The Jigsaw Man

A Novel

De: Nadine Matheson

Narrado por: Davine Henry

"A heart-pounding roller coaster ride."—Tami Hoag, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boy

*A Crime Reads Most Anticipated Book of 2021*

A serial killer and his copycat are locked in a violent game of cat and mouse. Can DI Anjelica Henley stop them before it’s too late?

On the day she returns to active duty with the Serial Crimes Unit, Detective Inspector Anjelica Henley is called to a crime scene. Dismembered body parts from two victims have been found by the river.

The modus operandi bears a striking resemblance to Peter Olivier, the notorious Jigsaw Killer, who has spent the past two years behind bars. When he learns that someone is co-opting his grisly signature—the arrangement of victims’ limbs in puzzle-piece shapes—he decides to take matters into his own hands.

As the body count rises, DI Anjelica Henley is faced with an unspeakable new threat. Can she apprehend the copycat killer before Olivier finds a way to get to him first? Or will she herself become the next victim?

Drawing on her experience as a criminal attorney, debut novelist Nadine Matheson delivers the page-turning crime novel of the year. Taut, vivid and addictively sinister, The Jigsaw Man will leave you breathless until the very last page.

Narrator drove me nuts

Each character sounded the same and so many inhales. Almost ruined the book for me. No one starts every sentence they speak with an emphasized inhale. Every single character did this.

Good central characters but slow plot

Love the narrator of this as well as the central main police characters. But the plot brought in too many "suspects" with little for me to care about in solving the mystery. Wanted to just skip to the end about 3/4 in. Will skip the 2nd book bc of it's subject matter (don't do cult ritualistic stuff) but hope to catch Henly (in the same voice as here) in future books.

Hard to focus on such a monotonous narration

I'm just getting into this book but I keep losing the plot because of the narrator's unenthusiastic droning.

This had so much potential

I really wanted to love this book. It's exactly what I usually like - thriller, mystery, drama. Unfortunately, it seems the author was rushed to finish the book, because the climax of the story had very little meat on the bones. It was not in the least bit plausible. The action scenes were very difficult to follow; I don't know if that's because of the narration or the writing. Also, the main characters just never developed well. In some books, you can actually "hear" the thought processes of the character. This isn't one of those books. Overall, I give it a solid meh.

Overly long with predictable plot.

Took forever to get through this book and the same ending as a thousand other crime novels, the bad guy gets away in the end so we can have sequel. Ugh!

Yes!

I want more of this series. Excellent procedural/ psychological thriller. Liked the characters and writing in general.

not bad

the premise of a serial killer seeking revenge on a police detective is typical. there were times when the story reminded me of Silence of the Lambs. Angelica's husband tries to make her choose between the job and their marriage, and actually takes their daughter and moves to his parents, yeah he's a duck. There were parts that could have been skipped just nonessential information. Then the ending left me hanging and we have to wait for book 2.

Grisly and graphic story..

Procedural police story about serial killers, well written and well read. Very graphic but eye opening about the depths of human behavior! Can definitely see this as a TV programme!

Slow Narrator and Clichés Ahead

It took two tries to listen to this book. I couldn't put my finger on what it was about the narrator at first, part was the lack of substantial difference in the characterizations but ultimately I realized it was her cadence. On my second attempt at listening I set the speed to 1.5 (1.25 would have been perfect but it wasn't an option) and found I could follow much better. As a story, it wasn't terrible but there were some frustrating clichés used, for example, one character "Let out a breath they didn't know they were holding". Seriously authors, STOP WRITING THIS. I found the killer(s) interesting, but ultimately didn't quite understand the motives of the initial killer - he seemed like a prop for the main storyline, which I'm very interested in hearing about, but it took too long to develop.

I was also a bit frustrated at the lack of care these detectives seem to take in their case. They go into danger alone, every time possible and in the end of the book, nearly the entire squad is injured in one way or another. It seemed very unrealistic and a bit exasperating. Ultimately, it wasn't a terrible read, and I'll visit this author's characters again if we can find a better narrator.

Very enjoyable

This was an enjoyable serial killer thriller. Fast paced and a hell of a debut. It had the perfect amount of gore, as well as suspense that kept me sucked in from start to finish. Although, I wasn't the biggest fan of the main character, I was intrigued to see what would happen next with her. Looking forward to the next one in this series.