“I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man. Now I am the woman who is going to catch him.”
These are from the opening pages of Eve Black’s true crime memoir, “The Nothing Man: A Survivors Search for the Truth”. The Nothing Man committed a string of home invasions, assaults and murders, twenty years ago in Cork county. Named so by the press because he leaves no evidence behind at the scene of the crime. At the age of twelve, Eve was the only member of her family to survive a Nothing Man attack, now as an adult she is obsessed with finding the man that ruined her life.
Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle is reading it too. The Nothing Man was - is - his other name. With each turning page Jim’s rage grows, he needs to know what Eve knows. The more he reads the more he realises how dangerously close Eve is to getting to the truth.
I love the concept of reading a book within a book, getting fully immersed into Eve’s story telling only to be interrupted and punctuated with Jim’s reactions and corrections. This was my first Catherine Ryan Howard book and I will definitely be reading more. Her easy to consume writing style, memorable characters and fascinating structure makes for a great thriller book!
These are from the opening pages of Eve Black’s true crime memoir, “The Nothing Man: A Survivors Search for the Truth”. The Nothing Man committed a string of home invasions, assaults and murders, twenty years ago in Cork county. Named so by the press because he leaves no evidence behind at the scene of the crime. At the age of twelve, Eve was the only member of her family to survive a Nothing Man attack, now as an adult she is obsessed with finding the man that ruined her life.
Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle is reading it too. The Nothing Man was - is - his other name. With each turning page Jim’s rage grows, he needs to know what Eve knows. The more he reads the more he realises how dangerously close Eve is to getting to the truth.
I love the concept of reading a book within a book, getting fully immersed into Eve’s story telling only to be interrupted and punctuated with Jim’s reactions and corrections. This was my first Catherine Ryan Howard book and I will definitely be reading more. Her easy to consume writing style, memorable characters and fascinating structure makes for a great thriller book!