Hey, this is rather good. It's set in dear old Baile Átha Cliath, particularly the leafier burbs of Sandymount, Stillorgan and Booterstown, where a psycho is on a rampage. And don't worry: Mr Psycho, who has his own voice in italics so we know it's him, has let the cat out of the bag by page 25. His mother was a sleep-with-everything-in-trousers alcoholic who screamed at her little boy and broke all his pencils. (Eh, hello, Mr Freud?) There's a nice (troubled) cop leading the good guys posse, a female "profiler" and a female pathologist. Actually, the ladies have quite good parts (well, apart from the murdered ones), perhaps testimony to the debut novelist's career in British semi-states? The plot drives the pace, but an editor might have spotted some clangers. I mean, who uses "hankies" anymore? Or "pushes prams" or has a "music player" around their necks? And not all journalists are rats/scumbags/obese alcoholics. The very idea!
