For two years, a serial rapist/killer preyed on the residents of Cork, Ireland, but after his most brutal killing, which took the life of Eve Black's family the violence suddenly comes to a halt. The Nothing Man is an excellent, unique and beautifully written thriller, told in the format of a book within a book from perspective of two characters, Jim Doyle, the Killer, and Eve Black one of his surviving victims. Yet despite the fact that the reader know all of the actors involved in these heinous crimes, one will soon realize it is not the who but the why that keeps them riveted.
What's scarier than the portrait of a serial killer, the portrait of both his faces, that of a mad man and that of a family man. Reading Eve's true crime memoir through the eyes of a killer and being privvy to his inner thoughts was absolutely terrifying. Now there are parts of the book that can read a bit like a police procedural so how much one enjoys those parts will depend on one's interest in the forensic of a crime. In other parts, the book reads like a memoir so how much those sections are enjoyed will depend on ones interest in the examination of psychological trauma. I found myself vested in Eve's story, so I enjoyed all aspects of its unfolding, whether it was the examination of previous evidence and interviews with other people involved, particularly detective Ed Healy as well as the exploration of Eve's own psyche. The Nothing Man is a fantastic thriller where astonishing revelations constantly unfolds up until the book's gratifying conclusion.

You guys. This book! Easily the best crime thriller I’ve read in a while. And it’s a book about a book which, hello, how cool? And it takes place in Ireland which is my favorite place in the whole world. Ok. It’s about Eve, who survived a brutal attack in her home by a serial killer that left her whole family dead. He remains at large for years and Eve decides that maybe if she writes a book about him she can draw him out and he can finally be caught. So the point of view changes between Eve, the serial killer and excerpts from her book as the serial
Killer is reading it. I don’t want to give too much away so I’m just going to say read this book. I finished it in less than 24 hours because I didn’t Want to put it down. The writing style is on point, Catherine Ryan Howard is a wonderful writer who keeps the flow of the story going even though she changes the point of view and the timeline frequently. I will be completely honest here and admit that I requested this book because I thought the author was Catherine Ryan Hyde and I’d enjoyed one of her other books. I’m so glad I made that mistake (can you really blame me though??) because this book is amazing. Would make an excellent book club choice, lots to discuss here. I also loved the ending which is where a lot of books lose me, especially in this genre. Ok stop reading this review and go read this book!! **thank you NetGalley for providing me with this free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Interesting and clever

I liked this story and the book within a book format. It worked really well. The shift between the criminal and victim also was handled deftly.

One thing that was irritating was the multiple blank pages sprinkled throughout the entire story. It took me out of the story, atmosphere.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Blackstone Publishing for a copy in exchange for a review.

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard did not do it for me. This is not typically my kind of read but it got great reviews so I thought I would give it a try. The beginning had great potential, then it just seemed to drag on and at the end I was glad it was over.

The Nothing man is a serial killer, he got his name because nobody could find out anything about him. He left Eve Black alive after killing her mother, father and her sister Anna. Eve was twelve at the time. Hers was the last family he killed. She grew up determined to find out the Nothing Man’s identity.

His victims: Alice O’Sullivan, Christine, Kiernan, Linda O’Neill, Maria Miara, Martin, Connolly, Ross Black and Anna Black..

The Nothing Man was a monster who toyed with his victims. “He started with a knife, then got a gun.” He began his horror spree “with a physical assault, and then moved on to rape before graduating to murder..”

Fast forward twenty years after Eve’s family was killed, Eve decides to write a book to draw out the Nothing Man. She figures out that a blue rope and a knife ties the Nothing Man to all the murders, and now she wants to find out how he picked his victims. What did they all have in common? Would Eve Black ever find him? Would she figure out why she was left alive? Would she figure out how all the victims were connected? If you are interested read to find out!

After finishing this book and reading reviews it seems like I am in the minority so I encourage you to give it a try. Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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I was super psyched to get an advance ecopy of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘢𝘯 because it sounded like everything I love in a book: a thriller with a true crime twist (the Nothing Man is a serial killer in Ireland like The Golden State Killer) where the story is told thru the eyes of the uncaught killer who's shocked and intrigued when his last surviving victim releases a book about him. The book takes place as he's reading said book.⁣
This format was fascinating! I stayed up far too late reading through the wonky formatting (advance ebooks don't always get the formatting right) to finish this because I had to know what happens! ⁣
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If you like True Crime and Thrillers, this is the book for you! Especially if you were interested in the GSK case!

I received an advanced audiobook edition and egalley for THE NOTHING MAN by Catherine Ryan Howard in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for the chance to read and review! I really enjoyed the author’s 2019 release REWIND, so was very excited to read this one!

Publication Date: 8/18/2020
Rating: 4.5 / 5
THE NOTHING MAN begins with the release of a new true crime book written by Eve Black, the only survivor when her family is killed by a man known as The Nothing Man. Now an adult, Eve is taking a hard look at what happened to her family when she was just twelve years old and to the killer’s other victims. The Nothing Man moniker came about because it was said the police had nothing on him, but Eve is determined to identify him and bring him down.

Jim Doyle is a security guard who spots Eve’s memoir on the shelf and is instantly drawn to it because he is the unknown man at the center of the book. The more he reads of Eve’s take on his story, the more he fears that she’s closing in on him. With the publication of her book, the case is getting new attention and Jim must protect himself at all costs.

This book was so unique and so well written and I was incredibly hooked. The book is written in two POVs. For Eve’s part we are reading her actual published work along with Jim. Interspersed with Eve’s case reports and personal recollections, we get inside Jim’s head to see how he is feeling about what he’s writing, his own memories of the killings so many years before, and his life now. Each perspective uncovers secrets that bring twists that I didn’t see coming.

The author does a great job of distinguishing these two voices. From Eve we get personal accounts, but in a way that makes sense for an edited, published memoir for public consumption. From Jim we follow along with his thought tangents and paranoia as his worry gets more and more intense. The audio did this very well also in using two different narrators for the two different POVs.

I highly recommend you add THE NOTHING MAN to your TBR and I’d encourage you check out the audio as well!

I don’t know what words to use to accurately describe how phenomenal this book truly was. I was a huge fan of I’ll be Gone in the Dark primarily due to the raw emotions McNamara wove throughout the story. Catherine Ryan Howard did the same thing in The Nothing Man. While I knew it was a work of fiction, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was reading a real life true crime book. Eve was such a strong female character and when I realized what she was doing, I cheered out loud.

The formatting of this story was fascinating. It’s an interesting concept to think about a killer reading a book about their crimes after having gotten away with it for so long. All the elements I would expect to be possessed by the killer were present. He was narcissistic, misogynistic, and had a small victim complex. Getting into his head was both fulfilling but equally disturbing considering this is probably exactly what James DiAngelo was like.

I couldn’t get enough of this book. I could have read it in one sitting. Any true crime fanatics will feel right at home reading this novel and is a must-read for everyone. I can’t wait to check out Catherine’s other work

Honestly, THIS is what a thriller should be!

As a long time fan of Catherine Ryan Howard, and having read all of her crime fiction to date, I can attest to the fact that she is not a one trick pony. She does mystery, suspense, and all around thrilling storylines with the ease of a seasoned vet, and I am hard pressed to choose a favorite novel that she has written because they're all so engaging. The beauty of The Nothing Man is that the reader is acquainted with the identity of the killer in the first chapter, thus removing the barrier of distraction surrounding the "whodunnit twist" and returning the focus on controlling the anticipation of the game of cat and mouse at hand. The ebb and flow of tension is expertly achieved, and the small details included, such as the author's name on the acknowledgements of Eve Black's book, really put this over the top. If you enjoy top notch thrilling entertainment featuring a book within a book, you desperately need to get your hands on this book!

"The Nothing Man" was an addictive, cat-and-mouse-style psychological suspense thriller following the alternating story of serial killer Jim Doyle, and the one victim that survived, Eve Black. You will not be able to put this down!

WOW what a thriller! A retired serial killer... his last victim... a book within a book... Catherine Ryan Howard hit it out of the park with this cleverly crafted story. The audiobook is narrated by Alana Kerr-Collins and John Keating both narrators brought another layer to this compelling story. The book is told from the perspective of both Jim (The serial killer) and Eve (the victim)so the dual narration really enhance the book. And bonus the book takes place in Ireland and the narrators have Irish accents, but they were super easy to understand (not tremendously thick accents but pleasant to the ear for sure).

The book starts off with Jim working at a grocery store as security picking up a book called: The Nothing Man. The book is written by a victim of a serial killer named the Nothing Man by the media. Jim is agitated and rightly so because he is in fact the NOTHING MAN. Love spending time in the mind of crazy and Jim was one crazy SOB. He was also very paranoid that he was going to get caught, convinced Eve knew who he was. Eve was a great character, I loved her strength and her tenacity. Watching this compulsive story unfold was so much fun. It was just the perfect amount of tension, an addictive game of cat and mouse. I was on the edge of my seat and completely enthralled. I don’t often get scared in books, but there is a part of this book involving a bathtub and I was reading in the middle of the night, I seriously jumped. Thoughtful pacing and perfect narration this is one you won’t want to miss!

This book in emojis 📖 🔪 🩸 🏚

*** Big thank you to Blackstone for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

I was looking forward to this book as I’ve enjoyed reading Howard in the past. And I feel sure that this story and plotting were up to her standards as I read other reviews. My Kindle copy, however, was a disaster. Many of the pages were blank or had squiggles or well … most of them had a large blank space with a part of a sentence at the bottom followed by a blank page with a ½ paragraph on the next page. I kept reading, thinking that would work itself out.

However, the words, themselves, were not much better. There were glaring errors in grammar as well as in sequence of events. After 1/3 I gave up. I’ll just wait until the actual hardback comes out.

It was a good premise and I do want to know what happened. I have to give a star rating so I'll rate it a 3, but expect it to turn out to be a 5.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Stare at the dark too long and you will eventually see what isn't there.

Or just maybe it really really is........

Eve Black is held hostage by her thoughts. Deepening thoughts that have her revisiting a horrendous crime that took place inside her childhood home twenty years ago in Cork City. It still presses upon her that she broke free from her upstairs bedroom that night while her father, mother, and young sister were killed.

They still call him The Nothing Man. Even though his deadly presence will last a lifetime, the police were unable to find even a trace left behind. Crime after crime after crime. But now as an adult, Eve believes that the only way to find peace is to write about her experience and the experiences of the other victims. She is on a quest to snap clues together in order to lead a path to The Nothing Man's door.

And here's where we hold in our hands an unsettling dose of the creep factor ladled out by the heavy-handed talent of Catherine Ryan Howard. Look over your shoulder. Someone is leaning against the wall with eyes locked into the pages of Eve's now popular book. He desperately wants to know what Eve remembers after all these years. The Nothing Man regrets one thing. That he wasn't able to silence Eve completely that night. But fate is bringing him another opportunity.

Catherine Ryan Howard has laid out a highly creative haunting tale of things that continue to go bump and bump again and again in the dark. The Nothing Man plays out like those curious wooden Russian dolls with one fitting inside the other. Howard writes of The Nothing Man's escapades while Eve Black writes about her mind-boggling experience with the monster while the monster, himself, reads her story word by word. Lordy! There's nothing more earth-shaking than to roll around inside a serial killer's head as he recounts his crimes jogged by these written memories. Howard reminds us that they're out there. Day-to-day people you'd never suspect. But beneath the surface, the hounds of Hell beat a staccato rhythm just waiting to be released.........

I received a copy of The Nothing Man through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Corvus Publishers and to Catherine Ryan Howard for the opportunity.

First, a thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I first came across this ARC I was really excited about it because for some reason, either based on my own assumption or from a review I read a while back, I thought it was nonfiction. I haven't read a lot of nonfiction so far this year, so that was a plus point. It was also the reason I was dragging my feet since true crime was something I loved as a teen, but not so much more. Prefer it fiction. So, when I realized that I'd read and loved previous book, Rewind, my I took off running. Luckily it didn't disappoint. Although for a fairly short book, it was not at all a fast read, and it too me a while to get in the flow. I'm guessing that it's the ARC as there are a lot of blank pages and others with only one sentence which means there a lot extra scrolling, but such is a minor issue. The book being written within a book, with the killer reading the final version upon publication as a fascinatingly unique premise (if there are others I haven't read) and I really enjoyed the book's distinction. In a way it reminded me a lot of Capote's In Cold Blood, both in story line and avant-guard feel. It would make a good movie - I'd watch it - and I will definitely be ordering it for our library.

What a great mind blowing read!

It was absolutely brilliant and chilling read!

The story is told from the killer's point of view and the victims.

It is a book within a book and that works well .

I will not give anything away and will only say don't miss The Nothing Man, you will be looking over your shoulder and it will stay with you for some time.

Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone publishing for a fantastic read!

I love Catherine Ryan Howard; I've read Rewind (a five-star read, for sure), The Liar's Girl, and Distress Signals.

The Nothing Man was good, especially as it neared the end. For me, however, it was more difficult to get into than the author's other novels--I think because of the book-within-a-book approach. While I realize that detailed information was necessary to build up to the story's powerful ending, the momentum just wasn't there for me until about two-thirds of the way through.

I'm glad I continued reading, though! I also thought it was fun that Eve Black mentioned Catherine Ryan Howard in the acknowledgements of her book. :)

If I could give The Nothing Man more than five stars, I would without a shadow of a doubt! Catherine Ryan Howard deserves a place on the New York Times Bestseller list for this one. She essentially wrote a book within a book and the framework works flawlessly. Readers will be captivated instantly and taken on a journey as Howard starts connecting dots between Eve Black and the Nothing Man's attacks, but also delves into what the Nothing Man's daily life looks like. For people who like to predict the end of Criminal Minds episodes, myself included, there are still surprises that you won't see coming! Having read all of her previous novels, I think The Nothing Man is easily my favorite (and this comes from someone who *loved*) Distress Signals!

The Nothing Man is a slow burning mystery with clever plotting and intriguing characters. It took me a while to really get into it, but when I did, I couldn't put it down!

“I miss my family like phantom limbs. Their absence in my life, the tragedy of their fates and the pain they must have suffered is a constant ringing in my ears, a taste in my mouth, and itch on my skin. It’s everywhere, always, and I can’t make it go away. Time hasn’t healed this wound but made it worse, turned the skin around the original cut necrotic. I understand much more about what I lost now, at thirty, than I did when I actually lost it at twelve”.

“Colette, my father’s mother—whisked me away to a place called Spanish Point on Ireland’s Atlantic coast. We arrived there in the middle of October, just as the last few seasonal stragglers were packing up, and moved into a tiny white washed cottage that she said had been there since before the Famine”.

Eve Black is the soul survivor of a horrific triple family murder —
She wants to be a normal child. When she starts her new school... she never tells anyone the truth about how her parents died.

Years later, Eve writes a book about what happened.

Jim Doyle is a serial killer. Alive.
He’s reading Eve’s book...

The writing is brilliantly clever ( with it’s true crime background) ....
To say much more would truly spoil the thrill factor....
Other than...
I devoured this laconic, atmospheric page-turning novel in one sitting.

Thank you Blackstone Publishing, Netgalley, and Catherine Ryan Howard

Yay, a mystery/thriller that I enjoyed! The Nothing Man is a book-within-a-book about a serial killer who is reading the true-crime memoir that one of his victims wrote. Eve lost her mother, father, and sister to The Nothing Man when she was twelve years old, and she hopes with writing the memoir about him and all of his victims that maybe she will be able to solve who he is. I really enjoyed the author's use of Eve's memoir and The Nothing Man's reactions to her book; I found it to be very unique. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys true crime and thrillers. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Before picking the book itself, I was super intrigued by the whole premise. The survivor of a serial killer’s last killing now writes a book about the incident after 20 years. The killer is still free and ends up reading the book. The faceoff between them definitely was explosive and is satisfying after all these years. The survivor, Eve was 12 when the whole terror occurred and what she is planning to do by writing the book now after all these years? The serial killer, Jim is now an old man working as a security guard at a store. How does this book affect him now? Do we get all the answers?

The author’s debut novel is a pretty clever one with a book within a book making it interesting. It is written from Jim’s POV but the book within the book is by Eve. It was confusing a bit with this pattern as the other characters are constantly in and out but it gets more clearer pretty soon. With the POVs, the narrations move between past and present giving few clues step by step to unravel the killings. It almost feels like a true-crime fiction novel.

Overall, an engaging thriller!