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The Naturalist
The Naturalist
The Naturalist
Audiobook11 hours

The Naturalist

Written by Andrew Mayne

Narrated by Will Damron

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

An Amazon Charts bestseller.

Professor Theo Cray is trained to see patterns where others see chaos. So when mutilated bodies found deep in the Montana woods leave the cops searching blindly for clues, Theo sees something they missed. Something unnatural. Something only he can stop.

As a computational biologist, Theo is more familiar with digital code and microbes than the dark arts of forensic sleuthing. But a field trip to Montana suddenly lands him in the middle of an investigation into the bloody killing of one of his former students. As more details, and bodies, come to light, the local cops determine that the killer is either a grizzly gone rogue…or Theo himself. Racing to stay one step ahead of the police, Theo must use his scientific acumen to uncover the killer. Will he be able to become as cunning as the predator he hunts—before he becomes its prey?

LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 1, 2017
ISBN9781536684537
The Naturalist
Author

Andrew Mayne

Andrew Mayne, star of A&E’s Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne, is a magician and novelist ranked as the fifth bestselling independent author of the year by Amazon UK. He started his first world tour as an illusionist when he was a teenager and went on to work behind the scenes for Penn & Teller, David Blaine, and David Copperfield. Andrew’s novel Angel Killer is currently in development for television by Twentieth Century Fox and Temple Hill Entertainment. He’s also the host of the Weird Things podcast.

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Reviews for The Naturalist

Rating: 3.9208632323741 out of 5 stars
4/5

278 ratings27 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Stereotypical protagonist, stereotypical antagonist, plot holes galore, interesting, if questionable, science, and first person narrative in the present tense rather than past tense. An interesting read except for disappointing final chapter or two.

    Personal rant: I hate plot summaries that end with a question. Will he be able to do this before that happens? Makes me lose interest in the book. Stop. Just stop.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Something or someone is killing people in Montana. Professor Theo Cray is a computer scientist who specializes in Biology ecosystems. He decides to hunt for the killer using a computer model. He gets little help except for an owner of a truck stop and the owner of a roadside motel.

    This is an entertaining short read. You definitely learn some interesting science trivia. The title is misleading and doesn't match the novel's storyline.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed the first of the book. By the end, the main character seemed to have completely lost his mind.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love the character Theo greatly but sometimes he is to smart and stupid at the same time. Book sense and common sense play a big part in this guy's life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Okki this book was weird, i mean Theo was a creepy weird guy who you would think would turn psycho at any moments and there were moments O.O
    The more you read, the more you start to get protective of theo.... some of my favorite phrases include " theo NO" "Don't do that" "god that was stupid of you" and etc XD
    So yeah, this book was a completely different style in both plot and writing when compared to Andrew's there series " Jessica Blackwood" which I have fallen in love with... never the less I will be continuing with this series just to make sure that Theo doesn't end up getting himself killed XD
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    What drivel! I can't believe this got published. The story is terrible.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It involved me from the start. Dr. Theo Cray is a computational biologist. To me, that seemed a bit on the Asperger's spectrum. Extremely intelligent, decidedly obsessive, but devoid of emotional or self-preservation factors. At one point he confronts Don Quixote, and that's a very apt description. Both are subject to their individual windmills. He learns of the existence of the police after the gruesome murder of one of his former students. What are the odds that two scientists from Texas are in the same area of ​​Montana doing research? But he was pronounced dead from a mutilated grizzly bear. Cray, however, sees something else at the game. So there were many times when I writhed and winced. There is already volume two in this series, which I will take a look with pleasure.

    If Dan Brown wrote a STYLE crime thriller, it would have probably been very similar to Andrew Maybe the naturalist. Consider yourself savvy. In The Naturalist, Maybe spares barely a single thriller to get from point A to point B. We have the lone wolf hero whom the police refuse to even hear, let alone believe, and who is perfectly content to ignore the discovery of all these massacred women. There's a whore with a heart of gold, and the little ex-military maid who, despite Cray's social ineptness and naivety, still wants to fuck our intrepid researcher rat. At some point in these types of thrillers, it's a safe bet that our lone wolf hero will end up being targeted by the police as the first suspect #1. Well, Maybe starts the weird book off with that old tired trope, then throws it by the butt. A few more times for good measure. Cray's doctorate and research allowed him to learn a lot about a very small subject, leaving him oblivious to almost everything else. As he confesses many times, he doesn't know much about people. She can't read social cues, doesn't pick up cues, and can't even decipher a text from a prostitute saying "1004BJ". This ignorance is perhaps intended to give Cray an easy pass for readers so that once he begins digging up corpses all over Montana and sending picture messages of the corpses to the police, even going until downloading a murder victim into his SUV. And dump the body at the local police station, we should accept this level of idiocy as a normal course. Unfortunately, I was unable to overcome these obstacles, although I watched with amazement as Cray made his way to steal evidence, snatched a corpse from the morgue, and destroyed the crime scenes one after another. . And despite his reputation as these crooks in the end, the precedent wherever he goes, the police response is usually astonishing as mine. After unloading a body at the police station, Cray only has to make a statement and is allowed to go and steal another body. Amount of Winery is nestled like Russian dolls throughout The Naturalist, to its climax, bursts of laughter, improbable ending. Listen, Cray is definitely not a hard to cook. It's a bookish nerd that has been beaten several times by various people, and Maybe still wants us to believe that this guy is capable of facing a predator on his own at the height of a serial killer, a killer who went all Terminator in the last moments of the book. One way or another, even though she has been beaten three times and has already been beaten unconscious and with a fractured jaw, Maybe still expects us to believe that it is plausible that Cray might think, in capital letters, "I'm going to do this separately. BOY!" and drive Wolverine crazy because of a huge bloodthirsty killer. Did I mention that I found this book absolutely ridiculous? Because I did. That said, The Naturalist is stupidly entertaining but also perversely fascinating, and the scientific backbone Maybe weaves throughout is fascinating stuff. The research and thought processes that Cray brings to the table helps bring a measure of seriousness to an otherwise inanely written story, and Cray's eye for detail in the natural world is well done, lending a surprising amount of credibility to his field work. Unfortunately, when Cray isn't in the field and Maybe isn't focused on wowing us with science, the story takes some pretty steep nosedives. Reader's expect.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow this was surprisingly good! Professor Theo Cray is my hero and I will forever remember that in order to win sometimes we have to '....think like dolphins.'

    Professor Cray finds evidence in a crime scene that leads him to believe that bears did not kill the victim like the authorities believe but a man did. The problem is that the police don't believe him. They think he is a quack and has him escorted out of the county.

    Professor Cray knows that he is right and develops a system that reveals where the killer has hidden the bodies.
    You would think the police should be glad to close these Missing Person cases but nope they are not happy with him and neither is the killer. When he gets too close to the killer he is cornered and has to make some hard decisions to keep himself and those he loves alive.

    This book starts off slow but once it picks up you don't want to stop listening. The action was excellently written and their was actually a little romance (but very little). Chapter 82 is my favorite when Cray carries out his suicide plan and loads up with amphetamines, adrenaline and epinephrine until he felt like he had, " Next level Lance Armstrong sh__ going on." His plan worked!

    The narration was excellently done by Will Damron. There are 4 books in this series and I am looking forward to reading the next book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This murder mystery follows a biologist who specializes in using computers to track patterns in the natural world as he tries to solve the murder of a former graduate student who at first appears to have been attacked by a bear. I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the story immensely, as we followed Theo Cray as he puzzled things out using science and patterns. But once he really got on the track of the killer, things got pretty over-the-top and violent, and I started having a hard time believing characters' motivations. I kind of want to read more of the series based on how much I enjoyed the beginning of this one, but that desire also annoys me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Good story. The writing style is hard to get used to - semi-stream-of-consciousness.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The voice of Dr. Theo Cray drew me right into The Naturalist. Cray is a wimp. He's a nerd. He has trouble relating to people because his head is so thoroughly buried in science and he spends so much time alone on field trips. Some readers' eyes may cross at all the talk of science, but I enjoyed 98% of Cray's shop talk. (Hmm... does that make me a wimpy science nerd who doesn't relate to people, too?) The science really got me into Cray's character, and it does add background to the story. The reason Cray decided to go out on a limb and hunt for his former student's killer is guilt, and that says something about his character, too. He's not all about science after all. He feels that, as a professor, he spent too much time doing things like showing and critiquing the film Avatar to get his students to like him and not enough time teaching them how to be safe on field trips in the wilderness. He's a smart guy whose heart is in the right place even though he's out of step with the rest of us. But-- as the characters in all good stories should-- Cray changes as his hunt for the killer progresses, especially when he walks into a certain diner for a meal. But I digress.I did have a problem or two with The Naturalist, and it wasn't over the portrayal of law enforcement. When the police have a weird guy who keeps digging up bodies and telling them about what he's found, what else are they going to think? You got it: they're going to think he killed them all and wants his fifteen minutes of fame. No, the problems I had have to do with the serial killer himself and some of the action scenes at the end. I found both to be a bit over the top, although in the killer's case, I found his portrayal a bit unbelievable, not the facts behind his creation.But for me, discovering the character of Dr. Theo Cray was like hitting the jackpot. I had to know how he was going to win the day, and I had to know what sort of shape he was going to be in once it was all over. Now I want to know what he does next. I'll be reading more.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book was at times very interesting, and at others, laughably unbelievable. Its full of the standard thriller tropes. We have a lone-wolf protagonist who is the only one capable of catching our killer. He is also socially awkward and skirts the edges of society enough for police to think he is a potential suspect. He knows a little bit about everything, can write computer programs that do magical levels of detective work in no time, and stumbles his way through most of the book without giving himself away to the killer.The parts I found interesting were the scientific sections. The passages where Theo Cray explained his field, or the hidden connections between things, or some of the other more scientific explanations had me very interested. I guess that just shows my bias. I don't tend to read a lot of serial killer thrillers like this. But the implausibilities of the plot had me suspending my disbelief to stick with this story till the end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Naturalist is the story of a computational biologist who stumbles into a serial killers spree when his student from a few years ago is killed and initially he is picked up and grilled as a subject. After his release, he looks into things and believes there is more at play than a mere bear attack. He solidifies his theory when following up on leads he generates he discovers an additional body from a prior incident yet once again the authorities dismiss it as another animal attack.I found it to be quite an enthralling novel and enjoyed the straight forward trajectory that unfolded with research as opposed to relying upon cheap plot devices or twists to advance the narrative. That's not to say the protagonist didn't face set backs, as he most certainly did as he seemingly bumbled his way forwards, yet they dovetailed into the story nicely and were the sorts of things you would expect an amateur crime investigator to walk into.Overall, an excellent story with excellent pacing, I am looking forward to the next installment and hope it's as good.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Once again I find myself in the position of offering a widely diverging point of view from the general consensus about a book: while I started The Naturalist with good expectations – given the positive reviews I read about this novel and its companions in the series – and while this reading experience started in the most auspicious way, at some point the whole setup began to unravel and I was unable to stop noticing its glaring flaws. If I had not already been at the 80% mark when the “bubble” burst, this book would probably have ended in the DNF pile, but at that point I was in the same position of the proverbial car crash observer, unable to tear my eyes away from the disaster happening in front of me, and I had to see it through, no matter what.The story, in short: Professor Theo Cray is a computational biologist, i.e. a scientist who studies genetic patterns through computer models predicting any given species’ evolution – or regression – according to set parameters. He’s the classical academic high on science and low on people skills, but he’s compelled to take some interest in the world surrounding him when he’s suspected of the murder of a former student. Quickly cleared of the accusation, Cray becomes obsessed with what he sees as a string of similar murders – all ultimately attributed to wild animals – and starts an investigation on his own, a journey that will take him face to face with a cunning killer who has acted unhindered for a long time.At first there is some suspension of disbelief to be called into action when reading The Naturalist: the police seems blind to the evidence that there is more to it than simple animal attacks; Cray devises a computer program that can predict, with unerring accuracy, where the victims’ bodies are buried, and is able to unearth them, with almost no legal consequences for his evidence tampering; his actions look highly suspicious, and yet Cray can move almost unopposed as he pursues his obsession – that is, if one can overlook the frequent beatings he takes in the course of his investigations, and which he’s able to shrug off thanks to the tight focus on his self-imposed mission. All of the above does sound quite over the top, but the pacing is such that it’s easy to overlook even the most glaring of discrepancies. But at some point they do keep adding up and the effort required to move along with the flow becomes more pronounced: if this had been a story based on a science fiction or fantasy medium it would have been easier to take some details for granted – if we can accept spaceships or dragons, the rest comes along as a matter of consequence. But this novel is set in our times, our reality, and it depicts a murder mystery where the main character uses hard science (even when it’s somewhat far-fetched) to arrange the pieces of the puzzle, so it’s difficult, if not impossible, to accept the total police incompetence, for example, that is a constant in Cray’s interactions with law enforcement, or the ease with which he can literally dump the unearthed bodies on their doorstep without being held for questioning.The turning point, however, the instance that caused me to literally crash out of the narrative bubble, happened when the assassin, understanding that Cray is getting close to discover his identity, threatens to kill the people he cares about if the professor will not publicly confess to the murders and then take his own life. That scene should have cranked up the tension, raised the already high stakes, but instead it turned the story into a ludicrous farce, one that instead of keeping me on the edge of the seat only managed to make me laugh – and not in amusement. Because Cray, instead of going straight to the police, or to warn his endangered friends – or both – chooses to appear as if he’s acceding to the killer’s demands and stages his own death, to be able to go after the murderer himself.Never mind that he already raised lot of suspicions by his weird digging efforts, he now compounds his previous foolish actions by stealing a corpse from the morgue to stage his suicide, and by taking ghastly measures to make the body look like a fresh one – and here is where I drew the final line against the abuse of reader’s intellect:===I pumped two pints of my blood into his body. I was already running low from my previous accident and not sure if I should have spared even that much. But to make the thing work, it’s absolutely critical that the medical examiner who shows up on the scene to pronounce the body dead doesn’t see immediate signs of lividity. To minimize those, I put heparin, a blood thinner, in my donor blood and used a syringe to inject the liquid into his body, then massaged the surrounding area.===Let’s examine the “facts” detailed in this paragraph: two pints of blood are close to a liter, one of the five the human body contains, and Cray had already bled profusely in previous circumstances, so another almost-liter should have laid him flat, not left him able to move around as if nothing had happened. The attempt to mask the signs of livor mortis is quite outlandish (not to say un-scientific), since we are told that the hapless body had been laying in the morgue for two days, and blood pools quickly when the circulation stops because, you know, there is a thing called gravity. And last but not least, there is no amount of anti-clotting agent you can put in blood and no amount of ‘massaging’ that can restore circulation in a DEAD BODY, and therefore make it appear ‘fresher’ than it is.As if all of this were not enough, the once-reclusive professor turns into a killer-stalking Rambo who’s able to ignore the pain of injuries and the debilitating effects of more blood loss (besides what he pumped into the corpse, that is…) and proceeds to a final confrontation with his foe that is peppered with repeated instances of (I kid you not) “BANG! BANG!” and “BOOM!” as if it were a graphic novel instead of an allegedly dramatic book.I’m aware that a less curmudgeonly reader than yours truly would be able to ignore these details, focus on the meat of the story – which did start very promisingly, I acknowledge that – and enjoy it, but as these “writerly sins” kept piling up, my initial rating for the book took a nosedive and never recovered.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    First person, present tense writing doesn’t always come off, perhaps because of the difficulty of conveying how others see the narrator. In this novel, it works so well that you quickly lose awareness of the style and get wrapped up in the sense of the story.The central character is Theo, a scientist who gets supremely focussed on detail, but can be oblivious to the broader strokes that are obvious to others. You see this in the opening scenes, where Theo observes police breaking in to a motel room (his) without making the connection that they are seeking him as a potentially violent suspect. He is arrested and interrogated, and though afraid, he is still observing and analysing the techniques that are being used to induce him to be calm and cooperative even as he comes to understand that the crime they suspect him of is murder.For reasons that become evident as you read (no spoilers here) Theo is drawn in to investigating the details of the attack and keeps getting into conflict with the police. There are enough snippets of science to intrigue and interest, without overwhelming, the reader, and to make sense of Theo’s deductions and actions.The build to the climax is terrific.I will be looking for more by this author.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    4.5Book source ~ Kindle FirstProfessor Theo Cray is out doing sciency-stuff in Montana when the cops come knocking at his motel room door. Well, not knocking, more like knocking down. He has no idea what they think he’s done, but after several long hours and lots of weird questions they finally tell him he’s a suspect in a murder investigation and he’s more than surprised. And then upset because the person murdered is a former student. He starts feeling guilty for reasons that are weird, but understandable and these feelings lead him down a road he never imagined he’d travel – using his big science brain to solve a murder. Except, his application of science leads him to something so much bigger and more evil than even he could have predicted.If you like science and murder mysteries then this is the book for you. There is a shitload of both in it. I’m not a science person. I’m not dumb, but a lot of certain sciences just go over my head and I end up with only a vague understanding and a headache for my trouble. This book is filled with Theo explaining science stuff and how he’s using what he knows to apply it to a serial killer, but somehow the author manages to mostly make sense to me. Excellent job! No, seriously. Ask any of my science instructors. They’ll tell you. Flashbacks to Chemistry make me shudder in horror and revulsion. Luckily, Biology wasn’t as terrible and there’s a lot of Biology in this book. I took off a bit for the massive amounts of science and some areas of slight ridiculousness, but overall it’s only a small deduction. This story kept me glued to the pages, wondering what on Earth Theo was going to discover next and if he’d survive the inevitable faceoff with the killer. Also, there’s a great buildup of suspense there towards the end. Yowzers. There’s even a bit of romance for Theo, but it’s mostly science, bodies, and trying to find the killer. I ended up liking this book way more than I thought I would. Great job!
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Very glad I got this ebook on the cheap. I've now deleted it from my device. It's that bad. At first I was kind of excited to have some nature mixed in with my mystery, but the main character is such an idiot that I started to relish each beating he took. And he takes more than Marlowe and Archer combined! All the cops are fools. He is the only one who can do anything about the killer only he knows about. Hubris combined with stupid decisions made me skip a lot toward the end. The action is relentless, divided into very scene-driven short chapters. I HATE that. There's no flow or arc, just a lot of 'look at how much research I did'. Stupid ending. Sappy romance. Bleah.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Short chapters and a plot that never lets up! If you like suspense with some science thrown in, this is the book for you. I finished this one and immediately ordered the second book in the series. Professor Theo Cray is someone I want to follow for as long as Andrew Mayne wishes to write about him. A computational biologist, he uses his gift of observation coupled with his academic knowledge to uncover a killer.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Theo Cray can barely hold a conversation but his software helps him catch a prolific serial killer.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Naturalist (The Naturalist #1) by Andrew Mayne is a book I really enjoyed. It fed my eager science side of my brain, the mystery, and the side that likes a good scare! Brilliantly written with so many little things that had to be thought through...wonderful. Going in my favorites for sure. Lots of suspense, action, mystery, and the science part of it was fun too. I love these kind of mysteries.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A very different protagonist drives the story line in this tale of a cunning serial killer. Theo is a mild mannered college professor who is drawn into the maelstrom of event that cascade from the discovery of the more recent victim. Current, then, past remains are attibuted to animal attacks until Theo starts to uncovers more bodies as his research detects a definite pattern. Such an excellent character deserves a series, on to book two.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Theo Cray is a bio-informatics scientist who finds himself trying to track a serial killer in Montana no-one else realizes exists. Interesting characters and setting in rural Montana where everyone knows everyone or is related to them. Clever use of biological science to track the killer rather than conventional forensics.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dr. Theo Cray is a scientist and researcher, who happens to be in the wrong place and time where a former student ends up dead. Theo becomes the prime suspect in the woman's death, although the police ultimately decide she was mauled by a bear. Rather than leave police scrutiny, Theo launches his own investigation using complex scientific methodology to trace other "bear attacks" in the area and lining them up with other missing women. In doing so, Theo discovers dozens of additional bodies but places himself at risk of becoming the next victim or the ultimate target of the police's investigation.This is a nerdy and exciting thriller which incorporates science and technology. Dr. Cray is awkward and geeky but a likeable and compassionate man set on resolving an improbable conclusion. For fans of Criminal Minds or Num3ers., this fast-paced thriller will be very satisfying.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I received a free advance e-copy of this book and have chosen to write an honest and unbiased review. I have no personal affiliation with the author. A real rollercoaster ride.I couldn’t put it down. Andrew Mayne is a true storyteller with an amazing imagination.This is an extremely well written psychological thriller with well-developed characters and an amazing plot with an exciting ending. Follow Theo as he begins to investigate on his own having doubts about the killer. Is the killer really a huge rogue bear that walks on two legs? Is there a serial killer on the loose? How many victims are there? Wow! An amazing psychological crime thriller full of twists and turns. The action and suspense never quits. I would really like to read more about Theo and Jillian in the future. ‘The Naturalist’ is well worth the read and I look forward to reading more from Andrew Mayne in the future.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Absolutely fantastic book! Writing and editing are superb, very fast-paced, I could not put it down!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It is an excellent book with great characters, an intricate plot and written in a fast paced style the keeps the pages turning. I found myself devouring it - picking it up at any spare moment to see what happens next. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because Mayne does stretch credibility in a couple of places (spoiler: how does Cray have such intimate knowledge of serial killers in his profession? that one made me stop for a minute). But this only happens twice, otherwise the story is well done and the plot is tight. Theo Cray is an interesting person and about as anti-hero as you can be. The supporting characters all do their jobs well and there is enough development of each to draw the reader into their world as they seek to understand the mystery that envelops them. As Cray tries to get to the bottom of the death of one of his former students he finds himself in the middle of an almost unbelievable scenario and alone and isolated as he tries to piece together clues that will reveal what really happened to her. And as he does, who will believe him? Certainly not the police. The story is amazing and I cannot wait to read book 2 and move into some other Andrew Mayne books - and it seems there are quite a few - and I find myself wondering how I have missed reading this author. To give you some idea: even with my busy schedule and all of the activities happening right now, I burned through this almost 400 page book in 3 days!! I don't know how I have missed reading Mayne before, but I intend to rectify that situation...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Initially, this story hooked me. I was fascinated by Theo's character. He is brilliant, socially awkward, complex, and persistent. He willingly admits that he doesn't really understand people and their behavior, being far more comfortable with his science and computers. And yet he finds himself in the precarious position of having to interact with people and predict behavior. I loved the unique investigative approach, using different types of science and computer models to track and predict patterns. I don't know if all the forensic information is factual, but it does all have a realistic feel. By the midway point, the story lost a lot of its appeal for me. Theo, who is not the bravest of men, and certainly not an outgoing adventurist, becomes too much of a superhero. His investigative abilities fall into place too easily, and his heroics seem a stretch at best. I still enjoyed his character, but found myself questioning the plausibility of the story.The cops involved go the unfortunate route of all being incompetent jackasses. Theo is threatened but otherwise allowed to insert himself into investigations, leaving a breadcrumb trail for the bumbling cops.I never got a clear feel for the killer, beyond the fact that he was godlike in his ability to murder anonymously, over decades, until Theo comes along. The ending is overblown. I don't want to give spoilers, so I can't really clarify this statement. The culmination of events was just too much to believe. And so, for me, the intrigue of Theo's character was the only thing that kept me reading.