One of my guilty pleasures is watching true crime shows on television. Forensics Files is my favorite, closely followed by Dateline: Secrets Uncovered. I have seen so many true crime shows, my family is convinced someday I might just pull off the perfect crime.s I might go crazy one day and actually commit the perfect crime. Trust me, this will never happen. I am interested in the manner in which the cases are solved, putting the puzzle together and following the science. Watching Benedict Cumberbach as Sherlock Holmes was wonderful because he walked you through the crime step by step. When I was a kid, I enjoyed watching Unsolved Mysteries (which has recently been remade and can be seen on Netflix), but I didn't like the "unsolved" part. Like Phil Collins sings in the Disney Tarzan movie, "I wanna know, can you show me." Don't leave me hanging!
I loved reading and listening to The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard. It was fascinating to me how two books were intertwined in this true crime thriller (all fiction says the disclaimer at the end of the book).
The book opens with a department store security guard discovering a book titled, The Nothing Man, in a large display of out facing books. He immediately begins to panic upon reading the title. From here the readers is then moved to the book within the book. Eve Black, the author, is the sole survivor of a home invasion by the man later dubbed the Nothing Man. Her father, mother, and younger sister were all murdered outside Cork (City), Ireland, by a man who was never captured. Now, eighteen years later, Eve's story is released in her book The Nothing Man.
The voices move back and forth between the narrative of Jim, the security guard, and Eve. Listening to the audiobook, the move was easily recognizable because of the wonderful narration performed by Alana Kerr-Collins and John Keating. Their accents allowed the listener to feel they were in Ireland.
If you look closely at the book's cover, you can see how one book is transformed into two with the cover torn. Eve's name has been removed to reveal Howard's name at the bottom. You can also see the notes and tabs. This is an ingenious way of giving a snippet of what is inside.
I would highly recommend The Nothing Man which was published by Blackstone Publishing in June 2020.
*To comply with guidelines set forth by the Federal Trade Commission, Blackstone Publishing provided complimentary digital copies of the eBook and audiobook for review purposes. This review is my opinion and is in no way influenced by the author or publisher.
