Carson Ryder Series by Jack Kerley
Carson Ryder #1
The Hundredth Man
Jack Kerley
From Publishers WeeklyFirst-time author Kerley debuts with a classically constructed, psychotic-killer-with-a-horrendous-childhood thriller featuring young detective Carson Ryder, himself troubled by a problematic past. Carson and partner Harry Nautilus are the newly formed two-man Psychopathological and Sociopathological Investigative Team, referred to as Piss-it by the other members of the Mobile, Ala., police force. While Piss-it's official mandate is the investigation of murders committed by particularly horrendous killers, the formation of the team is actually a public relations scheme. Nevertheless, when a headless body turns up in a local park, Piss-it has its first real case. At the autopsy, Carson meets new hire Dr. Ava Davenelle, who is handling corpse-cutting duties. "She was dour, abrupt, and projected the femininity of a hammer—yet her motions verged on symphonic." Of course he's immediately smitten, though his polite advances are rejected. Turns out she has her own life as well as a job-threatening problem, which Carson must solve while simultaneously identifying the killer who has meanwhile added several more headless victims to his growing list. Carson's secret weapon of detection is his brother, an insane mass-murderer who feeds him clues on the nature of madmen from an asylum, à la Hannibal Lecter. Kerley has certainly mastered the form, and the nail-biter takedown scene is as exciting as any in the business. This is a solid addition to the genre, and a series to look forward to. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistCarson Ryder is a Mobile, Alabama, police detective whose key role in solving a serial-killer case landed him a place on a special unit devoted to psycho crimes. Like almost all the characters in this narrative locomotive of a first novel, Carson has a secret: his ability to crack the serial-killer case had a lot to do with advice he got from his brother, who has reason to know how psychos think. Now another serial killer is at work, beheading his (or her) male victims and leaving cryptic messages carved on their bodies. As Carson and his partner (perhaps the most appealing character in the book), veteran cop Harry Nautilus, investigate the murders, they quickly become ensnared both in department politics and in a quagmire of secrets involving the medical staff at the morgue. Kerley jacks up the tension effectively with nicely placed jumps between Carson's narration and the tortured thoughts of the killer, building to an all-stops-out climax involving a raging river and a supremely horrific home movie. There are moments where the book nearly zooms out of control--especially during the over-the-top climax--but, finally, the powerful forward motion of the narrative and the compelling forensic and psychological detail more than compensate for the heroine-tied-to-the-tracks melodrama. The finale aside, Kerley's plot is a treasure chest of interlocked pieces, each holding a secret, a link in the chain connecting the novel's characters to the demons in their various closets. Kerley isn't the new Ridley Pearson quite yet, but don't bet against him. Bill OttCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Carson Ryder #2
The Death Collectors
Jack Kerley
A terrifying new serial-killer thriller featuring Carson Ryder, hero of the bestselling The Hundredth Man.Thirty years after his death, Marsden Hexcamp's ‘Art of the Final Moment’ remains as sought after as ever. But this is no ordinary collection. Hexcamp's portfolio was completed with the aid of a devoted band of acolytes – and half a dozen victims, each of whom was slowly tortured to death so that their final agonies could be distilled into art.When tiny scraps of Hexcamp's ‘art’ begin appearing at murder scenes alongside gruesomely displayed corpses, Detective Carson Ryder and his partner Harry Nautilus must go back three decades in search of answers.Meanwhile an auction has been announced and the death collectors are gathering. These wealthy connoisseurs of serial-killer memorabilia will pay millions to acquire Hexcamp's art – unless Carson and Harry can beat them in their quest for the anti-grail.From Publishers WeeklyOn the trail of a serial killer, Alabama detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus uncover a network of wealthy collectors who'll pay top dollar for celebrity slayer artifacts. There is some irony that Kerley calls attention to our nation's unhealthy fascination with murderers in the course of a serial killer novel. Reader Hill aids the author's intent by employing a smarmy, supercilious voice for a key broker of the murder memorabilia and other unpleasant vocal characteristics—arrogance, brutishness—for the collectors. He also provides authentic and distinguishing accents for a large cast of mainly deep South dwellers, including gruff African-American Nautilus and Ryder, who narrates the novel with an unwavering easy-going, slightly whimsical drawl. But Hill's most impressive achievement is in turning Ryder's brother Jeremy, an incarcerated homicidal madman who, as written, is essentially one more Hannibal Lecter clone, into an original, mood-swinging nightmare whose 180-degree shifts from croon to rant can add a chill to the hottest summer weather. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistMarsden Hexcamp was murdered in a courtroom 30 years ago by one of his devoted acolytes. It wasn't considered a tragedy. Hexcamp, who would surely have been sentenced to death for a series of grisly murders, painted pictures depicting the crimes he committed, and these "works of art" have become extraordinarily valuable with underground collectors. Mobile, Alabama, police detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus infiltrate this macabre art world to find clues for a series of contemporary murders that suggest Marsden's handiwork, both in their details and because the killer is leaving behind small pieces of Marsden's art. Assisting Ryder and Nautilus in their investigation, as he did in The Hundredth Man, last year's well-received series debut, is Carson's brother, Jeremy, himself an institutionalized serial killer, who both provides his brother an entree into the world of serial-killer memorabilia and--a la Hannibal Lecter--offers insight into the mind of a killer. A genuinely creepy journey into madmen and their devoted followers. Wes LukowskyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Carson Ryder #3
Carson Ryder - 03 - A Garden of Vipers
Jack Kerley
From Publishers WeeklyCarson Ryder and Harry Nautilus, homicide detectives on the Mobile, Ala., police force, hit the ground running in Kerley's appealing third suspense novel (after The Hundredth Man and The Death Collectors). In a race against other cops, the pair take up the case of a young journalist, Taneesha Franklin, who's been slashed to death. The victim was close to Carson's girlfriend, TV reporter Dani Danbury, who was mentoring her. Almost every trail leads in some fashion to the Kincannons—a family with great wealth, skeletons in the closet and a matriarch with tenuous control over her fractious, unstable sons. Ryder and Nautilus make an effective team—until one of them is taken out of action and each has to fight for survival on his own. Kerley has a nice feel for the Gulf area, and his detectives are a couple of aces sharing competence, bravery and camaraderie. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistStarred Review A young female reporter is tortured then murdered. A blind woman is kidnapped and brutalized but survives, and a high-priced call girl is burned alive. All the cases are connected, but Mobile, Alabama, detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus aren't sure how. Serial killers are almost compelled by their pathology to commit the same crime again and again, but these murders are dissimilar in forensically significant ways. Meanwhile, as Ryder and Nautilus head-butt various dead ends, Ryder learns that his television reporter girlfriend is being wooed by Lucas Kincannon, the owner of the station and leading son of Mobile's most prestigious, albeit nouveau riche, families. Ryder's distaste for the Kincannon clan, put with a few follow-the-money clues, lands the detectives on a collision course with the city's most powerful forces. Kerley's third Mobile mystery is as compelling as his first two, The Hundredth Man (2004) and The Death Collectors (2005). His plotting is cleverly believable, his protagonists realistically flawed, and his villains utterly but all-too-humanly evil. The Kincannon tribe will have readers casting suspicious glances at whatever powerful families are leading their local charities. Excellent. Wes LukowskyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Carson Ryder #4
Blood Brother
Jack Kerley
Detective Carson Ryder's sworn duty is to track killers down. He's never revealed the fact that his brother, Jeremy, is one of America's most notorious killers - albeit imprisoned. Now though, his brother's escaped and is at large in New York. With Jeremy the chief suspect in a series of horrifying mutilation-murders, a mysterious video demands Ryder be brought into help. What should be a straightforward manhunt couldn't be more different - or more terrifying. A dangerous cat-and-mouse game develops between Jeremy and the NYPD with Ryder in the middle, trying to keep his brother alive and the cops in the dark. But it's a game of life, death and deceit, a game with an unknown number of players and no clear way of winning ...
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Carson Ryder #5
Carson Ryder - 05 - In the Blood
Jack Kerley
The author of BLOOD BROTHER returns with a new psychological thriller featuring Carson Ryder, the detective with a unique perspective on serial killers -- his brother's one. TV evangelist Reverend Scaler made his fortune from firebrand rhetoric on the sins of modern America. But Scaler has preached his last sermon after being bound and beaten to death in an apparent S&M session. Detective Carson Ryder has his own problems. He's edgy and unpredictable, the crime scene barely seeming to affect him any more than finding an infant abandoned in a boat -- nearby, a burnt-out shack, a body and signs of a struggle. Scaler's tangled personal life reveals bizarre connections between the cases. And it seems the baby fighting for its life in hospital has powerful enemies. Ryder can't seem to save himself -- but can he save the life of an innocent child?
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Carson Ryder #6
Carson Ryder - 06 - Little Girls Lost
Jack Kerley
The fourth in the bestselling series of psychological thrillers featuring Carson Ryder, the detective with a unique perspective on serial killers. Children are disappearing in Mobile, Alabama, the latest snatched from her own bedroom. There are no clues -- and, as yet, no bodies. Homicide Detective Carson Ryder is called in to investigate the abduction of little LaShelle Shearing only to find the case getting tangled up in murky departmental and civic politics. And with his partner Harry Nautilus fighting for his life after being viciously attacked, Carson is feeling increasingly isolated. Public rage is now reaching dangerous levels, and Ryder's bosses turn for help to ex-Detective Conner Sandhill whose uncanny ability to spot connections and details missed by others is legendary -- but who left the department under a cloud. Ryder and Sandhill form an uneasy alliance in the hunt for the missing children, a hunt which becomes all the more urgent for tragic personal reasons. But at the root of these disappearances is something truly evil! and its source is closer to home than either could have imagined.
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Carson Ryder #7
Carson Ryder - 07 - Buried Alive
Jack Kerley
The next in the bestselling series of psychological thrillers featuring Carson Ryder, the detective with a unique perspective on serial killers
Soon after witnessing the escape of violent psychopath Bobby Crayline from prison, Alabaman detective Carson Ryder takes a rare break in the mountains. But his vacation is interrupted when an anonymous phone call summons him to the scene of a grisly murder.
With more savage killings, and the heavy-handed FBI only inflaming the situation, Ryder and local detective Donna Cherry sift through the increasingly bizarre clues. Is there more than one killer on the loose? And how does Carson's clinically insane brother, Jeremy, now on the run, fit into the picture?
It is down to Ryder to unearth horrors from the past that others believe should remain buried...
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Carson Ryder #8
Carson Ryder - 08 - Her Last Scream
Jack Kerley
A serial-killer targets the country's most vulnerable women in this new psychological thriller featuring Detective Carson Ryder.
Across the US, a secret network of crisis centres has been devised to permanently relocate women in danger from abusive spouses, stalkers, even murderers. Women enter the system and pass through temporary safehouses to reappear a thousand miles away, with a change of identity and a new life free of fear.
Detective Carson Ryder and his partner Harry Nautilus have their work cut out in gaining the trust of the women who run the scheme after a woman's body appears in Mobile, Alabama. A second similar death suggests someone has broken into the system somehow and pulled the women from it, before leaving them to die in misery.
To discover where security has been compromised will be near impossible: the system has been designed so that each cell is sealed off from all others, remaining anonymous and fiercely protected. The only option is for an undercover policewoman to enter the system posing as a threatened woman, making herself a target. There's only one candidate: fresh out of Mobile Police Academy, smart, beautiful, good at acting and the perfect age. She's also Harry's niece - Reinetta Early.
He tried to keep her from joining the force, but Reinetta idolized Harry from childhood, always intending to follow in his footsteps. Harry Nautilus has spent years convincing his older sister that he would keep an eye on Reinetta and keep her safe from harm. Suddenly he's unsure if he can even keep her alive...
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Carson Ryder #9
The Killing Game
Jack Kerley
Detective Carson Ryder's reputation is on the line when a sociopathic serial killer embarks on a personal vendetta, constructing his crimes to hit Carson's weak spot.Detective Carson Ryder and his partner Harry Nautilus are stymied by a series of seemingly random killings.What they don't know is that Romanian immigrant Gregory Nieves, traumatized after a childhood in a brutal orphanage, is conducting a vendetta against Mobile Police Department, and Carson in particular.In desperation, Carson eventually approaches the one person he never wanted to ask for help again - his brother Jeremy, an escaped serial killer.Jeremy's cryptic response to the case file could be the clue Carson needs to finally solve the case and rescue his reputation . or he could be about to embark on the highest-stakes wild goose chase imaginable.
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Carson Ryder #10
The Death Box
Jack Kerley
Detective Carson Ryder faces his most terrifying adversary yet in this nail-biting thriller from the author of Her Last Scream.Carson Ryder thought he’d seen everything …A specialist in twisted crimes, Detective Carson Ryder thought he’d seen the lowest depths of human depravity. But he’s barely started his new job in Miami when called to a horrific scene: a concrete pillar built of human remains, their agony forever frozen in stone.Finding the secret of the pillar drags him into the sordid world of human trafficking, where one terrified girl holds the key to unraveling a web of pain, prostitution and murder. There’s just one problem: Ryder’s not the only one chasing the girl.And the others will kill to keep the secret safe.**
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Carson Ryder #11
The Memory Killer
Jack Kerley
Detective Carson Ryder faces a cunning and inventive adversary in this terrifying thriller from the bestselling author of Her Last Scream.Young men in Miami are being abducted and tortured after their drinks are spiked with a cocktail of drugs that leaves them unable to recall their ordeal. Despite this, Detective Carson Ryder knows the predator’s name, height, age, colouring … everything. It’s impossible for the perpetrator to avoid detection. Yet he does.When Carson seeks answers from his brother, a wanted criminal intimate with twisted minds, Jeremy’s odd behaviour sparks even more questions. With each abduction, the violence becomes more horrific, and it’s only a short time until torture turns to murder.But how do you catch an invisible man?
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Carson Ryder #12
The Apostle
Jack Kerley
From the bestselling author of Her Last Scream, a chilling tale of ritual murder and corruption, featuring Detective Carson Ryder. The Reverend Honus Schrum, a nationally renowned minister and owner of a broadcasting empire, tells the media he has come home to Key West to die. Meanwhile, Detective Carson Ryder is investigating the ritualistic murders of young women with chequered pasts, discovering the killings have religious overtones. Simultaneously, a newly retired Harry Nautilus takes a job as a driver/bodyguard for Richard Owsley, an ambitious pastor in Mobile. They come to Florida, where Owsley meets with Schrum and is enlisted to complete a special and mysterious 'project' Schrum has promised a billionaire benefactor. As Carson digs deeper into the murders, Harry, interest piqued by all the hush-hush goings-on of his new employer, begins to covertly investigate the strange project. Their independent investigations begin to converge, and Carson and Harry uncover a horrifying...
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