The 22 Murders of Madison May
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4.3 • 45 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From the critically acclaimed author of Jennifer Government and Lexicon comes mind-bending speculative psychological suspense about a serial killer pursuing his victim across time and space, and the woman who is determined to stop him, even if it upends her own reality.
"I love you. In every world."
Young real estate agent Madison May is shocked when a client at an open house says these words to her. The man, a stranger, seems to know far too much about her, and professes his love--shortly before he murders her.
Felicity Staples hates reporting on murders. As a journalist for a midsize New York City paper, she knows she must take on the assignment to research Madison May's shocking murder, but the crime seems random and the suspect is in the wind. That is, until Felicity spots the killer on the subway, right before he vanishes.
Soon, Felicity senses her entire universe has shifted. No one remembers Madison May, or Felicity's encounter with the mysterious man. And her cat is missing. Felicity realizes that in her pursuit of Madison's killer, she followed him into a different dimension--one where everything about her existence is slightly altered. At first, she is determined to return to the reality she knows, but when Madison May--in this world, a struggling actress--is murdered again, Felicity decides she must find the killer--and learns that she is not the only one hunting him.
Traveling through different realities, Felicity uncovers the opportunity--and danger--of living more than one life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this middling SF thriller from Barry (Providence), Madison May, a 22-year-old New York City real estate agent, shows a prospective client, creepy college dropout Clayton Hors, a dilapidated house in Queens. Hors tells Madison, "I'm not from this world," before fatally stabbing her. New York Daily News reporter Felicity Staples, who's assigned the story of Madison's murder, notes a resemblance between an image at the crime scene and a logo on the hat of a man she saw outside the house for sale, later identifying that logo as belonging to a juice company. Before Felicity can learn more, she encounters the bystander on a subway platform, only to have him push her onto the tracks. Felicity survives, but she's somehow shifted to an alternate world slightly different from her own. After finding out that Madison was killed in this world as well, Felicity embarks on a desperate quest to return to her own reality and stop future murders of Madison in multiple parallel universes. The characterizations are uninspired, and Barry fails to make Felicity's response to her mind-bending situation psychologically plausible. Hopefully, this talented author will return to form next time.
Customer Reviews
Average
I read this book because it was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. If you have lots of time to read and go through a lot of books, it’s probably worth reading. Otherwise I would probably look for something else. The book starts off with some interesting ideas, but by the end you just really want it to wrap up.