Review: Spree by Michael Morley (5/5)

"A serial killer thriller for fans of James Patterson, Chris Carter, Richard Montanari and Karen Rose.

A madman is on the rampage in the Los Angeles streets.

The City of Angels has become The City of Fear.

And everyone from the Oval Office down wants a quick result.

The heat is on Jake Mottram, head of the FBI’s new Spree Killer Unit,
and psychological profiler Angie Holmes to find the madman responsible. 

Until now, they’ve been great together.

Both at work and in bed.

But a killer is about to come between them, in ways that could cost them far more than their careers. Will they survive the spree about to come?

SPREE:
Life and death in LA – like you’ve never seen it before."

 


I am a very happy reader right now. I have read some fantastic books over the past few weeks and the latest is this one, SPREE. When I read about this book on bookbridgr, I immediately requested it and crossed everything in the hope of being approved. Well, I was approved. This book was delivered today at lunchtime, and I have just finished reading it now, at 3.00am. The reason being something huge happened in the book around 300 pages in and I just had to keep reading until the end (who needs sleep when there are books like this to be read?!)

I was excited to read this book and went into it with high expectations. Those expectations were absolutely met. I read a recommendation that said this book would be suitable for fans of Chris Carter, now Chris Carter is one of the best in the business, his crime fiction books are in a league of their own but this book by Michael Morley is definitely worth the comparison.

Spree refers to a serial killer with a difference. Whereas serials can often go days, weeks, months or years between kills, a 'spree' killer is defined as 'someone who commits two or more homicides without a cooling off period between killings'. This book was first published as a five-part ebook serialisation and I have to say if I'd've read it like that it would have been both infuriating and amazing.

Our two main characters are Jake Mottram, the head of the FBI's Spree Killer Unit and his lover Angie Holmes. We learn that they both come from troubled pasts. Jake, an orphan and Angie, an abusive past. We learn early on that Angie is pregnant with Jake's child and both are conflicted as to how they feel about the pregnancy, and their doubts at whether they can be good parents given their history. I immediately liked both characters. Angie's recklessness and determination put me in mind of Cindy, the journalist from James Patterson's Women's Murder Club books.

Angie is on the hunt for a serial rapist who is targeting women over 65 who are attacked in or near their homes. She was definitely one of my favourite characters throughout the book, she was fearless and put her job on the line more than once in her attempts to prove her theories to her superiors. Chips was another great character who at first seemed to just be a bit of a comedy character but he really became an important character as the book progressed. Jake has not long finished capturing one spree killer before another one strikes, this time it's a shooter shooting at a group of 10 year old kids and their teachers. Following on from that a killer strikes at a mall opticians killing twelve people. The police think the cases are unrelated, Angie thinks otherwise. And the reader knows otherwise when we are then introduced to the spree killer.

We are introduced to the spree killer who for their chapters is just called 'Shooter'. The chapters in crime fiction books which focus on the killers are always my most favourite. It's fascinating to get inside their head, find out what makes them tick and it's a heart stopping moment reading the bits where they carry out their murders, especially in this book. I am a fan of crime fiction where the author doesn't hold back, the bigger the body count, the higher the blood quantity and the more brutal the murders the better as far as I'm concerned. A word of warning this book is definitely not for the faint hearted or squeamish. I also liked where Shooter 'lived' or devised his plans, it was a nice change from the norm.

The book is an incredibly fast paced read, my heart was in mouth for most of it. Short chapters keep you turning the pages so fast I nearly gave myself a paper cut. Also at 533 pages it's a really long book (almost as long as this review, sorry!) but it didn't feel like a long book and that's because the quality of the writing and the storytelling was just so good that it never felt like a chore to read it. In fact I could've read on for another hundred pages!

I am now going to add the author's other two books to my to buy list and hope to pick them up soon. I can't wait to read them, just wish I had unlimited funds!
 
This book is out now and you can buy it in paperback or on Kindle from Amazon

I received this book from bookbridgr, and it was my very first #bookpost. bookbridgr is a fantastic new initiative from Headline which allows bloggers to receive books to review, either in paperback or ebook format in exchange for their review. Bloggers can also host blog tours with the help of the website who will provide content from authors for their blog or give them access to authors and bloggers can interview them   to post on their blog. Also some of my favourite authors releasing books this year are published by Headline and so I'm crossing my fingers that some of those books appear on bookbridgr! You can find out more about bookbridgr here.