The Man Made of Smoke – Book Review

Quick Review:- This was fast paced and was actually quiet scary to read.

Rating:- 5/5

he latest gripping serial killer thriller from the New York Times bestselling author Alex North.

Dan Garvie’s life has been haunted by the crime he witnessed as a child—narrowly escaping an encounter with a notorious serial killer. He has dedicated his life since to becoming a criminal profiler, eager to seek justice for innocent victims. So when his father passes away under suspicious circumstances, Dan revisits his small island community, determined to uncover the truth about his death. Is it possible that the monster he remembers from his childhood nightmares has returned after all these years?

With his signature shock and suspense, Alex North brings us The Man Made of Smoke. In turn emotional, introspective, and utterly terrifying, this is a story of fathers and sons, shadows and secrets, and the fight we all face to escape the trauma of the past.

When Dan Garvie was a kid himself, he managed to escape from an infamous serial killer nicknamed as Pied Piper. However, for years, he was haunted by the image of the boy who was in the bathroom, who seemingly was murdered by the Pied Piper. Now Dan himself is a psychiatrist working with the criminals. He received a call that his father died under unknown circumstances, Dan returns back to the island. As Dan finds out that his father discovered a body of a burned woman in the woods, he realizes that the past has come back to haunt him once again.

This was fast paced and was actually kind of scary to read, particularly the first Prologue part. It felt as if you are watching a horror/thriller slasher movie. I was almost put on the edge of the seat, while reading this book, and the book was so well written that I was instantly absorbed into the story, refusing to put down the book. The story is told mainly in Dan’s POV but we also have Dan’s father’s POV and a boy named James who becomes a victim of Pied Piper in 1998. The way Dan was dealing with emotions and guilt that he experiences that he couldn’t rescue one of the victims he saw that day was too real. Throughout the entire story, I was intrigued and the ending was completely unexpected.

This book in my opinion was better than his Whisper Man which was also a serial killer theme book.

Overall this is worth a five star read.