The Book of Matthew: A Macabre Novel of Suspense [Paperback]

Thomas White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2009

Plagued by a series of frightening murders in San Francisco, Homicide Inspector Clemson Yao enlists the help of Angie Strachan, a realtor who tried—and failed—to become the city’s first female homicide inspector. Facing off against a ghoulish serial killer who whimsically refers to his grotesque murders as “messies,” Clem and Angie slowly unravel the murderer’s clues, but their quarry is always one step ahead of them, and even an FBI profiler can't help them pin down the twisted mind behind the crimes. Gripped by a macabre obsession for a decade, the killer has evolved into a grandmaster of slow, anguished death, roaming the globe to catalog the most despicable methods of execution and keeping his research in dozens of leather-bound notebooks. It's a desperate race against time, for his next victims are already picked out, and it seems that no one can stop him.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Winning lead characters and smooth prose more than offset the standard thriller plot, a cat-and-mouse duel between a San Francisco police inspector and a sadistic serial killer, in White's promising debut. Insp. Clemson Yao of the SFPD pursues a killer responsible for such gruesome murders as that of a 32-year-old Chevron gas station manager, whose body is found torn in half at the waist by a system of counter weights in the Salinas Valley. One cop observes that the MO resembles the way some criminals were executed in 18th-century India. Yao is aided in his quest by Angie Strackan, an ex-cop turned realtor, who stumbles on another instance of the killer's handiwork. The inspector comes to believe that the main suspect, who's identified fairly early on, is increasing the pace of his butchery because he's terminally ill. Yao and company have enough quirks and humanity to make the prospect of a series a welcome one. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Winning lead characters and smooth prose . . . [a] duel between a San Francisco police inspector and a sadistic serial killer. Enough quirks and humanity to make the prospect of a series welcome."  —Publishers Weekly

"An adrenaline-filled thriller, with fascinating characters, sharp dialogue and a roller coaster plot. Thomas White has nailed it with this book."  —Shelf Awareness

"Hannibal Lector's understudy meets Alex Cross's West Coast friends meets Caleb Carr at his best forensic sickness, all wrapped in a fresh new way . . . White's literary style is fresh, inventive, engrossing and truly macabre."  —Rocky Mountain News

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: McBooks Press; Original edition (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590131681
• ISBN-13: 978-1590131688
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,648,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up All Night!, September 14, 2008

By 

Amy E. Santos "High-Maintenance" (State of Perfection) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Matthew: A Macabre Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

I couldn't help but close the book and hide my eyes quite a few times during this book! Believe it or not, I read this book in one sitting. Thomas White does a fantastic job writing this fast-paced page turning novel.

Yao and Angie (realtor/agent), find a body at one of the homes and in the mind of this serial killer named Matthew, who researches some of the most brutal ways to kill and torture people, who calls his crimes "messies" will keep you guessing until the very end. Catching a brutal serial killer isn't easy.

Yao and Angie are frustrated because they are always just one step behind this mad man. They knew it wouldn't be easy, but this hard? The characters in this book are anything but flat and kept me up well into the night. The descriptions of the torture and killings are graphic and amazingly unique.

This book kept me up at night and that's just the way I like them. while not for the squeamish, I would highly recommend this book! From cover to cover, I loved everything about it.

White's writing talents are amazing! I definitely look forward to reading more from this author! This book will always have a place on my book shelf.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well done debut novel, creepy and satisfying!, September 3, 2008

By 

Novel Bookworm "Kelly" (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Matthew: A Macabre Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

People are dying in the creepiest weirdest way ever imagined in the new novel, The Book of Matthew: a macabre novel of suspense by Thomas White. It falls on San Francisco homicide inspector, Clemson Yao and his intrepid partner, a local Realtor, Angie Strachan to end this spree. Angie isn't your typical Realtor though. She once attempted to become the city's first woman homicide inspector, but was kicked off the force when she killed a suspect/perpetrator instead of arresting him. The serial killer being sought is one of the more compelling baddies found in modern novels. He cheerfully calls his victims, "messies", and spends untold hours researching methods for killing them. This grisly murderer has searched the globe for all the ways of brutal torture that can kill in the slowest way possible, and he selects his victim's deaths from this research.

Disturbing and warped, the book nonetheless is a pretty satisfying novel. I did find that the detailed hallucinatory descriptions of dreams and nightmare sequences got a bit old, and I could have done without most of them. But for originality in a genre filled with twisted bad guys, the author scores a slam-dunk. The dynamic between Yao and Angie was great, and was a solid set up for an entire series featuring them. This is a well-written debut novel and I look forward to seeing more from Thomas White.

5.0 out of 5 stars The prologue will give you nightmares., April 16, 2011

By 

LisaLynne (Kent, OH) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Book of Matthew: A Macabre Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

The prologue will give you nightmares. (Do you know what sort of sound human vertebrae make when they give way under pressure?) Other sections of the book made me want to cover my eyes and read through my fingers. The killer in Thomas White's The Book of Matthewwould give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money. This is not a book for readers with weak stomachs or those prone to nightmares. Not a lot of outright gore -- I've certainly read bloodier books -- but the sort of enlightened cruelty that makes you double-check the locks before turning in for the night. Not that locks would save you.

It seems strange to say that I enjoyed a book about torture and murder, but I did. I loved the twists and turns of the story. I love mysteries and detective fiction, but I hate it when the answers are too pat, too obvious. I enjoy the stops and starts, the dead ends, the leads that could go in any number of directions; those are the investigations that feel more real.

Read my full review at [...]