Customer Reviews

Stop Me

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm sure you've seen them. The emails that flood your inbox that say forward this to 10 people or something bad will happen to you. Well when Leo Sharpe gets an email from a man calling himself The Vacation Killer he deletes it just like most people do. What Leo doesn't know is that this email is real. The killer has kidnapped a woman and if the email doesn't get forwarded back to him within 10 days the woman will be murdered and evidence proving the death is sent to the police.

But when Leo's wife disappears and the police receive an email from The Vacation Killer, Leo fears the worst. When 10 days pass and the police don't receive further evidence from the killer that Laura is dead, hope flares in him.
Leo's life spirals out of control and he spends months searching for Laura. He even goes so far as to befriend a man who confessed to Laura's murder even though he's never left his home state of Louisiana. Will Leo ever learn the truth behind Laura's disappearance or will he become The Vacation Killer's next victim?

Stop Me had me feeling like one big ball of nerves. The anticipation of who the real killer was and what would happen to Leo was mesmerizing and I just couldn't stop reading. The beginning of the book is a bit scattered but everything tightens up after the first third of the book and things really heat up with the last third. I highly recommend this one for anyone who loves thrillers.

Early on I was hoping for Simon Templar, or James Bond, or Dirty Harry to enter the scene, solve the crime, and bash the scull of the perpetrator. But Richard Jay Parker's STOP ME focuses on an "everyday" man who finds himself in the most awful situation of what must be the abduction of his wife by a known serial killer who to this point has shown merciless murderous intent on each of his victims. And even when it appears obvious to everyone else that Leo's wife Laura must have been murdered by this homicidal subhuman psychopath, one thing gives Leo hope: in the case of Laura, the psychopath, unlike in all of the other cases, failed to send the police her severed jawbone as a token of the completion of one more murderous bloody undertaking. The story then becomes Leo's relentless pursuit of the truth, a solving of the mystery of the Vacation Killer.

If you want to read tense crime drama combined with depiction of human travail, then you want to read STOP ME, a tightly constructed novel written by the hand of a professional! This book is worth every penny of its cost, and every minute of your time!

Stanley I. Brookoff (author of HYPERSPACE, the novel)Hyperspace

On Monday, November 12th, 2007, Leo Sharpe received an email.

Howdy doody.
On vacation in the uk
Slim, attractive brunette with capped teeth
Forward this email to ten friends
Each of those friends must forward it to ten friends
Maybe one of those friends of friends of friends will be one of my friends
If this email ends up in my inbox within a week I wont slit the bitchs throat
Can you afford not to send this on to ten friends?
Vk

Apparently messages like this had made the rounds of the US, Germany and now the UK. After being passed on by some and deleted by others, the results always seemed to be the same in that it apparently never makes its round back to the original sender. And to prove that he is as good as his word, a portion of each victim's jaw is sent to the police.

Leo received his message through his office computer. He was getting ready to meet his wife Laura to do some Christmas shopping so instead of forwarding it on to 10 friends he called the company's IT. They handled it by simply deleting the message.

Leo met Laura at their special place, Chevalier's Bar. Shortly after arriving, Laura told Leo she needed to go to the ladies room. She left and that was the last Leo saw of his wife. Then came his own email informing him that the Vacation Killer had Laura and would slit her throat unless he received his email back in his own inbox within a week. A week went by and unlike the other VK victims, no jaw bone was sent to the police. Leo could only hope that the email had made it back to the killer's inbox giving him hope that she was still alive and could be found.

Leo's search for his wife takes him to the United States where he meets with two men who both claim to be the Vacation Killer. But that can't be possible since neither had been to the UK. And since Laura wasn't the only victim in the UK area, it has to be someone else.

Leo's chase had me turning the pages to see who and what would lead him to the next possibility. I had my own list of suspects and as each was marked off my list I found myself running out of killers. Finding out who the real Vacation Killer turned out to be was a total surprise for me. I think it will be for you too.

This book was recommended to me by the author and I am so glad he did! The only reason I din't give it 5 stars is that it did take a little bit to get moving, but once it did, boy it kept me riveted to the end! I was guessing all the way and didn't see the punchline coming! I highly recommend this book!

The premise is different. A serial killer who sends an email to family of the victim, suggesting they forward it like a chain letter to 10 receipients. If the chain email finds it's way back to the killer, he will spare the victim. Eleven women have died. When Leo Sharpe's wife is abducted from under his nose and he receives the Vacation Killer's email, he gets frantic. He turns into an obsessive compulsive as weeks and months go by and his wife's body never turns up. Is she still alive? Was she spared, perhaps because the chain email got back to the serial killer?This book kept me guessing right up to the end. I was totally baffled. It went in several directions I never expected. Just when you think you can predict where this will go, Richard Jay Parker puts a different spin on events. As Leo Sharpe continues to try and find answers, he encounters several unsavory characters who claim to help, but are after their own personal gain. The ability of the Internet to link all sorts of individuals with strange tastes and preferences is explored, as well as spot- lighting those who profit from catering to the same. At times I was disgusted but never bored while paging through this book. The ending provides a satisfactory closure. You must read it or I will email you. Highly recommended.

Stop Me draws you in from the first page. Before you even start thinking about the personalities of the main characters you are deeply embedded in their story. Good reading for anyone who is a fan of fast-paced thrillers and good old fashioned whodunits

This book draws you into the story from the very beginning. Everyone can identify with those e-mails that say please forward to 10 people, much like chain letters, only these were chilling! Really a story about a man whose wife disappears out of nowhere and he fears she's been killed by a serial killer, the very killer whose sending those terrifying e-mails. This will leave you guessing throughout, interesting, Loved the unique character traits and obssessive behavior of the lead Leo, who wonders what happened to his wife, she remains in his thoughts constantly and you can almost feel his agony! Highly reccommend this thriller! Looking forward to Richard's next novel!

OK, I admit I downloaded this book because others on twitter talked it up. And they were right.

But I feel I have to warn you: if you read at nite in bed with a kindle, like I do, be prepared to suddenly look at your alarm clock and say "dang, I'm getting no sleep tonight".

What you should know about this book is the main character is likeable, even if you mentally scream at him "NO! DON'T DO THAT!" quite a bit. But not in the cheap horror drive in movie sort of way where the actor is monumentally stupid and walks down to the basement because he's an idiot.

What Parker does is present a plausible undercurrent of compulsion that adds to, rather than detracts from the three dimensionality of the main character.

I'm not going to give anything away, but there are a lot of twists that make this a hard to put down read.

This was a book that I could not put down.
You feel connected to the main character, his anguish, he is such a nice guy.
He can't give up and move on without a definitive answer.
The author really speaks to you. Love it.

How many times have we received similar emails? They irritate us so we mostly ignore them or immediately delete them! In this case, this one is true! When Leo Sharpe's wife goes missing from right under his nose, the questions and hunt begin to find Laura. Who took her? Where is she now? Is she alive, is she dead? Who can you believe and/or who can you trust? Not only is Leo desperate to find out where Laura is, some unsuspecting truths about those closest to him are revealed.

STOP ME had me feeling anxious throughout the book, as it should, because just when you think Leo is getting closer, another door seems to get slammed in his face. For those who love thrillers and suspense, then this one's for you! As with many readers, I too had my list of suspects and missed with every single one! Needless to say - it was mind boggling! You never really know what surprises life is going to throw your way! An awesome read and debut! Wonder what's in store for his next book.