#BookReview: THE NOTHING MAN by Catherine Ryan Howard @cathryanhoward @CorvusBooks

Publication: 6th August 2020 – Corvus

I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man.
Now I am the woman who is going to catch him…

You’ve just read the opening pages of The Nothing Man, the true crime memoir Eve Black has written about her obsessive search for the man who killed her family nearly two decades ago.

Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle is reading it too, and with each turn of the page his rage grows. Because Jim was – is – the Nothing Man.

The more Jim reads, the more he realises how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won’t give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first…

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

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WHAT A READ!!! I was completely captivated by The Nothing Man and I read it one sitting, barely raising my head from the book until I reached the satisfying ending.

Who is The Nothing Man? It’s the name given to a serial killer who, two decades ago, in Cork, entered homes, assaulted and killed its occupants. His latest victims where the Black family and, after killing the mother, the father, and the youngest daughter, he disappeared and he was never found. Eve Black is the only survivor of the attack and she’s written a book that investigates the crimes of the Nothing Man in the hope to find the killer once and for all.

We, the readers, know from the beginning who the Nothing Man is because, as we read extracts from Eve’s book, we also read Jim Doyle’s perspective as he reads the book himself. Who is Jim Doyle? Jim is a man in his sixties who works as a security guard in a supermarket. There is nothing exceptional about him, except that he is the Nothing Man and he’s escaped capture for the last twenty years. But what if the book that Eve’s written could reveal his identity? And why did he leave Eve alive twenty years ago? The Nothing Man is not simply a story of a serial killer, but it’s also the story of his victims. Through Eve’s narrative, we read the other victims’ stories and Eve’s story as well. Eve describes her pain, her fears, and being labelled as a survivor.

I was completely addicted to this story. It is very well-written, well-developed, and detailed. The plot is original, twisty, and chilling and I had goose-bumps, even though I was right into the middle of a heat wave. If there is a thriller to read this year, this is it. Don’t miss this remarkable unputdownable novel!

A huge thank you to Corvus and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the novel.