Senseless by Ronald Malfi

A body of a young woman is found mutilated in the desert and for Det. Bill Renney stumbling upon this body is like deja vu. A year earlier another woman had been found in the desert in the exact same state, but Bill knows for a fact this can't be a serial killer and it can't be a copycat because the details of the original murder were never released. 

Toby is a young man desperate to escape his overbearing mother, living mostly on the street he does day labor in order to survive. He spends his nights trolling clubs the worst of the worst because it's the only ones that will let him in. There he meets a young woman, a vampire she calls herself, and he begins what he believes is his calling in life as her Renfield. Unfortunately, Toby has difficulties distinguishing fantasy and reality and he soon finds himself spiraling into a dangerous obsession. 

Maureen is marrying Greg Lawson a lawyer and a film producer. While she is happy with their impending marriage she doesn't quite fit in with all of his Hollywood friends, which seems to be a huge plus for him. At their engagement party just when she's decided to stop worrying and attempt to mingle her stepson, whom she has never met crashes the party with one of his friends. It's immediately clear to Maureen that her soon-to-be husband hasn't been very forthcoming about his relationship with his son and she can almost understand why, Landon, is the type of person who makes you extremely uncomfortable just being near him. But, after his friend confesses that Landon has pictures of a murder victim and he's afraid Landon actually may be a murderer Maureen knows she needs to uncover what is going on in this strange new family she is supposed to be a part of. 

This is my first Malfi novel and to be honest, I didn't have any expectations, less horror and more thriller, I will admit that I did find myself bored at times. Bill and Toby's storylines especially seemed to drag on. Maureen's thoughts were highly interesting and had the story focused solely around her and the extremely dysfunctional family she was joining this easily would have been a five-star read. Maureen seemed to be the only one in the whole book who was functioning on any level of common sense and while Bill's mistakes (which are legion) are painted as a side effect of grief there are just too many for that to be believable. Toby is, of course, completely whacked out and for that reason alone I found his part in this absolutely unenjoyable. A kid with a troubled upbringing off his meds is low-hanging fruit no matter how you look at it. So in all honesty his character was highly disappointing. 

However, the twists and turns that we are sent down to see how all of these people's lives finally connect which leads to the deaths of four people ultimately was ingenious. When you get to the end and all of the suspects are being interviewed by the police it's so interesting to see how these tiny little interactions between complete strangers become this explosive nightmare of betrayal and murder. That part absolutely kept me on the edge of my seat, there is simply no way I could have sussed out how this all connected on my own. 

I do own every Malfi book up to this one (a friend gifted me their very large horror collection) so I will most definitely be reading more of his novels. Even with all of my complaints I still found this to be an elaborate mystery that kept me guessing up until the very end. 

As always thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for the eArc!