The first I HUNT KILLERS Review is In!

Posted on: 01/31/12

I honestly wasn't expecting a review so soon (heck, the book isn't even due out until April!), but Booklist has chimed in with the first review of I Hunt Killers. (Please note that I've redacted a tiny portion. There's nothing negative in there -- it's just a teensy spoiler that I don't want to expose you to!)

The Artist, Green Jack, Gentle Killer, Hand-in-Glove, Satan’s Eye — all nicknames for Billy Dent, the killer who murdered 123 people before being incarcerated. For 17-year-old Jazz, the memories of his father’s butcherous routine may be four years old, but they’re all too fresh: his small-town community continues to treat him with suspicion at every turn. Then the murders begin again […] and the town sheriff has no choice but to bring in Jazz to help find the new killer. Lyga has fashioned the kind of gripping, gory psycho-thriller usually relegated to adult fiction, one that fears neither viscera nor deviant sexual behavior nor the darkest of human impulses. It is rare when a YA novel dares to dwell upon the moral ambivalence of its protagonist, but Jazz is just that — a hero who constantly yearns to succumb to his killer instincts. Before the teasing finale, Lyga gifts readers with a Hannibal Lecter­like prison showdown between Jazz and Billy. Safe bet that the sequel will offer more of these satisfying tête-à-têtes.

And given that I've already written the sequel, I can safely say, "Oh, you have no idea..."

Many thanks, Booklist!

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