THE ECHO MAN (Major Crimes #1), by Sam Holland

I picked up this book because I recently saw a review for the second volume in this series and found it intriguing so I decided to start at the beginning. I then learned that The Echo Man is the author’s debut novel, and it does show in some instances, but overall I found it to be a compelling read: a look into the mind of a serial killer is always intriguing, if chillingly scary – and here the chill factor is played to the hilt, indeed…

DCI Cara Elliot and her colleague DS Noah Deakin are called to the scene of a horrific crime: the bodies of two young girls have been found in an abandoned car, their heads severed, and no apparent leads seem to point toward their killer.  Jess Ambrose is a very unhappy housewife who one night wakes up to a burning house and barely manages to escape with her young daughter, while her husband perishes in the conflagration: while in the hospital she overhears a conversation in which the investigating detective believes her to be responsible and decides to flee before being arrested.  Suspended police officer Nate Griffin (who is also Cara Elliot’s brother), battling with his own demons and a painkiller addiction, teams up with Jess as he believes in her innocence and the two of them understand that a serial killer might be responsible for both crimes.

This, in a nutshell, is the core of the story in The Echo Man, a terrifying thriller in which the police are baffled in their search for the culprit because he does not have his own modus operandi, but rather copies that of more infamous serial offenders of the past – hence the name “Echo Man” that tabloids pin on the perpetrator.  The macabre discoveries of the various crime scenes foils the investigative teams’ efforts because of their sheer unpredictability and also lays a pall of horror for the brutality of the killings.   This is certainly not a novel for the faint-hearted because while the author does not use her descriptions in a morbid fashion, she certainly does not pull her punches while conveying the killer’s methods or – in the chapters where we follow his POV – his twisted thoughts.    

The overall mood of this story is indeed dark and at times even disturbing, but the pacing moves relentlessly forward, proving it near to impossible to put the book down. This story does require, however, some suspension of disbelief because there are a few narrative choices that I found disconcerting, the major one being that it’s Jess-the-bored-housewife who manages to make the connection between the various murder scenes and points out the similarity to past equally shocking killings, and the reason she does before the police is because she is a fan of televised true crime.  Still remaining on Jess (yes, I freely admit to NOT liking her at all…) she manages to sneak in on a crime scene together with Griffin, and that while she is still a wanted fugitive – more than once I wondered about the reason for the presence of her character in the story, given that it would have worked just as well without her, if not better.  But that’s just me, of course.

Other characters fared much better for me, particularly that of Cara Elliot: I could sympathize with her difficulties in managing a demanding career in law enforcement with her role as a wife and a mother, and with the palpable tension in her home as she came to suspect that her husband might be having an affair with the children’s nanny.  I could also understand why she felt thorn between the requirements of the job and her affection – and worry – for her brother, whose instincts she was not sure she could trust given the sorry state he was in after a terrible personal tragedy. The characters’ personal demons are indeed what makes them interesting and relatable (at least most of them…) and there are a few heated personal exchanges that manage to ramp up the tension in an already quite tense situation.

The ending is the part of the novel that disappointed me a little: apart from having guessed the identity of the killer almost halfway through (while I instead enjoy being surprised), I found the resolution somewhat weak if confronted with the narrative buildup, and the inclusion of a second twist did not entirely convince me – given that this second twist leaves the road open for a sequel I will reserve my judgment until I read the second book in the series, but still I’m not sure it really worked for me.

Nonetheless, I did enjoy my journey through The Echo Man and I’m eager to see how this series moves forward with the second book.

My Rating: