Couldn’t get into this book. Unfortunately not able to finish it as it just didn’t interest me therefore I am not able to leave a review or say anything constructive about this book.

Excellent psychological thriller! It moved at a fast pace with twists and turns throughout! Well-developed characters and plot. Highly recommend!

Being completely honest, I really struggled with this book. Whilst initially an interest concept, I found it a very difficult read. When Jason finds himself in a psychiatric facility with no idea why, I thought it was intriguing. But I found the plot somewhat simplistic in places. He progresses with therapy and is released which felt unrealistic. He pieces together his memory and is devastated to discover he has apparently murdered his wife after she killed their daughter who he is accused of having an affair with. His DNA was found inside his daughter. His son is also missing, apparently kidnapped.

We are then introduced to Jerry, a psychotic rapist and paedophile. The things he does to girls and women was distressing to read about and would be triggering for some I'm sure.

As distasteful as the subject matter was, this isn't my main problem with the book. The issue of how Jason's DNA was found inside his daughter was never resolved. There was no satisfactory explanation of the events that led to their deaths. And when Jason finds Jerry and discovers his actions, there is a short interrogation before the book simply ends abruptly.

Writers deal with difficult subjects but I just don't feel there was the depth needed in this book. The plot felt contrived and full of gaps that needed to be resolved.

As difficult as it is to give a bad review, I have to be honest, this just wasn't for me.

This is quite a difficult book to review as the topics involved are at times quite disturbing. Definitely not a book for the faint hearted that’s for sure. I wasn’t sure how this story was going to play out. The first chapters are Jason who has been committed to a mental asylum, although he seems to have no idea why he’s there. His mind has shut out what he doesn’t want to remember. He is there after being found guilty in court of murdering his wife Lisa after she has supposedly killed their daughter Lea after its alleged that Jason was having sexual relations with his own daughter. Their son Matthew is missing and no one knows where he is. Jason attends therapy sessions with Dr Thompson who won’t tell Jason why he is there as he feels it will be too much initially. But gradually he is told what happened but is what happened the truth? Does Jason have two personalities?

The second part of the book goes to Jerry and this is where the book is more disturbing as he is a voyeur, a sexual predator with a liking for underage girls, installing cameras in student housing as well as holiday apartments and he watches and records things. Some of this was a little too much and I found myself skim reading a few bits. Some of it was fairly sexually explicit

We then go back to Jason who is out of the mental institution trying to find who killed his wife and daughter and hoping to find his son. Again we then go back to Jerry.

Towards the end there is a plot twist but I found the actual ending disappointing I felt you were just left hanging. I’m not sure I would read something like this again and I don’t have a squeamish stomach.

I just wasn’t keen on how this was written in a couple of places I felt it repeated itself.

Note: aspects of this novel can be very disturbing. The following are mentioned, discussed, described in detail, or hinted at -- pedophilia, abuse, incest, rape, stalking, invasion of privacy, and sexual activity both on and off page. Much of it was extremely distasteful.

What it's about: This book is divided into narratives by two main characters, Jason and Jerry. Both speak in the first person so be sure to check which one is speaking. Jason Stankovic is confined to Jackson's Psychiatric Functional Rehabilitation Center for treatment after being found "not guilty by reason of insanity" after being accused of murdering his wife and incestuous relations with his daughter. He has a good lawyer, his best friend, Luke. The problem with Jason is that he can't remember anything about the crime and therapy and medication hasn't helped. He starts to make progress with a psychiatrist, Dr. Gary Thompson. Jerry is the worst of sexual predators and especially loves little girls. He's a stalker and is quite clever with his manipulation and covert activity. He's writing a manifesto explaining how superior men like him are and just how they will take over and transform the world. He intends to do his part to spread his seed. He's currently looking for a special alpha female to join him in creating this paradise. If I say too much more, it will be obvious and spoil the book for you so I'll have to stop here and wonder if you will come to the same conclusion as I did. In any event, at a point in the book, the story converges.

Should you read it? I don't know. It's quite long and drawn out and full of disgusting thoughts and behaviors. Jason and Jerry are repugnant and I detested both of them. But...oh, I can't say more except to tell you to look at the title. Read carefully for the clues, hints, claims. The thing is, the ending is so abrupt and leaves you hanging so you aren't even going to know for sure if you "got it" after all. I can't face the thought of a sequel as I wouldn't want to read more. I hope that the author's point for writing this was to provide a caution to parents to protect and monitor their children's interaction with other adults. All of them. There is depravity in this world and vigilance is a must.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the author for providing this e-book ARC to read and review. I need to go take a shower and find my happy place to get rid of the thoughts and images and worry in my head.

This is a disturbing and unpleasant book, following a psychopath and a predator (as you might think). I thought I knew where the plot was going, but I was wrong.

Jason has been committed to a mental asylum for the murder of his wife; his son is also missing. I found it unbelievable how the psychiatrist dealt with his case, and do not feel that in any country a mental health patient would be treated or spoken to in the way Jason was.

Jerry is manipulative, exploitive and an overall nasty character with no redeeming features. His treatment of women was appalling.

It is not particularly well written - there are some very clunky sentences, for example 'I succumbed to the floor breathing shallowly'. Really? There is little description or characterisation, just a lot of stereotypes and sex scenes. It did keep the reader guessing as to who were the bad characters, and also how the two characters' stories would interlink, assuming they eventually did.

Over all I was glad to finish the book. At the end the author does apologise if the book made the reader angry and he appeared to be trying to alert readers to the dangers of predators. It didn't make me angry - it was not written well enough to evoke any emotional response, other than a sick feeling.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a gritty, intense, gripping novel.

I was hooked within minutes! This book evokes real raw emotion, I'm not sure whether it's because I'm a mother and theres always that underlying fear of the dark side of the internet or whether Jay Kerk writes so brilliantly that you feel that you are there beside each character watching it unravel.

This book covers every worst nightmare and everything relevant in today's society.. mental illness, grooming/pedophilia, violence, drug abuse, stalking, murder...

There is definitely a unique style to the authors writing and they write with clear experience or understanding of mental illness and treatment.

Not for the faint hearted! I could not put this down even at times where emotions overtook me and I felt anger, despair and even disgust.

Sadly the ending for me was a disappointment, it left me with too many questions so 4* rating because of that BUT I would recommend this over and over.

Massive thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

No no no... the story ended quite abruptly with more questions than answers .. the plot was thin and the characters were quite frankly unbelievable.

This book was good and kept me turning the pages. However, i was disappointed with the ending which left me with unanswered questions. I am not going to write what the story is about, as i prefer one to read the book for themselves, but it may not suit all due to the graphic content. This included rape and child molestation.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review, which i have freely given.

# A Predator And A Psychopath # Netgalley
I can’t say I enjoyed this book as much as I thought I would.. I was really looking forward to reading this one. The first few chapters or so it was based around a psychiatric ward. Although Jason was trying everything in his power to blag his way out he couldn’t. His Dr was diagnosed with cancer. Yet he was trying to get him to open up to what he had done. Because his Dr and the cancer diagnosis. He ended up telling him how long he’d been in and why. Yet he swears he has no memory of what he was supposed to have done. Although it was interesting to a certain degree. It just didn’t live up the my expectations. That’s is just my own personal opinion.

Some reviewers are saying you’ll either love Jay Kerk’s book, “A Predator & A Psychopath,” or hate it. I am somewhere in the middle, applauding Kerk for his huevos in approaching this subject matter, and being somewhat dismayed by his writing skills. There’s no doubt that Kerk has a brilliant understanding of his subject matter, but his ability to get it out in his novel stumbles in places.

Jason is committed to a mental institution for an incident he neither remembers nor accepts that he is the perpetrator. He questions everything he is told and cannot separate the real from the unreal. It is revealed that he murdered his wife and his daughter is missing. He desperately wants to know the truth but is neither willing to accept it nor to find it is actually being told to him correctly.

Meanwhile, Jerry is a predator and free to go around town sniffing underwear, installing peep cameras and bugs to record single mothers’ activities, and selecting their ripe young daughters as recipients of his repulsive sexual activities. The catch to the story is determining what each of these two weirdos will do next and how they are connected. The subject matter is grotesque and unpleasant and the author sometimes gets tangled in his own web.

It will take a mature reader to get through all the unpleasantries. There might be an awakening of the reader’s awareness of this perversion, but the author deserves credit for that stimulation. The ending might be unexpected but shouldn’t be because the entire story is kinky. So, if curiosity and being willing to delve into eerie behavior strikes your fancy, this novel might be a good excursion for you.

This ARC was courtesy of netgalley - all thoughts and opinions are mine and unbiased

I've been reading some light, frothy romances leading up to this - this was dark and twisty turny - absolutely loved it !!

I found it engrossing and it kept me on the edge of my seat throughout

Its one of those books you see in the book store at the airport and think - 'that'll be a good one for the flight' - and it would !!

A fantastic summer read

Good thriller and easy to read. It was well written and enjoyable. I would deffo read more titles written by this author in the future! Thank you netgalley for the arc in return for a review.

Jason finds himself confined to a psychiatric institution. he has lost memory of the past months. Soon, he finds out that his wife, Lisa, and daughter, Lea, have been killed. His doctor leads him to the conclusion that he (Jason) has been more aware of what has been going on than he thinks. Also, Jason and Lea may have been having an intimate relationship...

Then we meet Jerry - a "hypersexual" misfit who likes his girls young. Jerry uses the dark web for a number of things - among them talking to a shrink who lost her license and a nutter that tells him to stop selling his sperm. Better yet, to become the father of 15-16 children - a tribe of sorts.

How are the two of them linked? Or are they?
Who killed Jason's wife and daughter?
Where is Jason's son, Mathew?

Does Jason suffer from multiple personalities?

A quick trip downward to alcohol, sex crimes and (of course) psychiatric problems.

I just want to know if Jay Kerk is planning a next book. There are too many questionable (unresolved?) areas that the reader wants answered.

A good start, Jay! The only thing I would suggest is a bit less time on Jerry...

Many Thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for a rather poignant story.

Jason is in a psychiatric hospital because of the murder of his wife and daughter. He doesn't remember killing them and believes that he's innocent because he loved them and would never hurt them. He eventually remembers that he has a son through countless therapy lessons. What happened to his son? Did he kill him also?

Jerry is a sexual predator, a "hunter" of young children. To him the younger the better. He is obsessed with sex and needs a release MANY times a day. He stalks his victims, watches them in their own homes via cameras he's set up and then manipulates his way into their lives. He's always looking for that perfect Alpha partner.

How do these two souls get intertwined in each others lives. Are they one in the same? What happened to Mathew? Who killed Lisa and Lea?

I experience so many emotions reading this book. I felt sympathy, sadness, anger and disgust. That is result of great writing. I was never bored or felt like the story was dragging. I was consumed in the story and finding out what really happened and putting closure to all the horrible things that had happened throughout. As much as I had to say it, I loved this book up until the very end. I needed more. I was left with so many questions that I had hoped would be answered.

I will definitely look for more books by Jay Kerk.

This starts with Jason, he’s in a psychiatric hospital after an event he cannot remember. Gradually, with the help of Dr Thompson he starts to cope with the knowledge his daughter Lea had been shot by her mother, his wife, Lisa. Lisa was also killed….was it Jason?

The story then jumps to Jerry, and this is the most unpleasant part of the story. He is a sexual predator, with a liking for underage girls. He also manages to install cameras in student housing and spies and follows them constantly. There is a lot of graphic and gratuitous sex in this part that made for difficult and uncomfortable reading….not for anyone with a gentle disposition and I have to admit to skipping some of this.

However, the story is very clever and has a twisty plot…. how are Jason and Jerry linked? Who killed Lea and Lisa? Where is Jason’s missing son, Matthew? Can Jerry be stopped ?

Thank you to Jay Kerk for a copy of the ebook. This is my honest and unbiased review.

This is a hard book to review. There was so many things running through my mind while I was reading it. The ending had NO resolution to the main story. I was left perplexed as to Jay's main storyline...that his daughter and wife were murdered and his son taken.
Yet that was NOT the main story. It seemed like it was a sidenote and only used to push the main character along.
At the end, NOTHING was resolved.
Plus I felt that the author threw in the three women at the end without giving us a good frame of reference....ie...how they ended up wherever they were.

Overall, the story was graphic and dealt with rape and child molestation.

Yet, I couldn't stop reading the book. The author does set up the story...but the ending fell flat.

Every now and again you stumble upon a rare find in a novel. And I’m happy to say that I’ve found that diamond in the rough.

Jason Stankovic is living a lie. Or what he perceives to be a lie. He’s been committed to a mental facility for reasons unknown to him. Of course, you aren’t just locked up in that type of facility for the hell of it, so why on earth was he committed there?

On the other side of town, take Jerry, who is a building handyman of sorts. His job isn’t that hard to do—in fact he finds what he does to be quite lucrative, but not in the money sense. Oh no, what Jerry does is find single mothers who are down on their luck to move into his building, and strange occurrences begin to happen. What strange occurrences, you ask? The sniffing of one’s underwear. Installing cameras and bugs throughout the apartment so someone can watch and listen to unsuspecting tenant’s every move. And as an added benefit, single mother’s daughters—quite ripe and ready for the picking!

Jason finally discovers the reason he’s been put into a mental facility and is now granted release. He’s been healed of what ailed him mentally, right? Once he gets out, his paranoia begins to get the best of him or is he being paranoid? His entire family is gone and he has no way of knowing where they are without any leads. The police don’t take him seriously, but there is one such person who shares Jason’s pain.

Are you confused? Well…you’ll have to read this very quirky and interesting read to find out more. Reader beware, though, this is not the type of story for the squeamish! Ooh no, quite the opposite. This story is for a very mature reader and one that can handle a grotesque subject matter. I have to say I enjoyed this story a great deal. Not exactly sure what that says about my taste in subject matters, but when an author can write such a good story and spin a tale so horrible, you’ve got to give your props!

As I mentioned at the top of my review that every now and again you stumble upon a rare novel, and this most definitely was one of them. I put this novel in the same class as some other greats such as Greg Levin’s In Wolves’ Clothing; Secondhand Smoke by Patty Friedman; Peter Hodges’ What’s Eating Gilbert Grape; and How I’m Spending My Afterlife by Spencer Fleury. Kerk is in great company! A story this horrible was that good and I couldn’t get enough! I kept tapping my Kindle waiting to find out what Jason and/or Jerry were going to do.

The ending wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I suppose as crazy as this story was, it was fitting. Overall, this was a weird ass story. There isn’t any other way to put it other than to say it just as I stated. If you’re the type of reader that is ‘open minded’ and willing to receive something a little different and read outside the box, if you will, then I say this book is most definitely for you. Not every story you read is going to be presented in a perfect box adorned with a bow. In fact, for me, I look for new voices in the literary game that can take it up a notch, and Kerk did the damn thing! However, having said that, his story is not for everybody and some may find the story line to be vulgar and insensitive. But not this reader! I loved it!

The Sexy Nerd gives A Predator and a Psychopath five zany stars out of this world! This was one of those reads that I will never ever forget because Kerk’s choice in subject matter is one that most don’t like to touch. He executed the story well. There’s some real life’s lessons to be learned dealing with those types of shady characters. Way to go, Kerk! I’m a fan!

I did not find this to be a very good book. The writing was choppy, the plot line too unrealistic, and the ending flat. My three star rating is generous since this is the author's first published book. Hopefully if there is a next one it will be better.

** Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review **
Si eres un fan de los thrillers, y sobe todo de los no del todo tradicionales, te recomiendo este libro. Es entretenido, y la lectura fluye, te mantiene leyendo y expectante, ademas tratando de sacar conclusiones hasta el final. Tiene un interesante desarrollo de los personajes, la tensión ademas te hace querer avanzar y avanzar en la lectura. El cierre de la historia es interesante y sorpresivo. No es mi genero predilecto, pero este libro ha aumentado mi interés en el y en el autor.