With the fabulous cover for Cruel by Jacob Stone and the author recommendations, there is no way I could let this one get by me.
MY REVIEW
I love a prologue that hooks me. Like the title, this one only hinted at the ugliness to come.
The Nightmare Man makes a grisly appearance.
Lori was at the shelter, looking for a big dog. A voice kept whispering in her head, warning her that evil was coming for her. She feels it and she is terrified. I didn’t see what was coming. I love when I am fooled early on. Just goes to show, it doesn’t matter how many books I read, I don’t know it all.
Morris had quit the LAPD when a serial killer almost claimed him as a victim. He formed an investigative agency and took some of his fellow officers with him…along with a handful of cold case files that he couldn’t let go. Morris has an instinct and a knack for catching serial killers. He is often hired by the city to lead the investigation, and they come to him now.
Morris’s wife, Natalie, is a trained therapist, so it’s hard to keep anything from her.
I love Parker, his dog. He is a bull terrier, not the most handsome guy around. You know, one of those so ugly he’s cute guys. Morris takes him everywhere he goes. He is a bit rude, a little overweight, but loyal.
My first meeting with Nightmare Man caused chills to run up and down my spine. I am given just a glimpse of the gruesome and deadly evil that has descended on the town.
October 2 is rapidly approaching. It had been seventeen years since the last killings that took place over seventeen days. There are more grisly ways the Nightmare Man uses seventeen, but I can’t tell you everything, because even I don’t know what they all are…yet.
Morris’ investigation leads him to the mob and the mystery becomes even more dangerous and complicated. Morris has no choice, a deal is struck.
Oh man…I am bummed. I’m at 30% and I sure didn’t see that coming. Now I know the worst. It is sickening, brutal, savage. What a frickin’ awful surprise! Jacob Stone doesn’t mind killing off his characters and I had grown fond of that one. Oooo, it gets even more depressing. But, it’s about a serial killer. It’s supposed to be terrible.
It’s getting awfully intense and action packed. I keep waiting for the next hirrible thing to happen. I am only halfway through and I can only imagine the horrors I’m going to endure to get to the villain. And that is too kind of a word for the evil and insidious menace hanging on every word, every page, every chapter.
The second half of the book flashes back to the previous appearances of the Nightmare Man, back to 1984. 2001. I had wondered how the search could go on that long, but we go back and find out why they never caught him the first time around. Or the second. They will catch him now…but questions still remain.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Cruel by Jacob Stone.
4 Stars
poignant, human side of his characters in a single tale.”
excitement, and the uncontrollable compulsion to keep on
reading.”
author of True Fiction
L.A. detective Morris Brick knows the number all too well. It was the
gruesome signature the Nightmare Man left next to his victims’
bodies. Brick’s father was the first to investigate the killings.
Five women were butchered before the perpetrator vanished. Seventeen
years later he resurfaced—to kill again in the same depraved ways.
Now another seventeen years have passed. Brick knows in his gut that
it’s time for the Nightmare Man to reawaken. But even Brick can’t
imagine the madman’s true agenda. Or just how terrifying the
sleepless nights are going to get in the City of Angels . . .
Dave’s crime and horror novels have been picked by NPR, the
Washington Post, American Library Association, Booklist, and WBUR as
best novels of the year, and his short mystery fiction has won a
Shamus, Derringer and two Ellery Queen Readers Choice awards.
picture starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Molly Parker, Gary Cole,
Robert Forster, and Jacki Weaver, and will be premiering April 28th
on Netflix. Several of his other books are currently in film
development.
MALICIOUS, TWISTED.
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Parker sounds wonderful. A dog in a book always makes the story better!
I totally agree! Parker plays his part well.
You know me. A dog sells the book. LOL This sounds like one I’d enjoy too! Great review, Sherry.
I know. A dog is so hard to resist. Thanks Laura.
Wow this sounds chilling. The cover sent a shiver down my spine.