Publication Date: February 2018 from Pan Macmillan
Source: Proof copy
Jakey escaped with his life and moved to a new town.
His rescue was a miracle but his parents know that the Collector is still out there, watching, waiting…
Clara, the girl he left behind, is clinging to the hope that someone will come and save her.
Life has fallen apart for Clara’s mother as she starts to lose hope.
The Bone Collector has a new apprentice to take over his family’s legacy. But he can’t forget the boy who got away and the detective who had destroyed his dreams, Detective Etta Fitzroy.
I think a lot of people when asked would say that “The Silence of the Lambs” is the definitive serial killer thriller – its all about the atmosphere and the low key haunting scares and the quality writing – but boy I’m telling you that book has some competition now.
Last year at proof stage I was genuinely rattled by “Rattle”, this authors debut, and now she brings us the follow up and boy its a doozy and a half. And then another half. Ok it’s a double doozy. At the very least. Picking up where “Rattle” left off we go further down into the darkness with the Collector and his victims, with his nemesis Etta Fitzroy and this is a twisted darkness indeed, portrayed and embedded into your consciousness in a brilliantly written and utterly riveting piece of character driven plotting.
I’ve talked about a few writers who are pitch perfect and that is certainly the case here – not only does Fiona Cummins make you care about her characters, fear them and for them but she does it in such an immersive way that you just rattle (sorry) through it, caught up in the horror and the emotional trauma (and boy is this emotionally traumatic on so many levels) – you can’t look away and wouldn’t even if you could. It is gripping, totally gripping, does literally make you hold your breath at times and bloody hell that ending, that slow, scary, uncertain finale almost had me falling off my chair.
The beautifully woven relationships simmer throughout, we see the aftermath of Rattle in all its reality, the devastation and the hope, you can’t help but feel every moment of it whilst metaphorically glancing over your shoulder and waiting for the axe to fall. It is cleverly done to make no promises – happy endings are not always a thing, so you really cannot be sure of anything, in the fight between darkness and light the light often loses and until you turn that last page you can’t and won’t know. Maybe not even then….
Edgy, unpredictable, scary as all heck and so brilliantly spellbinding that you may come away with actual bruises from the tension, The Collector is one for thriller readers everywhere who are looking for those differences, those books that stand out not only for quality but for pure reading pleasure. Painful pleasure sure. But absolute reading joy.
Highly HIGHLY recommended (but read it in the daytime or you will be sleeping with the lights on)
Happy Reading!
