You set the trap. Now you can’t escape.
When an online prank goes viral and triggers a spate of gruesome murders, documentary maker Hazel Salter watches in horror. But then Hazel’s childhood friend, Meredith Hickman, is the next victim and Hazel knows she has to find out what happened to her.
Is it one killer or more? Random acts of violence, or part of a bigger, twisted plan?
The police have no leads, but Hazel has a theory – one she’ll stop at nothing to prove – and she also has a film crew. She’ll make a documentary, catch the killer, and give Meredith justice.
Her stage is the abandoned amusement park where Meredith was found.
Her cast are the family and friends the killer left behind.
And her crew? They keep disappearing, one by one…
A shocking, ‘just-one-more-page’ thriller with the most twisted killer you’ll ever meet. This book will hook you from the first page and keep you guessing long into the night. PERFECT for fans of James Patterson, Mo Hayder, and Chris Carter.
Title: Be My Killer
Author: Richard Parker
Published by: Bookouture
Publication Date: 26th May 2017
Links: UK: Amazon US: Amazon
My thoughts
This book has got everything your average horror fan would love, lots of blood and gore and scary scenarios, so much so that I had to chicken out part way through.
I thought the concept was brilliant as it shows how scary social media can be for a start. It reminded me of the great American horror films where you would have to watch them from behind a cushion. There was a huge element of humour throughout the book as well and I can imagine the author had a great time thinking of these elaborate ways of killing people.
I hope I can pluck up the courage to finish this one day as I would like to find out who it was but in the meantime here is an extract for your delight.
CHAPTER ONE
The only parts of her body Meredith Hickman could move were her eyelids. She could just blink them against the matted ends of her blood-soaked peroxide hair.
The barbed wire that tightly coiled her naked form to the cold stone pillar lacerated the bridge of her nose and held her head rigidly in place. It restrained every muscle and painfully secured her arms, which were crossed and pinned firmly to her chest.
Her teeth ground the taut metal that cut deeply across the corners of her mouth, and Meredith gagged as she tried to position her tongue against the sharp spikes. Dirty tears diluted and leaked dark mascara down her cheeks. She attempted to swallow but one of the barbs was already stabbing her throat.
The area beyond Fun Central’s derelict concrete walkway was in darkness. Perhaps she was going to be left here until one of the crackheads found her and let her go. Or did what they wanted to her. She prayed that’s what would happen.
She felt goosebumps prickle her pinioned shoulders but not from the freezing air. Meredith knew she was going to die. And in her twenty-six years she’d never left Broomfield.
The person who had taken her had been a shape at the periphery of her vision outside the bathroom of the fried chicken place before a sack that stank of paraffin had been put over her face. Then something heavy had slammed into her scalp. Meredith could feel the bruise pound under the raw and broken skin, still taste the vinegary Buffalo wings she’d been eating. She breathed out and flinched as the spiked metal pierced her stomach.
Movement behind her – whoever had stripped and bound Meredith was the other side of the pillar. She gasped as the wire cut deeper. They were pulling and tightening it. The tops of her arms throbbed as the blood was trapped and the steel points dragged and tore at her flesh.
Meredith struggled to shape her guttural pleas but agony squeezed them flat. Was it going to get any worse than this? She closed her eyes and kept them shut even after the wire had stopped contracting. Her wounds trickled warmth down the inside of her thigh.
‘Meredith,’ a calm voice whispered in front of her.
She cracked her eyes at the hooded person standing in the shadows. They took a step forward into the dim light, head bowed as they focussed on something in their gloved hands.
Meredith looked down and saw it was a tiny tube of glue. They unscrewed the cap and then moved the nib across the area under each of her eyebrows. She could only grunt incoherently and stare at their throat.
She could smell the cool solvent on her skin before the leather pads of their thumbs curled her false eyelashes against it and pressed them hard in place.
She couldn’t shake her forehead as they pushed it harshly against the pillar. A few moments later she was released. Meredith could feel the air on her exposed eyeballs and them quickly drying out as her lids fought to blink. Now she had no choice but to look at whatever they were going to do to her.
The hood spoke to Meredith through her tears and agonised begging, so she only heard some of what they said. But it was enough. They retreated back into the gloom when she understood. She couldn’t accept what they’d told her. How could she have brought this on herself?
Meredith waited for them to return but their footfalls faded before she heard a car door slam.
She was still going to die; nobody would find her and cut her down in time.
An engine started. They were leaving.
Her circulation coursed irregularly through her constricted limbs. Meredith sucked in air through her nose. Unconsciousness began to release her.
But the black haze was quickly bleached out.
Meredith Hickman was illuminated and couldn’t seal her eyes against a blinding set of headlights turning square in her direction. The car accelerated, hurtled through the main entrance and rocketed straight at her.
Book Angel x
About the author
Parker is an ex TV script writer, script editor and producer who now writes dark, stand alone thrillers. His first novel, Stop Me, was nominated for a Dagger Award. The movie rights to his second, Scare Me, have been bought by Hollywood studio Relativity Media with screenplay completed by Wentworth ‘PRISON BREAK’ Miller and his third, Stalk Me, rode high in the US and UK Amazon charts.
www.richardjayparker.com
https://www.facebook.com/richard.jayparker.9
https://twitter.com/Bookwalter
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