Single White Psychopath Seeks Same by Jeff StrandMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Review of SINGLE WHITE PSYCHOPATH SEEKING SAME by Jeff Strand
This is the second horror/mystery in the Andrew Mayhem series about the feckless, not-quite-brilliant, often-irresponsible wants-to-be-a-private-detective-but-he's-no-Lew-Archer protagonist. Husband, father of two, Andrew has one best friend and very few work experiences. He does, however, have one supreme talent: he's always in the wrong place at the wrong time, or at least when he's in coffeeshops. Who knew?
This novel is quite a bit gorier in tone than the first, although since the first dealt with snuff films-to-order, that's a stretch. Andrew and Roger meet up, to their eventual dismay, with a private investigator who is just about as feckless as Andrew, and through him, several rampant psychopaths, two of whom (a married couple) own an Alaskan estate at which they and their sadistic friends practice their favourite games: the slow road to death. Andrew is supposed to be a serial killer himself, but he is soon found out, and subjected to the designs of the five psychopaths-in-residence, as is Roger, whom they have added to their "prisoner" compound.
Difficult as it is to imagine, author Strand's trademark humour is here as always to leaven the horrendous nature of the storyline, and yes, we have character delineation as well. Seems somewhere in their abyss, even psychopaths can find some sort of fellow feeling. So, not recommended for the faint of heart, but if you like your horror on the extreme side, with plenty of violence, gore, and threats of same, deeply seasoned with humour, and a first-person viewpoint in which the protagonist readily acknowledges his imperfections, go for this.
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