I enjoyed this crime thriller. It is the first book I have read by Steve Mosby and will happily read more books written by him ( )

Are you the person you want to be?

While Steve Mosby’s ‘The Nightmare Place’ is primarily a crime thriller focused on the hunt to catch a violent serial offender, it has quite a strong tilt towards self judgement and self assessment, which I found interesting.

DI Zoe Dolan could have turned into a criminal herself, if it weren’t for the gentle guiding hand of an older male police detective, and as her mentor nears the end of his life, she finds herself reflecting on her own approach to her community and her history.

But I suppose I really should start with the crime element of the crime thriller!

-- What’s it about? --

The ‘creeper’, a violent predator who attacks glamorous single women at home in their beds, is escalating.
DI Zoe Dolan and DI Chris Sands are part of the police team hoping to catch him before he can cause any more harm.

They don’t know who he is, how he accesses his victim’s homes, or how he selects his next victim.

Meanwhile Jane Webster begins volunteering for Mayday, a confidential helpline for troubled people. Jane has been trained to handle SIPs (Suicide In Progress) and sex calls, but her training hasn’t prepared her to listen to a killer confess...

Is the Mayday call a hoax or is this the clue the team has been waiting for? Instead of solving the case, this clue might just make life even more frightening for the killer’s vulnerable victims.

-- What’s it like? --

Violent. Reflective. Creepy.

Expect a tidal wave of violence against women, who seem to exist in this story primarily to be attacked by men. I mean, I understand that the storyline kind of requires that, but even Jane, our timid Mayday volunteer, is trying to quieten Daddy’s voice in her head as he sneers that she “can’t do that”. Zoe’s old mentor is the only decent male character in the whole book, though to be fair DI Sands seems perfectly harmless.

Mosby is a good writer and I really enjoyed many of his linguistic flourishes, like this one:

‘As a whole, it looked more like an object than an actual home: something predatory that had seen a house once and was pretending to be one.’

I read that several times over and still love that image. A good writer can grip me where the plot doesn’t quite, and I think that’s what happened here. I enjoyed Mosby’s written style and the contemplative parts of the narrative, I just wasn’t that interested in the actual story. I could guess who the culprit was quite early on and although he is certainly given enough fleshing out to be a convincing villain, I have to confess to being fascinated by the psychology of villains, and my craving went unsatisfied here.

That said, Steve Mosby is a big fan of horror, and this book certainly horrifies. A woman should be safest in her home, in her bedroom, when she's alone, right? I'm sure that would be true, if she were really alone...

Ultimately, it’s a decent read with good closure.

-- Final thoughts --

The opening chapter made my heart stop. Honestly. If you’re female and want to start reading this at night, in your home, alone, my advice would be DON’T - not unless you want to find yourself sleeping with the lights on and a weapon stashed nearby! Start reading in the daytime, and be ready to decompress before trying to sleep.

There is plenty of violence described in the book, but nothing unnecessarily gory or gruesome. I didn’t need to take a break from any of the descriptions.

This is a good, solid police procedural, though Mosby does seem to have a slightly irritating habit of just leaping into police interview scenes without us knowing why the suspect is there. I suppose this is all part of the suspense building, but I just personally found it a bit irritating.

I have read some criticism of the ending, but think it is sufficiently satisfying and psychologically plausible enough. My bigger issue is the whole ‘how does he get in?’ debacle. I mean, honestly, the police didn’t consider that solution once until presented with it? Where are their policing qualifications meant to be from?

Minor niggles aside then, I really enjoyed reading 'The Nightmare Place' and look forward to reading another book by Steve Mosby. ( )

I apologise for any clichés used in this review but sometimes they are needed.
What a page turner! I love crime novels, I love serial killer novels and I love everything Steve Mosby has ever written, what could go wrong? Answer; not a thing. The opening chapter is the creepiest, cleverest thing thing I have ever read. You literally have to go and check every nook and cranny of your house before continuing. I read this book sitting in the garden in gorgeous sunshine but it still scared the life out of me.
Mosby has created a truly scary book with a truly horrific baddie in ‘The Creeper’. You will probably work out who they are before the ending but it doesn’t matter as the climax is a race against time to stop him before he claims his next victim. There are red herrings aplenty as there are a few other characters who are unpleasant enough to be the protagonist but he cleverly weaves the story together and avoids loose ends and unanswered questions. I particularly liked the fact that the two main characters were both women. Zoe is a fantastic characterisation; a tough no-nonsense cop without being a cliché (unlike some of this review).
I’m not sure if this is going to be a series or it was a standalone (guess which I’d prefer!) All I can say is that if you love good crime treat yourself to a read of this. ( )

Steve Mosby
THE NIGHTMARE PLACE
Pegasus Books, 2014
328 pages
Detective / Thriller

THE NIGHTMARE PLACE was my first ever Steve Mosby book. And right off the bat, the one thing that threw me off balance in this crime novel, this thriller, was that the police detectives do not carry guns. Or own them. Maybe it is because I am American, or have seen too many movies, and cop shows, whatever the reason I was stunned a bit by this. I even googled it, and with the exception of Northern Ireland, in the United Kingdom, only specially trained firearms officers carry a gun. It was at the beginning of the book when the main character, Detective Inspector Zoe Dolan had hidden hammers, and knives throughout her home. And not one handgun. Hmmm What do ya know? Learned something new.

Anywho . . . THE NIGHTMARE PLACE was the kind of thriller I knocked off in a sitting. A serial rapist is on the loose. He has a distinct calling card. He manages to get into houses without a trace, and after his brutal attacks, he tends to flee through a, now, wide open first floor window.

Police have five victims, and no leads. Things are looking bleak. The rapist has a type. The women are mid-twenties. Uniquely beautiful. And live alone.

Detective Inspectors Zoe Dolan and Chris Sands notice a growing trend. Each victim has been beaten after the rape. Only thing is, the beatings are progressively worse each time. How long before the rapist takes things to far and actually murders one of his victims?

Unfortunately, the officers don't have to wait too long before that question is answered.

When Jane started a volunteer position with a telephone helpline, she understood the rules. All calls were confidential. If they weren't, no one would ever call. The confidentiality made people feel safe about reaching out for help. The organization, Mayday, has helped many people over the years because of this rule. However, Jane realizes keeping calls confidential might go against her every fiber when the serial rapist starts calling Mayday and confessing his crimes to her. Torn, she isn't sure if she should honor the rules of her position, or take the information she has and share it with the police.

THE NIGHTMARE PLACE is a fast, and gripping thriller. I enjoyed Mosby's writing style, and character development. Spliced into the action-packed narrative, we learn so much about Zoe, her youth, and her fears, that she became more of a person, and less of a fictional character. Mosby managed to give this personification to most of the central characters, as well. I was engaged from the opening page, until I set the book down hours later. I do look forward to more by Steve Mosby . . . now where is my Amazon card? Ah--there it is! Excuse me. I've orders to make.

Phillip Tomasso
Author of The Severed Empire Series, and
The Vaccination Trilogy ( )