Mania is a thriller with twists and turns that will keep you reading and guessing right to the very end. The title is very apt as mania = “a mood disorder; an affective disorder in which the victim tends to respond excessively and sometimes violently” and this is what you get but the real question is who is the victim? Craig Larsen has produced a fast-paced thriller which will see you turning the pages faster than you can say Mania.
The main character Nick Wilder is a newspaper photographer who finds himself at crime scenes where the serial killer named the Street Butcher has left his handiwork. The pictures Nick takes are not for the faint hearted and they dance around in his mind, playing tricks and raising questions. Nick’s brother Sam is a victim of this monster and Nick sets about investigating the murder in hopes of finding out the true identity of the Street Butcher.
In the process of Nick’s investigations he uncovers things he perhaps wishes he could have left buried deep down in the darkness of the past. He finds himself having flashbacks….but are they flashbacks…..he just doesn’t know anymore. It seems Nick’s mind is going through quite a traumatic time but is it just caused by the grief he feels after his brother’s death? Nick persistently pursues his quest to find the answers, all the while being a prime suspect in his brother’s death as he was with Sam when he died. Will he find the answers he wants?
There is lots of jumping around in time throughout the book and coupled with Nick’s flashbacks it really made me feel I was on the journey with him, investigating Sam’s murder and I also wanted to uncover the truth. I liked the switching between past and present and really feel because of the way Mania was written it would make a great movie….a really great movie.
I must say a big thank you to Craig Larsen and Goodreads as I won this book in a first reads giveaway – so thank you, Craig, for allowing your book to be in the giveway and thank you, Goodreads, for making the giveaway competition happen!
To read the blurb for Mania please click here
