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Mania
by
Craig Larsen
On the foggy streets of Seattle, a serial killer known as the Street Butcher is terrorising the city. Newspaper photographer Nick Wilder is accustomed to seeing gruesome homicide scenes. But when the Street Butcher claims Nick's brother his latest casualty, the case suddenly becomes very personal. Determined to find his brother's killer, Nick stumbles into a dizzying labyr...more
Paperback, 376 pages
Published
November 1st 2009
by Pinnacle
(first published October 30th 2009)
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Note: I won this book free through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway, which in no way influenced my rating or review. This review can also be found here: http://bit.ly/XkFB8i
This book was like a grade-A steak sandwich on moldy bread. I hated the beginning and end, loved the middle. It started off very slowly, which is an odd thing to say for a story that begins with a murder. Larsen's descriptions of scenery seem like filler rather than setting any mood, and slow the pace down. But with the int...more
This book was like a grade-A steak sandwich on moldy bread. I hated the beginning and end, loved the middle. It started off very slowly, which is an odd thing to say for a story that begins with a murder. Larsen's descriptions of scenery seem like filler rather than setting any mood, and slow the pace down. But with the int...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
2 likes · like · see review
Rating: a revolted 3* of five
I don't think thrillers are all created equal. I think this book is a thriller because there isn't a sales category called "Noir" although, given the rate at which this kind of novel is being published, there soon will be.
I wasn't thrilled by the gory, bloody, lovingly depicted death and torture in the book. I wasn't thrilled by the editor's decision to leave a dizzying number of time-shifts in place. I wasn't thrilled by the sheer vileness of so many of the characte...more
I don't think thrillers are all created equal. I think this book is a thriller because there isn't a sales category called "Noir" although, given the rate at which this kind of novel is being published, there soon will be.
I wasn't thrilled by the gory, bloody, lovingly depicted death and torture in the book. I wasn't thrilled by the editor's decision to leave a dizzying number of time-shifts in place. I wasn't thrilled by the sheer vileness of so many of the characte...more
4 likes · like · see review
I was lucky enough to win this book because otherwise I would have steered well clear of it for the simple reason that I don't like 'thrillers'. I tend to avoid these books because the majority of them are simply a series of predicable, violent episodes strung together by a chase. While this book is referred to as a thriller, it is more a mystery with strong psychological elements.
I enjoyed this book so much that it practically read itself - I finished it in three days and was left feeling sati...more
I enjoyed this book so much that it practically read itself - I finished it in three days and was left feeling sati...more
Suspect everyone!
When I first started reading this book, the switching back and forth from present to past threw me off a bit, as I found it wasn't too clear about what time the author was describing. That being said, the more I got into the book, the more everything started to make more sense and the more the flashbacks worked. There was even one point in the book where I thought the protagonist had dreamed it all and none of it really happened (I don't know if this would have been an awesome,...more
When I first started reading this book, the switching back and forth from present to past threw me off a bit, as I found it wasn't too clear about what time the author was describing. That being said, the more I got into the book, the more everything started to make more sense and the more the flashbacks worked. There was even one point in the book where I thought the protagonist had dreamed it all and none of it really happened (I don't know if this would have been an awesome,...more
On the rainy streets of Seattle, Nick Wilder is leaving a bar with his brother one moment, waking up and finding his brother dead the next. Nick is a photojournalist for a newspaper and with the snap of a finger, things start getting stranger and stranger for him. He starts blacking out and people start dying. Is he the one doing the killing? Why is he always around when the victims are found? And why are so many homeless men involved in murders?
This is one of those books that I can only read ev...more
This is one of those books that I can only read ev...more
Rarely if ever have I read a book that is disturbing and enthralling in equal measures.
From the opening, disorientating chapters in which the reader is introduced breathlessly into the present, hurled to the past and dragged kicking back into the here and now, there is a masterfully crafted sense of paranoia and delusion, the purpose of which only becomes apparant towards the end.
The main protaganist is Nick Wilder, a down on his luck freelance photographer, whos job is to be first on the murder...more
From the opening, disorientating chapters in which the reader is introduced breathlessly into the present, hurled to the past and dragged kicking back into the here and now, there is a masterfully crafted sense of paranoia and delusion, the purpose of which only becomes apparant towards the end.
The main protaganist is Nick Wilder, a down on his luck freelance photographer, whos job is to be first on the murder...more
Nick Wilde, photographer for the “Seattle Telegraph”, lives in a tiny studio apartment, just making ends meet. One night when he is out with his brother Sam, the two are attacked after leaving a bar. Sam is brutally murdered and Nick manages to survive a beating. Everything from that night is a blur to Nick, and as time passes, he wonders if he is going crazy. A month before the attack, Nick met a beautiful woman named Sara Garland in a coffee shop and the two became lovers. Sara confessed to Ni...more
I won this book through a first reads giveaway, so thank you to Craig Larson for sending me a copy.
Centering on the events surrounding the death of protagonist Nick Wilder's brother, this novel immediately drew me into the confusing and claustrophobic mental world that Nick inhabits. Almost from the very first sentence I could feel the cloying anxiety that seemed to effect Nick.
Frequent flashbacks throughout the novel also add to the atmosphere. Each time there is a flashback, a new piece of inf...more
Centering on the events surrounding the death of protagonist Nick Wilder's brother, this novel immediately drew me into the confusing and claustrophobic mental world that Nick inhabits. Almost from the very first sentence I could feel the cloying anxiety that seemed to effect Nick.
Frequent flashbacks throughout the novel also add to the atmosphere. Each time there is a flashback, a new piece of inf...more
This book was a really good first effort by the author. The beginning and the end of the story were disappointing but the middle kept me hooked and reading late into the night.
I found his use of the flashback to be somewhat distracting, but effective. Unfortunately, it takes a long time care much about the main character. He is difficult to like from the start since he seems to be such a shallow and self absorbed person. Once you get into those flashback, you begin to see him in a little differe...more
I found his use of the flashback to be somewhat distracting, but effective. Unfortunately, it takes a long time care much about the main character. He is difficult to like from the start since he seems to be such a shallow and self absorbed person. Once you get into those flashback, you begin to see him in a little differe...more
Wow. Without meaning to sound totally cliche, this book is really quite unpredictable. I thought it was going to be some typical psychological thriller, where the main character suffers from blackouts and kills people; or where the events are really figments in the mind of a hospitalized psychopath. It wasnt.
Once I'd realised that this book wasn't going in that typical psychological thriller direction, I really had no idea where it was going! There were a number of subplots going on, and I hone...more
Once I'd realised that this book wasn't going in that typical psychological thriller direction, I really had no idea where it was going! There were a number of subplots going on, and I hone...more
Feb 19, 2010
♦Jennifer♦
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
mystery/thriller/suspence readers
Shelves:
read-in-2010,
first-reads
I won on first reads
Mania is a suspense/thriller that I feel definitely fit the bill. It had an ending that I didn't see coming, and that is a plus. Seriously, when the ending was reveled my mouth dropped. Your led to believe that someone else is behind everything, and then BAMB turns out that someone completely unexpected was pulling the strings all along.
Right off the bat ,in the first couple pages, you are brought into the murder of Nick's brother Sam. Nick and Sam are walking from a jazz clu...more
Mania is a suspense/thriller that I feel definitely fit the bill. It had an ending that I didn't see coming, and that is a plus. Seriously, when the ending was reveled my mouth dropped. Your led to believe that someone else is behind everything, and then BAMB turns out that someone completely unexpected was pulling the strings all along.
Right off the bat ,in the first couple pages, you are brought into the murder of Nick's brother Sam. Nick and Sam are walking from a jazz clu...more
Wow, I was enthralled when I read this novel. It has been over a year since I have been able to pull a random novel off the shelf and not be able to put it down before it would bore me. This one was thrilling and suspenseful from beginning to end. The fact that it took place in Seattle interested me since this is where I reside, and many of the locations I am very familiar with. But the characters were believable, and there were many exciting twists. In the end it was a little predictable, and s...more
Mar 06, 2010
Gina
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
suspense/mystery/thriller readers.
Recommended to Gina by:
The author himself
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I received this book from a goodreads giveaway. I entered mostly on the strength of a Harlan Coben blurb and the plot synopsis.
Overall I enjoyed the book, though it almost lost me at the beginning. The prose was a bit over-wrought as the author describes an attack that happens to the main character and his brother. This turns out to be a minor quibble as the author settles down into the meat of the story.
The story follows Nick Wilder, a photographer for a Seattle newspaper who ends up covering a...more
Overall I enjoyed the book, though it almost lost me at the beginning. The prose was a bit over-wrought as the author describes an attack that happens to the main character and his brother. This turns out to be a minor quibble as the author settles down into the meat of the story.
The story follows Nick Wilder, a photographer for a Seattle newspaper who ends up covering a...more
Won this on GR...can't wait to read it!
ETA - This is unlike the usual books I read, in that the deepest I usually go into the thriller category is James Peterson's Women's Murder Club books and Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series. And my affinity to those books is tied to the fact that I have gotten to know the characters over the course of the series and look forward to learning more about their lives. However, I entered to win this with the hope that I could pass it on to my husband, who is a...more
ETA - This is unlike the usual books I read, in that the deepest I usually go into the thriller category is James Peterson's Women's Murder Club books and Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series. And my affinity to those books is tied to the fact that I have gotten to know the characters over the course of the series and look forward to learning more about their lives. However, I entered to win this with the hope that I could pass it on to my husband, who is a...more
This was an interesting read although it was confusing in the way that it jumped from present to past and back again. It began with the murder of Sam Wilder and then jumped back a month earlier to begin the story. From there it jumped to after the murder, then to Sam and his brother's childhood, then to differing points within the month leading up to the murder. This alone would not have dropped the rating to 3 stars if the ending which explained the murder and his brother's related issues was m...more
My copy of "Mania" was part of the Goodreads giveaways, so I'd first like to give a *HUGE* thank you to the author, Craig Larsen, for sending this copy to me.
I've really agonized over how to rate this book. In the end I gave it only 2 stars - not because it was a bad book - but because I felt it was too predictable. That is to say that I felt like I knew who the bad guys - or most of them - were from the first page of their introduction, so when they turned out to be the bad guys I wasn't surpri...more
I've really agonized over how to rate this book. In the end I gave it only 2 stars - not because it was a bad book - but because I felt it was too predictable. That is to say that I felt like I knew who the bad guys - or most of them - were from the first page of their introduction, so when they turned out to be the bad guys I wasn't surpri...more
Mania is a good thriller with enough twists and turns to keep you interested, but a problem with the flow of the story. The first part of the book seems slow, jumping back and forth between time periods, dreams, and hallucinations, that lead to some confusion. Near the end the action picks up and the pieces of the puzzle that is the life of Seattle news photographer Nick Wilder began to fall into place as I suspected. Even a surprise at the end.
Mr. Larsen weaves and good story but sometimes all...more
Mr. Larsen weaves and good story but sometimes all...more
Jul 04, 2010
Leslie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
library-books,
library-ebooks
The successful brother of down-and-out photographer Nick Wilder is stabbed on the streets of Seattle while they are on the way home from a club, and Nick, who awoke dazed and partly amnesiac some distance from the scene, finds his story of a deranged homeless man looked at skeptically by the police. After all, his fingerprints are on the knife, and he has shown up suspiciously close on the heels of two similar murders. Searching for the truth, he finds other cases in different cities, all with a...more
Won this on Goodreads Giveaway! Unpredictable, page-turning thriller! While walking to the car after dinner out one evening, Nick Wilder and his brother Sam are attacked. Sam was stabbed to death and Nick was left badly wounded. Since Sam’s death, Nick suffers hallucinations, flashbacks, black outs and loss of time and can’t remember what happened that evening. More deaths follow and the killer is dubbed the “Street Butcher”. Nick thinks it may be possible that he may have killed them. He is dia...more
I received the book through the first reads program. Craig, thanks for the personal note. It's #2 on my pile and will get to it over the weekend. Based on the description I'm looking forward to it. More later.
I just finished the book and gave it three stars for a good effort that was not quite pulled off to my staisfaction. I found the plot fairly well thought out, the main characters nicely drawn but not necessarily interesting, the minor characters generally were drop-ins for filler and not pa...more
I just finished the book and gave it three stars for a good effort that was not quite pulled off to my staisfaction. I found the plot fairly well thought out, the main characters nicely drawn but not necessarily interesting, the minor characters generally were drop-ins for filler and not pa...more
Mania is an interesting read. Nick Wilder is a photographer for a newspaper he mostly photographs crime scene s. But when his brother Sam is murdered by the Street Butcher. Nick finds the case is getting to him in more ways than one. He,s not sleeping , he has disturbing dreams and flash backs to his child hood. Nick doesn,t know what is happening is he losing his mind. As the motives multiply and the suspects narrow , the cold stark Seattle winter gets even colder. the ending is a little confus...more
I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy reading books where the characters are journalists. I love reading how authors portray the passion that comes with the business of reporting.
Why? Because it’s what I do. It’s how I make my living and it’s what defines me as a writer. It’s in my blood and I can’t ever imagine doing anything else with my life.
That said, I now turn to “Mania.” This book puts the reader right into the crime scene so he or she can view it from a reporter’s eyes.
Granted, Nick Wil...more
Why? Because it’s what I do. It’s how I make my living and it’s what defines me as a writer. It’s in my blood and I can’t ever imagine doing anything else with my life.
That said, I now turn to “Mania.” This book puts the reader right into the crime scene so he or she can view it from a reporter’s eyes.
Granted, Nick Wil...more
Because I haven't ventured often into this genre, I was looking forward to reading an exciting but dark and disturbing tale. While the story lives up to "dark and disturbing," I found myself wanting more from the book. The story is well-crafted and the author uses many flashbacks and memories to make the reader feel a sense of disoriented mania, the excitement of a thriller is somewhat lacking. I kept thinking, "If only this were in first person..."
Having said that, I never struggled to finish t...more
Having said that, I never struggled to finish t...more
Disclosure: I received this book for free through the Goodreads First Reads Program.
Read in the context of this being Larsen's first published work, this is pretty good book. It's a little disjointed, perhaps a little over populated with characters (mostly noticible when they conveniently disappear, as in the case of the girlfriend who's forgotten for the sake of a whirlwind trip out of town by the protagonist), and it definitely takes too long to get to anything that resembles a clue, both for...more
Read in the context of this being Larsen's first published work, this is pretty good book. It's a little disjointed, perhaps a little over populated with characters (mostly noticible when they conveniently disappear, as in the case of the girlfriend who's forgotten for the sake of a whirlwind trip out of town by the protagonist), and it definitely takes too long to get to anything that resembles a clue, both for...more
This is a thriller/mystery by a new author and I am still trying to decide if I liked it or not and really, really wish the ratings would allow for ½ star as I would give it a 3.5. Nick, a newspaper photographer, witnesses an attack on his brother by a man who could be the Street Butcher and then everything goes black. When Nick comes to, he finds the police have arrived and his brother is being carried away. He then launches an investigation on the dark and seedy streets of Seattle to find who...more
I went back and forth with this one--the writing is a solid 4 rating (descriptive, engaging, emotional), but the story was probably a solid 3 (good, but a little predictable).
The book was honestly a little depressing. This was one of those stories where our protagonist Nick was not allowed to be happy. Ever. Sara brought some light into his life as the love interest, but the moments were swiftly smothered by the case surrounding his brother and the serial killer. The more Nick finds out about hi...more
The book was honestly a little depressing. This was one of those stories where our protagonist Nick was not allowed to be happy. Ever. Sara brought some light into his life as the love interest, but the moments were swiftly smothered by the case surrounding his brother and the serial killer. The more Nick finds out about hi...more
Mania is a thriller with twists and turns that will keep you reading and guessing right to the very end. The title is very apt as mania = “a mood disorder; an affective disorder in which the victim tends to respond excessively and sometimes violently” and this is what you get but the real question is who is the victim? Craig Larsen has produced a fast-paced thriller which will see you turning the pages faster than you can say Mania.
The main character Nick Wilder is a newspaper photographer who f...more
The main character Nick Wilder is a newspaper photographer who f...more
Mania by Craig Larsen is an exciting book, I'll definitely give it that. I'm not much of a mystery/thriller reader (I couldn't get through five pages of The DaVinci Code because the prose was so terrible) I've basically pigeon-holed myself into Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie books when I want a mystery, but Mania kept me reading, at the very least, to find out what the hell was going on.
Basically, protagonist Nick Wilder is a semi-freelance photographer for the Seattle Telegraph, his paren...more
Basically, protagonist Nick Wilder is a semi-freelance photographer for the Seattle Telegraph, his paren...more
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CRAIG LARSEN is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and Columbia Law School. A single father, he has lived in Northern California, New York, and in Europe. He is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. He wrote his senior thesis on Milton.
He was born in 1968.
Craig also states that Stephen King has influenced him by his characterization. In addition, Craig states that...more
More about Craig Larsen...
He was born in 1968.
Craig also states that Stephen King has influenced him by his characterization. In addition, Craig states that...more
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Feb 16, 2010 06:38am