If ever there was a book that 'does what it says on the tin', it's THE CREEPER. Everygirl Suzanne Perry wakes after a nightmare where an intruder came into her room while she slept, only to find a photograph of herself on the edge of the bed. Meanwhile, Colchester's finest are at the docks where the mutilated body of a young woman has been discovered. A little to'ing and fro'ing by DI Phil Brennan and team, and the two cases become linked. So when Suzanne Perry goes missing, the body of her best friend left in the wake, everyone fears the worst... I've been looking for a book like this for a while: a hard boiled crime novel set within the UK, yet American in its delivery. Tania Carver delivers the goods, THE CREEPER's writing almost noir-ish in feel, with tersely written prose and punchy dialogue, hacked into short, sharp chapters. The characters are mostly well-rounded and flawed, and - until the end, at least - don't fall foul of stereotyping. Everything is well balanced within this book. Sure, the focus is often on our two main players, their relationship a particularly important part of the story. But nothing overstays its welcome. This is a pacey read, the story belting along at a ferocious pace, twisting and turning towards an action-packed finale. As a horror fan, I'm always looking for gore and suspense within my crime reading, and THE CREEPER didn't disappoint on either front. In fact, I've nothing really bad to say about the book. This is as addictive a read as you're going to get, the very definition of page-turner. I can't recommend it enough. Crime/thriller books as a genre never really appealed to me, but I decided to give this a go.I'm easily scared so the first chapter really did freak me out. I also read this before reading her other book and it became a bit annoying that although they were in a series huge chunks of this book were a mystery to me having not knowing the other story e.g. the issues between Phil and his partner.Though I enjoyed the story and its many plot twists (some glaringly obvious to the reader, yet somehow not to the police) I feel it could have benefited from a better editor as there were some pretty outstanding typos in there. I also felt during the last few chapters when all the loose ends were being tied it was a bit rushed and the Fiona Welch's character finding it so easy to infiltrate the police and play with the creeper's mind seemed somewhat unbelievable. The whole reasoning behind the crime also felt a bit slapdash, unless we were meant to feel even more scared/horrified by the senselessness of this crime and the criminals, I just felt it was lazy storytelling. It also seemed that characters were being used inappropriately for their characterisation just to move the story along, such as when Fiona's boyfriend cheated on her with their prisoner just seemed to me very unlikely if he was as under the thumb as described.All in all, though I've only picked out criticisms of the book, I actually really enjoyed it and am thinking of reading the first in the series, it was fast paced for the most part and certainly delivered with unexpected twists. Hard to put down and was finished in a matter of days
Do You like book Insluiper (2012)?
I enjoyed this book allot , I read it whilst on holiday and couldn't put it down !
—jennifabarbie
A hard-to-put-down book; I read this quickly and thought the ending worked well.
—Princessa
Really have liked Tania Carver...thriller, but well written.
—dandeliontreex
