Review: The Killing Kind

This time around we find him investigating the supposed suicide of young Grace Peltier. He has been hired by Senator Jack Mercier, who thinks - as does her father - that there is far more behind Grace’s death than there first appears.

During the course of his investigations, a mass grave is uncovered in the chilly woods of Northern Maine. It is revealed to be the resting-place of the Aroostook Baptists, a religious community who disappeared mysteriously many years earlier. Parker soon comes to believe that the two events are all part of the same mystery…one connected to a shady organisation known as The Fellowship. For it emerges that just before Grace died, she stole something from The Fellowship…and it is an article that they are willing to kill for, and kill again, to get back.

Soon, "Bird" and his two sidekicks Angel and Louis will be pitted against one of the most chilling villains fiction has ever produced…The Fellowship’s enforcer…an arachnophile known as Mr Pudd. He will drag them down, further into the bowels of evil than they have ever been before, struggling to survive.

"The Killing Kind" is a phenomenal book. It is mercifully less overburdened with too many characters and too many plots than his enjoyable debut "Every Dead thing" was. Since then his books have just carried on improving, better with every single one (hitting an elegant crescendo with his next, "The White Road"). The prose is beautiful and incredibly evocative. There are certain passages which just stop you in your tracks, inspiring wonder and awe. The characters are a superb bunch…Charlie Parker is a great hero, very human. Louis and Angel provide some well-needed comic (albeit dark) relief.

The two villains, the chilly Reverend Faulkner, and the simply terrifying Mr Pudd are the most chilling evil duo I have ever read. They are, purely and simply, evil incarnate. They are memorable and haunting, especially the demonic Mr Pudd. The image of how Alison Black met her death (which occurs in the prologue) at the hand of hundreds of spiders turned my stomach, and will remain with me forever. They are truly the most frightening criminals ever written, I promise you.

The plot is very, very good…thrilling, yet not too complex. It’s a page-turning, exciting read, which blends subtle horror and dark crime incredibly well. A brilliant thriller, which I find hard to praise adequately. You simply have to read it. One warning Afraid of spiders, this book probably isn’t for you.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Fiona Walker

Book Review: The Killing Kind