Teaming up with Ed Healy, one of the police officers who investigated her family’s deaths, she writes a true crime novel, putting it all out there… hoping it will incite the killer to try again….
The Nothing Man .. that’s what the newspapers called him. There were never any clues to his identity … no motive that anyone could detect …. and he is reading her book. The Nothing Man knows she will never give up looking for him …
This utterly compelling story is expertly crafted. It’s like reading a book within a book … uniquely original. The reader knows who the killer is as eve relates her story of past events merging into today’s actions. It’s also the story of the killer … his reactions to Eve’s telling … as he secretly reads her book… his coming to understand that Eve knows much more than he ever suspected… his sorrow at leaving her alive.
All I can really say is .. WOW! I read this one practically in one sitting. It’s a real nail-biting page turner. Highly recommend this one!
Many thanks to the author / Blackstone Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this riveting, suspenseful crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Last year’s “Rewind” by Catherine Ryan Howard was a five star read for me ticking all the boxes of a tense thriller, so I was very much looking forward to starting her latest novel “The Nothing Man”. With an intriguing title and a blurb to set the pulse racing before even opening the pages, I couldn’t wait to get started on what sounded like a unique and thrilling read.
“I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man. Now I am the woman who is going to catch him… Two Stories. One Killer. No Mercy”
Set in Cork, Ireland where the author is from, this part fiction, part fictionalised true crime, read like a realistic true crime memoir with chapters interspersed with the killer, whom we know from the start is called Jim and his thoughts and reactions as he reads the book written about himself. Eve Black is the author, the lone survivor of his worst and final attack and she is determined that by writing about ‘The Nothing Man’ (dubbed because the Gardai had ‘nothing’ to identify him) that she will finally uncover who he is and bring him to justice.
A couple of things near the end just had me doubting the integrity of the story a little, hence a dropped star but this cat and mouse thriller entertained me from start to finish with a unique layout and storytelling. I found the whole story easy to follow and understand, especially with everything explained in the true crime parts. In the early pages, I was quite freaked out with the killer creeping up the stairs while his victims slept and felt Catherine did an extra job in drawing me into the dark and atmospheric scenes.
All in all a story I really did enjoy and I’d happily recommend “The Nothing Man” to fiction and non fictions crime readers young and old. I expect it to do really well with readers who are maybe looking for just that something different from the usual run of the mill serial killer thrillers.
4 stars
Wow! Must read. Story told as a book within a book.