The Killing Room by Richard Montanari

The Killing Room by Richard Montanari
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - on and off for 5 days

Pages - 358

Publisher - Sphere

Blurb from Goodreads

Hear the footsteps, feel the screams. The chilling new Byrne and Balzano thriller from the Sunday Times bestseller. Product Description Nothing will ever be the same again... In the heart of Philadelphia's badlands, Homicide Detectives Byrne and Balzano are called out to a particularly chilling crime scene. Once the pillar of the neighbourhood, an abandoned church has become a killing room. At first it looks like a random act of violence. But then a second body is found, and a third. Each crime scene more disturbing than the last, each murder more brutal. And it soon becomes horrifyingly clear that a cold, calculating and terrifyingly precise mind is at work. With very few leads, and a mastermind who always seems to be one step ahead, Byrne and Balzano are faced with challenges they could never have imagined as they race against time to hunt down their killer, before it's too late...


My Review

An ex police officer found in an abandoned chapel, kept alive and wrapped in barb wire for ten days but why? Only one day later, another victim, another chapel just as disturbing, when a third is found the police know they need to move fast, but what drives this killer and what links the victims. Clearly a religious aspect and footage shows a victim voluntarily heading to the location they die, what can have a hold over these people and why are the chapels important?

The chapters go between the police investigation and a glimpse to the killer, written in italics and interactions with the victims. This makes for very freaky reading, is there a spirtual element in the killings? Is the killer a mere mortal? The slayings are brutal and the scenes are not for the faint hearted. The book is quite heavy on police procedure which seems a bit drawn out in places and didn't capture my attention quite as much as other parts of the book. The supernatural tones really draw the reader in and were very creepy however the finale and wrap up raised some questions and made me question the plausibility of it all. A good read if you just suspend reality for a while, gruesome too with in depth police procedures and aspects of the investigation, 3/5 for me this time.

View all my reviews

Review - Don't Look Now by Richard Montanari

Don't Look Now by Richard Montanari

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Time taken to read - 2 days


Blurb From Goodreads

Andrea Heller has been married for seven years, but likes to pretend she's single. She enjoys sitting on her own in bars but there's another couple watching. They call themselves Saila and Pharaoh, but only after sundown. And it is after sundown that some terrible things are happening in the singles clubs in Cleveland. In six months, three women in their twenties have been brutally murdered. And each step that Homicide Detective Jack Paris takes to find their killer draws him closer to the heart of his own forbidden impulses. As the stakes become increasingly personal, Jack knows only one thing for certain. To enter the minds of Saila and Pharaoh is to enter a world from which no one ever fully returns...

My Review

A serial killer is on the loose, and an unusual combination at that. The target, beautiful young business women who all have something in common and all end up brutally murdered with a thin strip of skin removed along with other mutilation. Jack Paris is on the case and half way through gets an unlikely lead that sees the case closed, or is there more to it?

I usually really enjoy Richard Montanari but I was really disappointed with this one. The characters I couldn't seem to connect with or have any feelings for at all other than puzzlement or annoyance. There was a lot of contradictions (I felt), for example Jack seems clueless all along then at the end a small clue tips him off that leads to the finale (sorry to be vague but I hate spoiler reviews). The killer seems to be motivated and does the killings and rituals for a reason but your left wondering and really with a lot more questions than answers at the end and that really annoys me. Even if I had liked the book this would have pulled it's rating down anyway but I wasn't moved or enthralled with this at all.

There is a lot of sex and swearing in the book but if your a Montanari fan this won't be new for you, if your looking to start with this author try one of the other books first as this doesn't show any of his talent or have a patch on any of his other books I have read and enjoyed, 2/5 this time.

View all my reviews

Review - The Devil's Garden by Richard Montanari

The Devil's Garden by Richard Montanari

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Blurb from goodreads

Michael Roman is finally living the life he always dreamed of - he has a successful career, a beautiful wife and adorable twin daughters. But his idyllic life is about to come crashing down around him - because Michael is a man with a past. A rising star in the New York District Attorney-s office and on the cusp of enormous success, Michael-s perfect life begins to unravel when he finds himself the target of a depraved madman, a man who covets everything Michael has and will stop at nothing to take it all away. In a desperate fight to survive, Michael is forced to confront the dark secrets of his past in order to save his family.He must hunt down the psychopath who is targeting his family and, before it is too late, face the devil himself.

My review

To be honest I don't know where to start, I normally love Richard Montanari books but it just didn't happen with this one. Michaels story and background with his family is lovely, sad, tragic but quite gripping. When we are introduced to Alexsander Savisaar, again it is quite intriguing and even mystical beginning and I thought it was a good start. However it got weird and hard to follow the story with Alexsander as I wasn't sure if he was mystical and had powers or just a deluded madman.

There is some good action throughout the story and at times it is a gripping and good story but the weird parts were really weird and I just found it hard to concentrate and follow so sadly it is a 2/5 for me.



View all my reviews