The Man Made of Smoke
The most terrifying novel of the year, from the author of The Whisper Man
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
YOU SAW IT. YOU WERE TOO SCARED TO ACT. BUT NOW IT’S COMING FOR YOU…
From the mind behind the international bestseller The Whisper Man comes a new nightmare
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You never forget the day you meet a serial killer.
Dan was just a teenager when he saw the man made of smoke, silent, watchful, vanishing into the mist. He was too scared to move, too scared to stop him. He’s carried the guilt ever since.
Now a criminal psychiatrist, Dan spends his life trying to understand the darkest minds.
But when his father disappears, he’s pulled back to the remote island he once called home, where something unsettling is waking.
A body has been found. The past is reaching through the fog. And the man made of smoke might never have left.
This time, Dan has to face what’s been waiting in the dark.
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Praise for The Man Made of Smoke
‘The Man Made of Smoke was in equal parts terrifying, creepy, thrilling and moving’ Marnie Riches
‘A haunting, atmospheric story…Truly a white-knuckle read from start to finish’ Tracy Sierra
‘Creepy and atmospheric from the first page, The Man Made Of Smoke is as well-written as it is tense’ Rachel Wolf
'Balancing his trademark hint of the supernatural with very real fears, this is a book full of regret and grief, but most of all heart' Sam Holland, author of The Echo Man
'I tore through this gritty tale of guilt, grief and the ghosts that haunt us. The twists are exceptionally well executed, the emotional through line compelling, and the mercurial baddie is genuinely unsettling' Josh Winning, author of Heads Will Roll
'Written with skill and intelligence, and told with empathy and nuance, this is a novel that’s not to be missed. I loved every word' Rebecca Thorne, author of The Grief House
'Creepy, compelling and so fiendishly tricky, I couldn’t put it down. Another surefire winner from the king of haunting!' Natalie Chandler, author of The Voices
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Clear your schedule and prepare to be hooked. Alex North, author of The Whisper Man, is back with another crime thriller packed with the compelling characters, eerie atmosphere and mounting suspense that have become his signatures. The Man Made of Smoke is a gripping story of evil, trauma, guilt and revenge, which feels gritty but never gruesome. Haunted by a childhood brush with a notorious serial killer dubbed the Pied Piper, criminal profiler Dan Garvie has spent his adult life striving to seek justice for victims. But when his father dies in suspicious circumstances, his past seems to be re-emerging. North shifts perspectives between father and son, and his exploration of the complex dynamics of their relationship adds emotional depth to the propulsive plot. A must-read for fans of the psychological crime drama Mindhunter.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
North's rollicking latest (after The Angel Maker) centers on a serial killer who targets children. When Daniel Garvie was 12, he narrowly escaped the notorious Pied Piper killer at a highway rest stop before encountering a boy who'd soon become one of the Piper's many victims. Decades later, Daniel has forged a career in criminal psychology and remains obsessed with the case. It also became an object of fascination for Daniel's policeman father, John, who spent much of his retirement trying to crack it. When Daniel learns that John has died by suicide, he returns to the unnamed island where he grew up to follow breadcrumbs his father left behind—both about his own suicide and about a new string of murders that suggest the Piper may have reemerged. As Daniel pieces together John's clues, he learns that all of the recent victims were present at the same rest stop where he fled the killer. North toggles smoothly between Daniel's present-day inquiry, John's sleuthing in the past, and the final days of a young boy named James. Fans of Thomas Harris will be creeped out by North's hair-raising antagonist and gripped by the plot's dual investigations. This is a winner.
