Hangman
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4.2 • 60 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Meet Timothy Blake, codename Hangman. Blake is a genius, known for solving impossible cases. He's also a psychopath with a dark secret, and the FBI's last resort.
A 14-year-old boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a terrifying ransom call. It's only hours before the deadline, and the police have no leads.
Enter Timothy Blake, codename Hangman. Blake is a genius, known for solving impossible cases. He's also a dangerous criminal - the FBI's last resort.
But this time Blake might have met his match. The kidnapper is more cunning and ruthless than anyone he's faced before. And Blake has been assigned a new partner, a woman linked to the past he's so desperate to forget.
Timothy Blake has a secret, one so dark he will do anything to keep it hidden.
And he also has a price. Every time he saves a life, he takes one
Already sold into five territories, Hangman is a mesmerising dissection of the criminal mind and a bulletproof thriller.
'Jack Heath is set to be the next Matthew Reilly.' Tara Moss, internationally bestselling author of Assassin
'Learn this kid's name, read his books. He's someone now, going to be much more someone later.' Michael Grant, internationally bestselling author of Gone
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian YA author Heath (500 Minutes of Danger) makes his adult debut with a thriller marred by preposterous plot twists and excessive violence. Timothy Blake, who developed a perverse taste for human flesh during a period when he was homeless, reaches an unlikely agreement with Peter Luzhin, a cop who discovers his secret. When Luzhin becomes the director of the Houston Field Office for the FBI, he volunteers the extremely observant Blake to aid the bureau in its cases. When the cases lead to the death penalty, the FBI unrealistically rewards Blake with the bodies of the executed criminals. The story line goes in even more improbable directions after Blake partners with an attractive agent, Reese Thistle, who falls in love with the repellent Blake, on the missing-person case of 14-year-old Cameron Hall. Readers will find it difficult to stomach Blake's behavior such as convincing his roommate that the human meat in their freezer is bear meat and will be disappointed in the book's groanworthy conclusion. Heath's fans will hope for better next time.
Customer Reviews
Hard to swallow
Melburnian Mr Heath was Australia’s 4th highest selling fiction writer last year, which came as a surprise to me considering I had not heard of him before.
He has worked at various times as a fry cook, music teacher, TV salesman, call centre worker, street magician and bookseller, while churning out 20 novels across the crime, young adult, and sci-fi genres.
Hangman is the first of a series involving Timothy Blake, now early 30s, whose formative experience in foster homes in Texas was less than ideal to put it mildly.
High school dropout living a hand to mouth existence he may be, but he has a gift for solving cases of child abduction, which is why he is retained as a civilian contractor by the local FBI.
He’s not on the payroll though. They pay him with the bodies of executed death row prisoners, which he eats after an exchange of falsified paperwork!
In other words, he’s your basic trailer park Hannibal Lechter, who also seems to possess the physical strength and endurance of a Navy SEAL.
His black female FBI minder is more Dora the Explorer than Clarice Starling, although I wouldn't say so to her face.
Mr Heath's prose is slick, his pace cracking.
I’m as willing as the next man (or woman, or rather not say) to suspend belief in the interests of a good yarn, but... seriously?
I do not believe the world of genre fiction needs another cannibal savant.