The Nothing Man

By: Catherine Ryan Howard

Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins, John Keating

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's Summary

At the age of 12, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life. 

Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man - the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family’s killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim’s not just interested in reading about the Nothing Man. He is the Nothing Man. 

Jim soon begins to realize how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won’t give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first....

©2020 Catherine Ryan Howard (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Critic Reviews

Amazon Best Book

Not sure

I only listened to the first 3 hours before giving up. So I don't know if I can give it a fair review. But I returned it and feel I should say why. I just had a hard time staying engaged. My mind kept wandering off. Then I would skip back, listen again and still be confused! I think it was the book within a book part that lost me. There were 2 viewpoints, Eve, the surviving victim and Jim, the killer. They were mostly in the present but would also remember the past. Then there was the telling of his other crimes in the past which just got muddled with the rest. It went on and on, explaining many of the other crime's details. In fact, I would say about 80% was short stories of other crimes he committed. I know you need some of it to understand the killer but it quickly became boring and disturbingly repetitive. We get it, raped and murdered. If it were a regular book I would have definitely skimmed over these parts and gotten to the good stuff, the characters of the actual story in the present. The whole game of catching the Killer! With that said, I think the problem lays with me! The reviews, here and on Goodreads, are some of the best I've ever seen. So don't listen to me!

Ugh

If you are into listening to rape and death scenes this is the book for you. Way too many descriptions and details. Had to stop listening with seven hours left.

My new favorite author, excellent narration!

I loved the unique perspective of this story... knowing the killer from the beginning and having access to all his thoughts. Catherine is brilliant at throwing surprises into her stories that you may not have seen coming. I have enjoyed all of her books so far. The narrators are also top notch and bring the story to life.

I really like Catherine Howard!

I discovered this author through the free books in audible plus & purchased 2 more.
The books are very well written & the narration makes them come to life. I have enjoyed her books very much!

Freaking awesome!

This book is dang near perfect! I absolutely love it. I love the story and how it was told. I wish i could write a book half this good! Now, I’m off to buy my mom a copy. :)

Interesting

This was a very enjoyable read. I haven't read a book like this before, where the main character is reading a book about himself. I liked how he would read and then offer his side of the same story.

Towards the end it got a little boring because it dragged on. But it was only for maybe two or three small chapters.

I would have liked to have him answer her questions, but the book had enough twists to not really matter that one piece was missing. The ending was nice, good for her.

Stick with it- it gets better

I recently discovered this author and this is the 3rd book of hers I’ve listened to and it isn’t as action packed as the others but is very good. I found it started slowly- literally as narration seemed slow and pedantic. I bumped the speed to 1.2 and it made a huge difference and the book became alive. A great plot and I look forward to her next book!

Boy Howdy...Best BookEver!

I have given up on fiction books. So awful. But I remembered Catherine’s book about her time at Disney World and I was there at the same time at Ft Wilderness in my camper. Enjoyed her book so much. (Hoping she will write more about WDW. ) so gave this a try. Oh my word...could not stop listening.

New favorite author

So glad she added books to Audible for free. I now happily spend my credits on her work! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ So far all great twist and books never lag. Love!

Great premise, bad execution

The premise is great and the Audible performances are very good, but the novel itself is not well executed. I've read and liked other books by the author, but this one has really long, boring, pointless parts. Why do we need to "read" all the front page information of the fictional true-crime book (including the ISBN number)? Or all the acknowledgments from the fictional author to fictional people? This is a book within a book, we don't need to go through text that we normally wouldn't read in a real volume! I didn't mind the chapters about Jim, the Nothing Man. I liked the plot and the ending was suspenseful (if a little predictable). But listening over an over the same parts from the fictional characters' memoirs is repetitive. Maybe it works better in print than audio or it could be that I don't like the true-crime genre, but this could have been a good book.