Hangman

by Jack Heath

Overview

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Brilliant!” —Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author

“Two well-chewed thumbs up.” —Gregg Hurwitz, New York Times bestselling author

An addictive debut thriller starring an FBI consultant with a peculiar taste for crime and punishment…

A boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a ransom call: pay or else. It’s only hours before the deadline, and the police have no leads. Enter Timothy Blake, an FBI consultant with a knack for solving impossible cases but whose expertise comes at a price. Every time he saves a life, he takes one, trying to satisfy an urge he fears he can only control for so long.

And this time Blake may have met his match. The kidnapper is more cunning and ruthless than any he’s faced before. And he’s been assigned a new partner within the Bureau: a woman linked to the past he’s so desperate to forget. Because he has a secret, one so dark he will do anything to keep it hidden.

For fans of Dexter and Hannibal, Hangman introduces a darkly mesmerizing character whose skill at finding criminals comes from a knowledge that can only be learned firsthand.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781488096358
Publisher:	Hanover Square Press
Publication date:	06/12/2018
Sold by:	HARLEQUIN
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	704,433
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

First published as a teenager, Jack Heath is the award-winning author of more than twenty fiction titles for young adult and middle-grade readers. He lives in Australia.

Editorial Reviews

04/09/2018
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. Agent: Daniel Kirschen, ICM. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Let's cut to the chase: Hangman is a great read! Jack Heath's boundless imagination and singular voice have produced a truly unique thriller. By turns, psychologically insightful, wonderfully disturbed and even darkly comedic, Hangman will keep you coursing through the pages at a lightning pace. Brilliant! (Probably best read with lights on and doors locked. I'm just saying.)" -Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author

"Jack Heath's Hangman is a perverse, twisted take on a crime novel-and I loved every page of it. What a rarity to find a thriller as dark as a Palahniuk and as compulsively readable as a Patterson. Two well-chewed thumbs up for Hangman." -Gregg Hurwitz, New York Times bestselling author

"Jack Heath's writing grabs you by the throat, gnaws on your bones, and washes it all down with a hefty dose of funny. Sick, twisted, violent, and oh so good. In Timothy Blake, Heath has created a one-of-a-kind character. I hope." -Emma Viskic, award-winning author of And Fire Came Down and Resurrection Bay

"In the age of the anti-hero, morally ambiguous characters compel readers to empathize with and root for them, despite their troubled natures and character flaws. Enter Timothy Blake ... a civilian consultant with the FBI, who, in exchange for aiding investigations, is permitted access to death row inmates to temporarily satisfy his voracious appetite for human flesh. Yes, the hero of Jack Heath's debut adult novel is a cannibal detective. Readers able to abide this grisly affliction will easily lose themselves in this dark, bone-rattling thriller. ... In Hangman, Blake and FBI agent Reese Thistle face a ruthless kidnapper who has abducted a 14-year-old boy ... Hangman is ghoulish fun, and fills the Dexter- and Hannibal-shaped holes in our lives." -Bookseller & Publisher

"A vivid and disturbing thriller. ... A grisly, efficiently written nail-biter packed with riddles and suspense, Hangman has bestseller written all over it." -The Age

"Prose so hard-boiled it will crack your teeth." -Gordon Reece, author of Mice

"The hero of Jack Heath's Hangman is certainly a monster, but strangely, ever so strangely, oddly likeable. ... This novel is all about tempo and character." -Weekend Australian

"An enjoyable, fast-paced read perfect for readers with strong stomachs." -Booklist

From the Publisher