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 his brother's murder, the worse his life gets from all angles be it his boss, his brother (even posthumously), his doctors, his girlfriend, and his own mind. They all hate him.

Which can be good once in a while. Definitely made the ending far more satisfying--while it was predictable, I didn't care. By the last ten pages I was literally screaming at the book: (view spoiler)[Give Nick his break and gosh-darned happy ending already! (hide spoiler)]. So there was that.

Don't get me wrong though, the story is good. It's got some mystery to it, and while I figured out the who-done-its, I didn't get the how. It was nice to see the events that unravel & the pieces fall into place at the end. Nick was a likable protagonist, as much as he was beat up start to finish, and you did feel for him. So I enjoyed that bit.

My biggest issue would have to be the time jumps. The book was mostly linear, but every once in a while it did a drastic jump in the timeline that was jarring more cases than not. The distant flashbacks to his childhood weren't so bad, but the ones that were just before or just after the main timeline were frustrating. It was hard to figure out where you were, or caused a constant questioning of "Is this before or after this?" I understand what the author was trying to do (the book is called Mania for a reason), but I don't think the benefit outweighed the frustration. The only time the jumping really worked was the end of the book, where we were already familiar with most of the events and the jumping made more sense.

Aside from that, solid story, good writing & Nick's a good guy. So, final conclusion? Good read. Worth a shot if you enjoy a good bit of mind-tricks and manic mystery.