BOOK REVIEW: The Echo Man

One of the perks that comes with doing this article for the Gazette is that people recommend new books to me all the time.

Richard Montanari lives in Great Britain, but is originally from Cleveland, Ohio where he met my niece.  My niece was kind enough to give Mr. Montanari my business card and he sent me his latest book.  Complicated, but it worked, and to my delight I can share THE ECHO MAN with you.

Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano have been partners as homicide detectives in Philadelphia for a long time, long enough to know each other well and to have seen some horrific crimes. Now they are investigating a series of crimes that seem to be connected to unsolved murders from the past.
The new crime scenes are duplicates of the old scenes only this time the bodies are mutilated and the killer has left an unusual calling card. It becomes obvious that the victims have been tortured by a person with a sadistic mind.

THE ECHO MAN builds with so many twists that it is not fair to tell much of the plot; I would not want to draw attention to a clue that the reader should find for himself. I can, though, tell you about the skill of the author.

It has become a trick of suspense novels to get us into the mind of the killer.  Never identifying the person, but giving the reader a glimpse of how the mad mind works. Montanari handles this with a flair that is almost poetic and still builds the suspense. I could feel the person falling deeper into madness as the story went along.

I really liked the detectives, Jessica and Kevin. They come to this book with a background that intrigues me and I want to read earlier books to find what made them the people that they are. I also want to see what becomes of them personally in the future.

My only complaint, and it is a small one, at times Montanari breaks the rhythm of the story to explain a term or word that would have been clear in context. But, as I said, that was a small matter. All in all I have found a new author who will fill in the space on my shelves right beside David Baldachi.