“We’re all soul-suckers here. We’re all vampires. Hollywood is filled with us, my dear, and we won’t think twice about sucking your creativity dry. We’re like a contagion.”

A mutilated body of a woman is found in the desert, a year after a similar unsolved murder. Detective Renney is assigned but he might know more than he’s letting on about the connections between the two murders. Across town, Maureen is freshly engaged to a Hollywood producer, Greg, after a very short whirlwind romance. But when his son returns to the house, Maureen’s safe life is upended and she begins to secretly investigate the son only to discover horrible secrets. Lastly, Toby, a young and unwell man, has developed an obsession with a woman he believes to be a vampire.

How do all these stories connect? In a fast paced, dark noir, twisty and violent story that will keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire ride.

Senseless, the new release from Ronald Malfi, hits shelves April 15th.

“No other state in the country boasts more unidentified bodies than California, Renney knew, and it was looking like this poor woman would be quietly and unceremoniously added to that tally.”

Here’s what I loved:

This was a new journey for Malfi and I really enjoyed his exploration of this more noir type sub-genre. It really suits his writing style. One of the things I always look forward to when reading Malfi’s books is the human emotion element. He seems to have such a strong grasp of human emotions and how to write them, especially grief. This book has all of those elements. As we focus on three main characters, it gives Malfi the chance to really stretch these skills and he did a fantastic job.

Toby was by far my favorite character to read. He’s so deeply disturbed and mentally ill but Malfi handles him with care. He’s also an incredibly unreliable narrator which I always love. His connection to Dracula and his constant allegory of the fly and the spider was just genius work.

This book just felt so gritty in the best way. The murder scenes are horrifying, and as we attempt to unravel the mystery, there’s so many red herrings and so many potential suspects that you feel the need to break out a murder board and the red string.

The church in the desert scenes were some of my favorite chapters. I was so enraptured in the story that I felt like I was parched and sunburnt. Another scene I loved was the final conversation between Detective Renney and Alan. I can’t say more without spoilers, but WOW. And that ending……AHHHHHHHHHHH!

“Renney felt in his bones that there was really no place on this planet so remote, so distant, as to obscure the inexcusable and calamitous nature of man.”

Overall, this was an outstanding new release from Malfi. I’ll read anything this guy writes, but this is probably one of my favorites of his. I could read a whole gritty noir series following similar characters in this world (Malfi…PLEASE!!). I highly recommend grabbing a copy of yourself when Senseless hits shelves April 15th, or better yet just pre-order it!

A big thank you to Titan Books for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.