Hangman

Book Review - Mystery, Crime, and the Most Repulsive Protagonist in Literature.

https://medium.com/@peterseanEsq/book-review-mystery-crime-and-the-most-repulsive-protagonist-in-literature-2c1d2fbcaad5

Hangman by Jack Heath

This book tells serial killer/crime-fighter Dexter, “Hold my beer.”

This book introduces us to Timothy Blake. On one level, Blake seems like a decent guy. The FBI calls on him to find kidnapped children. He seems to be very observant and very smart. He puts together bits of information to make clever deductions, leading him to the missing children.

On another level, Blake is sketchy. We soon learn that he doesn't get paid for his consulting work. His income consists of identity fraud and solving puzzles. He lives with a drug dealer. He was in a group home as an orphaned child. His parents were killed when he was a baby.

Then, on a completely different level, we learn - and this isn't a spoiler since it is presented early in the book and described in the Amazon blurbs - that the deal Blake has cut with the local FBI head is that when he rescues a child, he gets a death row inmate to eat.

Surprise! (Or not.) Because of trauma when he was a baby, Blake is a cannibal.

The author, Jack Heath, set out to write a truly awful character and he has. However, as with Dexter, Heath loads the dice to make us sympathetic. Blake knows he's a monster. He has a sense of ethics, such as not allowing his roommate to rape a girl. He has been handed a bad start in life. The people he eats are dangerous scum, etc.

Blake is a “Marty Stu” character. He's too smart - he memorizes credit card numbers at a glance. He shares a house with a roommate and eats victims raw, but he has a way of disposing of bodies that raises no questions about him. He's aware of his pathology but develops habits to control it.

In other words, Blake is a fantasy character in a fantasy world.

Nonetheless, apart from his unfortunate culinary choices, Blake is a sympathetic character, probably because he's not a real person at all. Likewise, the mystery moves along on its invention, artifice, and coincidences. The ending is surprising enough, but, again, it is coincidence and artifice, and many “don't think too hard about this” connections.

I enjoyed the story but didn't like the fact that I enjoyed the story.

Am I going to read any of the sequels? I don't know. This book is a page-turner. Heath can rock a story. Life is short, though, and I'm not sure I want to squander my rapidly evaporating reading life expectancy by being provoked into concern for someone who eats other people raw.

Your tastes, though, may differ.

Didn't want to put it down

The perfect mix of macabre humor, action, and human behavior. The riddles were a fun bonus, I had to look a few up.

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

What a wild ride this book was.

Honestly, I never thought I would be able to say I had read a book about a cannibal solving crimes before, but here we are. Yeah, that isn't in the summary, but it comes up really quick in the book and I feel like it is something that should be mentioned, because he literally eats people in the book and that might be too much for some people to handle. I had to take a step back from the book once in a while.

The main character really brings a lot to this story since he is written so well. There is a lot going on with him and his backstory, making me want to know more. Although, once I learned more, sometimes I wish I hadn't haha.
But, the main character isn't the only draw to this book. I found the mystery to be super interesting. Like many thrillers, I didn't see the ending coming at all, I felt a bit blindsided, but there were hints at it being a possibility.

Will I read the sequel? YES. I gotta know what is going to happen to Timothy. One bridge is burned, what will he do now? How will he survive? I gotta know.
If you can handle reading about a cannibal who wishes he wasn't and is pretty morally gray pushing bad, but is intrigued by puzzles – you should totally read this. This is one I'll be recommending to people who like that blend of mystery/thriller that is more on the gritty side.

I want thank Netgalley HARLEQUIN - Hanover Square Press (U.S. & Canada)
Hanover Square Press and Jack Heath for my advanced copy of Hangman, I also want to apologize for my delayed review I finished this book in a day and was not able to write my review till today. Hangman is one of those books that you finish in one sitting add can't wait to get more. The FBI consultant in this book is a combination of Hannibal Lecter and Dexter put together and it's fantastic! Bears yes that means there are some awesome details that are so gruesome you'll either love it or hate it. So, if your idea of a great lunch isn't somebody's foot, then I would say skip it, but if your idea of great thriller is gore, guts and a thrill ride then this is the book for you. 5 Stars all the way. I just hope there's much more from this author to come.