Review: The Caller by Chris Carter

The Caller by Chris Carter, July 2017, 496 pages, Simon & Schuster UK, ISBN: 147115632X

Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This is the eighth book in Carter's excellent series featuring LAPD detectives Hunter and Garcia and it is simply fantastic: riddled with tension, plot twists and nastiness, the story is gruesome enough to give you nightmares and addictive enough to keep you up late as you simply must know who did it. Carter takes you on an emotional roller-coaster ride and leaves you exhausted at the end.

The story is chilling enough to give Hollywood blockbusters, like Saw, serious competition. It starts with the brutal demise of a decent, sweet, young woman and goes downhill from there. The killer adds a unique twist to his approach as he video calls the close friend or partner of his victim and, after asking questions that give the recipient of the call a fleeting feeling they might be able to save a life, graphically kills their loved one in front of them.

Hunter is completely stuck. He has no real leads, as the killer is extremely good at covering his tracks, and spends many sleepless nights going over things. The killer is also patient and meticulous. Starting with notes made of letters cut from newspapers, he stalks his victims for months, terrifying them, until making his move. One thing is for sure - the killer doesn't waste time and the discovery of a second victim a few nights later takes things up a level. Hunter needs results, especially when the husband of the second victim decides to start an investigation of his own. Hunter has a sharp mind and a keen eye for detail. You really hope he can get to the bottom of this one but, at the same time, really can't see how he can. With his boss anxious for results and the killer upping his game, the pressure is on for Hunter to deliver.

Chris Carter is Brazilian born and writes about cases in America. He qualifies for Euro Crime as he currently lives in London. In his past life he worked in Michigan as part of the District Attorney's Criminal Psychology team. There is no doubt that his experience adds an edge to his work and brings his killers shockingly to life. His opening chapters in this latest novel are first rate and leave you in no doubt that this is going to be an excellent book!

Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, August 2017.

Review Roundup: Bolton, Carol, Carter, Den Tex, Edwards, Gordon-Smith, Hodgson, Jones, Kelly, Mankell, Marklund, Mogford, Patterson & Ellis, Staalesen

Here are sixteen reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, all have appeared on the blog since last time.

If you like translated crime fiction then you may be interested in the International Dagger 2016 Speculation list of titles.

You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page and follow on Twitter, @eurocrime.

New Reviews

Michelle Peckham reviews Sharon Bolton's Little Black Lies, set in the Falklands;

Susan White reviews James Carol's Prey, the third in the Jefferson Winter series set in the US;

Amanda Gillies reviews Chris Carter's I Am Death, the seventh in his Robert Hunter series set in LA;


Guest reviewer Bob Cornwell reviews the Dutch thriller Mr. Miller by Charles Den Tex tr. Nancy Forest-Flier;

Rich Westwood reviews Martin Edwards's The Golden Age of Murder - a history of the Detection Club;


Terry Halligan reviews Dolores Gordon-Smith's The Chessman, the ninth in the 1920s Jack Haldean series;

Terry also reviews The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson, the sequel to the award winning The Devil in the Marshalsea;


Geoff Jones reviews J Sydney Jones's The Third Place, the sixth in the Viennese mystery series;

Geoff also reviews Jim Kelly's Death on Demand, the sixth in the Shaw & Valentine series set in North Norfolk;


Lynn Harvey reviews Henning Mankell's An Event in Autumn tr. Laurie Thompson;

Michelle also reviews Liza Marklund's Without a Trace tr. Neil Smith - the tenth and penultimate entry in the Annika Bengtzon series;

Lynn also reviews Thomas Mogford's Sleeping Dogs which takes Gibraltar-based lawyer Spike Sanguinetti to Corfu;

I review parts Three, Four and Five of Murder House by James Patterson and David Ellis


and Ewa Sherman reviews Gunnar Staalesen's We Shall Inherit the Wind tr. Don Bartlett which is the sixteenth in the PI Varg Veum series though only six are currently available in English and is the first of three from Orenda Books.

Review: I Am Death by Chris Carter

I Am Death by Chris Carter, July 2015, 400 pages, Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 1471132234

Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This book is a complete heart-stopper. It’s starts off brilliantly and just gets better and better. The story catches your interest right away and continues to throw grenades at you. Right until the end. When you read the credentials of the author, Chris Carter, it is not surprising that this novel has the effect on the reader that it does. Carter originally studied psychology and criminal behaviour at the University of Michigan, then had a career in this field before moving to London and turning his hand to writing. His understanding of the criminal mind, as well as his skill at putting pen to paper, combine to make this book a truly delicious nightmare.

The story is the seventh in Carter’s series featuring LAPD detective Robert Hunter; a man with a skill for catching really nasty killers. When the body of a young woman is found, laid out in a star shape, on grass near LA airport, Hunter and his team are put on the case. A gruesome note, written in the victim’s blood, is found lodged in her throat and at this point Hunter knows there will be more bodies. His suspicions are proved correct when another body is found – tied to a chair in her own living room and horribly tortured – with the same message written in blood. All of Hunter’s skills are put to the test as he races against time to find the killer before the bodies start to mount up.

The chapters in I AM DEATH alternate between Hunter’s race to find the killer and the story of a young boy, Squirm, who is kidnapped by the killer and forced into slavery by him. Squirm’s story is shocking and you wonder when he will be added to the pile of bodies too, especially when he is forced to watch videos of his captor’s killing sprees.

Don’t be fooled by this book. You won’t be able to guess the end; it has a fabulous twist in its tail and will leave you reeling. Carter does not hold back on his descriptions of torture of murder scenes, so if you are a bit on the squeamish then maybe this isn’t the best book for you to read. However, if you like books by Jeffrey Deaver, Peter James or Thomas Harris then this book is most definitely going to be right up your street. Although this is the seventh in a series it works very well as a stand-alone novel. It is the first of Carter’s books that I have read and I am now extremely tempted to go and find the earlier six.

Highly recommended.

Amanda Gillies, October 2015.

New Reviews: Becker, Carter, Ellis, Fantoni, Jansson, Krajewski, Mogford, Nadel, Upson

Here are 9 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website, and they include two related to the 2012 Olympics plus the settings include Gibraltar, Poland, Sweden, USA (twice) as well as London and Devon:

The first of the Olympics related books is James Becker's Echo of the Reich reviewed here by Amanda Gillies;

JF reviews Chris Carter's The Death Sculptor the fourth in the Detective Robert Hunter series set in LA;

Terry Halligan reviews Kate Ellis's The Cadaver Game, the latest in the Wesley Peterson series which is now out in paperback;

Lynn Harvey reviews Barry Fantoni's Harry Lipkin P.I. starring "the world's oldest detective" (set in Florida);

Guest reviewer Bernadette Bean reviews Anna Jansson's Killer Island tr. Enar Henning Koch set on Gotland;

Norman Price reviews Marek Krajewski's The Minotaur's Head, tr. Danusia Stok, the fourth in the Eberhard Mock series;

Maxine Clarke reviews Thomas Mogford's debut, Shadow of the Rock a thriller set in Gibraltar and Tangier;

Susan White reviews the second of the Olympics related books, the first in Barbara Nadel's new series: A Private Business

and I review the audio book release of Nicola Upson's Two For Sorrow the third in the "Josephine Tey" series.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Carter, Leather, Medieval Murderers, Seymour, Templeton, Verhoef

There are two competitions running in September. One is for 2 children's adventure-thriller books by Andy Briggs and is open to the UK, and the other is for A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio which is open world-wide. Details on how to enter can be found on the competition page.

Here are this week's reviews:

Craig Sisterson reviews The Crucifix Killer by Chris Carter;

Terry Halligan reviews Live Fire by Stephen Leather and thinks it's his best yet;

Amanda Gillies reviews the paperback edition of The Lost Prophecies by The Medieval Murderers;

Norman Price reviews The Collaborator by Gerald Seymour - which tells what happens when you go against the Camorra;

Michelle Peckham reviews the latest in one of my favourite series: Dead in the Water by Aline Templeton;

and Maxine Clarke reviews Dutch author, Esther Verhoef's English translation debut - Close-Up concluding with "if you like your crime fiction suspenseful, erotically romantic, tense and pacy, this is definitely a book for you".

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.