The Nothing Man

This is a slow burn psychological thriller that tells its story in a cool way - a true crime book within a book. Eve Black is the sole survivor of the serial killer known as The Nothing Man, who killed many people 18 years before, including Eve's family. Now Eve has written a true crime book with the hopes of catching the killer. Readers know the identity of the killer right away and, through alternating chapters, get his chilling POV as well as snippets from Eve's book.

The book starts off strong with a description of the Black family's terror, but it turned into a story I wasn't expecting with the tension petering off in the middle. This may be due to the reader knowing The Nothing Man's identity or because there were times when a lot of serial killer info is included which made the plot lag when I just wanted to get back to Eve's fight to find the killer. 

The initial tension and creep factor pick back up closer to the end when we're given a good twist and a half, but they weren't quite as shocking as I've come to expect from Howard. And for a book that deals with such horrific issues and threats, it was decidedly less emotional than I had anticipated.

Overall, The Nothing Man was a good but not wow read for me. I give top marks for its originality of how the story is told, but the slow burn plot and extraneous serial killer info took away from the promise of a high tension, nail-biting read.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Blackstone Publishing for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this book, via NetGalley, 
in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Catherine Ryan Howard

Genre: Suspense, Thriller

Type and Source: eBook from NetGalley

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

First Published: August 4, 2020

Opening Lines: Jim was on patrol. Head up, eyes scanning, 

thumbs hooked into his belt.

Book Description from GoodReads: I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man.
Now I am the woman who is going to catch him...

You've just read the opening pages of The Nothing Man, the true crime memoir Eve Black has written about her obsessive search for the man who killed her family nearly two decades ago.

Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle is reading it too, and with each turn of the page his rage grows. Because Jim was - is - the Nothing Man.

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 ...