The Death Collectors [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Jack Kerley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2005

In 1972, on the day of his sentencing, renowned artist and serial killer Marsden Hexcamp is shot dead in the courtroom. Members of his Mansonesque band of followers are imprisoned or simply disappear. Fast-forward more than thirty years: A suspected prostitute is found murdered in a candlelit motel room, the first in a series of horrors suggesting Hexcamp's art remains alive. Following the trail, homicide detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus descend into the shocking world of the Death Collectors.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On the trail of a serial killer, Alabama detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus uncover a network of wealthy collectors who'll pay top dollar for celebrity slayer artifacts. There is some irony that Kerley calls attention to our nation's unhealthy fascination with murderers in the course of a serial killer novel. Reader Hill aids the author's intent by employing a smarmy, supercilious voice for a key broker of the murder memorabilia and other unpleasant vocal characteristics—arrogance, brutishness—for the collectors. He also provides authentic and distinguishing accents for a large cast of mainly deep South dwellers, including gruff African-American Nautilus and Ryder, who narrates the novel with an unwavering easy-going, slightly whimsical drawl. But Hill's most impressive achievement is in turning Ryder's brother Jeremy, an incarcerated homicidal madman who, as written, is essentially one more Hannibal Lecter clone, into an original, mood-swinging nightmare whose 180-degree shifts from croon to rant can add a chill to the hottest summer weather.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Marsden Hexcamp was murdered in a courtroom 30 years ago by one of his devoted acolytes. It wasn't considered a tragedy. Hexcamp, who would surely have been sentenced to death for a series of grisly murders, painted pictures depicting the crimes he committed, and these "works of art" have become extraordinarily valuable with underground collectors. Mobile, Alabama, police detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus infiltrate this macabre art world to find clues for a series of contemporary murders that suggest Marsden's handiwork, both in their details and because the killer is leaving behind small pieces of Marsden's art. Assisting Ryder and Nautilus in their investigation, as he did in The Hundredth Man, last year's well-received series debut, is Carson's brother, Jeremy, himself an institutionalized serial killer, who both provides his brother an entree into the world of serial-killer memorabilia and--a la Hannibal Lecter--offers insight into the mind of a killer. A genuinely creepy journey into madmen and their devoted followers. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 504 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (December 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786281626
• ISBN-13: 978-0786281626
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,494,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A potpourri of pathology., July 4, 2005

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Death Collectors (Hardcover)

In Jack Kerley's new novel, "The Death Collectors," Alabama Detectives Harry Nautilus and Carson Ryder are the recipients of the Mobile Police Department's "Officers of the Year" award. Nautilus and Ryder are the sole members of the MPD'S elite PSIT (Psychopathological and Sociopathological Investigative Team); they are considered to be experts on psychologically deranged serial killers. Ironically, this award is destined to bring these two men more grief than satisfaction.

Nautilus and Ryder get to use their special skills when the exhumed body of a murdered woman is found in a seedy motel room surrounded by candles and flowers. Other dead bodies soon follow, and pieces of bizarre artwork connect these cases to a serial killer named Marsden Hexcamp. Hexcamp, who himself was killed over thirty years ago, was a self-proclaimed artist with a Manson-like following. Why is a dead man's artwork showing up now and how is it related to these new killings?

Kerley's writing style is a mixture of black humor and hard-boiled detective-speak. The author vividly describes the beautiful Alabama coastal setting and he delineates his characters well. Besides the two leads, other notable personalities include DeeDee Danbury, a beautiful, cheeky, and aggressive television reporter, Jacob Willow, an elderly former Alabama detective who cracked the Hexcamp case in the early seventies, and Trey Forrier, a French artist who is incarcerated in the same mental institution as Jeremy, Carson's serial killer brother.

Carson and Harry interview a motley crew of individuals, some of whom are known as "death collectors," because of their penchant for collecting serial killer memorabilia. As they slowly gather clues, Carson and Harry realize that they will solve this case only when they unlock the secrets behind the life and death of Marsden Hexcamp.

"The Death Collectors" is an engrossing look at the fascination that some outwardly normal people have with violent death. Ryder and Nautilus are up against a ruthless and insidious enemy, and their pursuit of this perpetrator places them in mortal danger. Kerley has written a well-constructed, fast-moving, and intriguing police procedural with fascinating twists and turns and an exciting and suspenseful conclusion.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another winner for Kerley, June 25, 2005

By 

J. A. KONRATH "Thriller Author" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Death Collectors (Hardcover)

With his second novel, Kerley proves his thrilling debut THE HUNDREDTH MAN wasn't a fluke.

Alabama PSIT Detective Carson Ryder is back. He's a likeable hero; self-depricating, determined, and smart, with enough of a sense of humor to help take the edge off of the horrors he witnesses.

His insane, incarcerated brother Jeremy is again called upon to help Carson catch a killer, and their scenes together are among the best in the book. I've read reviews comparing the motif to Silence of the Lambs (the hero consulting the serial slayer), but in my opinion Jeremy is a much more believable and compelling psychopath than Hannibal Lecter. Creatures like Hannibal (the brilliant but insane psychiatrist) don't really exist. Creatures like Jeremy do exist, and there's a strange repulsion/attraction when reading about him.

Great suspense, solid characters, and a nail-biter finale, all revolving around a very unusual group of collectors. First rate all the way. I expect that Kerley will be around for a long, long time.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing follow-up to the THE HUNDREDTH MAN, June 24, 2005

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Death Collectors (Hardcover)

It would be inaccurate to say that THE DEATH COLLECTORS by Jack Kerley fulfills the promise of the talent that was so vividly demonstrated in his debut novel, THE HUNDREDTH MAN. That riveting work, told in a strong, confident narrative and peopled with quietly unforgettable characters, demonstrated a well of talent that obviously ran deep and strong. THE DEATH COLLECTORS reaffirms that demonstration, not only by magnifying the strengths of its predecessor but by ultimately surpassing them, mixing a memorable protagonist with a host of quirky and occasionally unsettling supporting characters in a work where the present and the past collide with terrifying results.

THE DEATH COLLECTORS marks the welcome return of Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus, the sum total of the Mobile, Alabama Police Department's Psychopathological and Sociopathological Investigative Team (PSIT). On the surface Ryder and Nautilus are a mismatch, yet their respective zigs and zags interlock them perfectly. Their PSIT work, alas, only involves one percent of their caseload. But when a woman is found brutally murdered at a by-the-hour hotel, the staged nature of the killing makes it a natural for their investigation.

The men soon discover that the murder, and others that follow, bear an eerie link to Marsden Hexcamp, a homicidal Pied Piper who led a sheeplike troop of followers on a homicidal rampage through the Gulf Coast over thirty years previously. Hexcamp has been dead for three decades, yet he almost seems to be directing the new murders from his grave. The trail leads Ryder and Nautilus to a missing attorney with an apparent link to the murders, as well as to a number of eerie individuals involved in the collecting of serial killing memorabilia.

Ryder and Nautilus reluctantly accept some assistance in their search from DeeDee Danbury, a local television reporter whose attraction to Ryder is not limited to professional matters. What Ryder, Nautilus and Danbury don't realize is that they are closer to the source of the murders than any of them can imagine --- and Ryder, particularly, is on the verge of being the final victim of a killer long deceased.

Kerley has a talent that is simply amazing; I can think of no other appropriate word for it. His work has the feel and sense of a bright, illuminating polish, one that will provide a reflection capable of scaring the heck out of you. Yet there is a folksiness about Ryder and Nautilus that makes them two of the more accessible characters operating in contemporary detective fiction. There is a laid-back quality to them, perhaps imbibed by their Gulf Coast backdrop, which makes them endearing while providing a subtle relief to the dark nature of the subject matter of their cases.

Kerley, and THE DEATH COLLECTORS, will give the reader grim but beautiful nightmares.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub