Review: The Man Made of Smoke: A Novel by Alex North

The Man Made of Smoke: A Novel by Alex North
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided both an ARC and ALC of this book via Netgalley and Celadon books and Macmillan Audio respectively.  As always all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this thriller.  This follows a few different characters all with ties to a serial killer.  Dan's life was touched by the killer when he was a young boy, and while he wasn't a victim a brief run in with the man and one of his victims has left deep scars.  Now as as an adult, Dan has devoted his career as a prison therapist to uncovering the motivations of criminals and why they do the things they do.  Dan's father John is a retired police officer, who has stumbled upon what appears to be a copy cat of the Pied Piper's crimes from all those years ago.  While he didn't interact with the man then, he is determined to find out how the crimes of today are connected and why they seem so familiar to that old case.  When he disappears in what looks like a suicide, Dan returns to his hometown to deal with the aftermath.  He uncovers clues his father left for him and begins retracing his father's steps in the investigation he was working on.  This forces Dan to revisit feelings from his childhood from that fateful day and evaluate his relationship with his father.

I really enjoyed this.  The multiple POVs and timelines really worked well to tell the story as this thriller unravels.  The author keeps you guessing with complex relationships and an atmospheric read.  The pacing starts out slow and ramps up as the book progresses, I found it hard to put down.  From Dan's point of view we retrace his dad's investigation and disappearance.  From John's point of view we investigate current day crimes but in each case we learn different information.  We learn more and more about the motivations of the killer as the story progresses, but not much is given away until the time is right.  

Overall I really enjoyed this thriller and feel like I want to read it again to see what I missed the first time through.  I mainly listened to the audiobook, and listened to it in about 24 hours.  I had to find out what happened and couldn't stop listening

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