No one can hear you scream (The Skin Gods - Richard Montanari)

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	The Skin Gods - Richard Montanari
Date:	05/07/09 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A thrilling, gripping, enjoyable read

Disadvantages: Ending a bit rushed

In the heat of Philadelphia, a violent murder has taken place. A beautiful young woman is violently slashed to death in a motel bathroom. But this is no straight-forward murder. It comes to the attention of the Philadelphia Police Department by way of a rented movie. Hitchcock's horror movie Psycho has a slight differentiation - in the scene where the actress Janet Leigh should have been stabbed, there is now a scene of a real and violent murder. The killer has recreated the famous Hollywood murder scene and has inserted it into the movie, putting it back onto the rental store's shelves for an unsuspecting public to find.

Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano are assigned to the case, both with troubled pasts of their own. But with no leads or clues as to who committed the crime, their investigation seems to be going nowhere. But when another video tape is found, again with a real and violent murder scene inserted in place of the acted murder, Byrne and Balzano realise they have more on their hands than they originally thought.

~ My opinion ~
I love a good crime and murder book and, even though I'd never heard of Richard Montanari before, the sound of this story really appealed to me.

At first, it took me a little while to get into the book because the first murder is a little while in, but as soon as the first murder was revealed I was instantly hooked and couldn't put it down. Montanari's writing style is brilliant and he told the story in the third person which meant that each chapter was based on a different character and we could see into different characters' lives. The detectives, Byrne and Balzano, both have issues of their own to deal with at the same time as working on a serial killer case which adds a bit more reality to the book as we get a deeper insight into their characters which makes us feel more positive towards them.

But the best part about his writing was that some of the chapters were about characters in the book but we weren't too sure who was being described which really makes you think. There were also a few chapters written from the murderer's point of view although you don't know who the murderer actually is.

The only real negatives I have about the book is that Kevin Byrne seemed to be able to see things in his mind when he touched something that belonged to that person. There's nothing wrong with this but I don't think it wasn't explained properly and I couldn't tell if Byrne was just imagining the thoughts or if he actually had some kind of special power. It did also get a little confusing towards the end when everything was coming to a head and I found myself thinking how did that happen, and what's so and so got to do with it. It was all explained though slightly further on but I do think the ending was very brief and rushed a little bit and I'd have liked more explanation into the reason behind the crimes.

Overall though, I really enjoyed the book and I haven't been able to get into a good crime story in a while so it must have been good. I'm definitely going to look out for more of Montanari's books as this was a great one.

Summary: A thoroughly enjoyable read from Richard Montanari