Normal by Graeme Cameron

A psychological thriller with a serial killer you just might start to like, if you can look past all the dead bodies that is.

It wasn't until I read the conversation with Graeme Cameron in the back of the book that I realised something that I had completely missed. I was so engrossed in the read that I never queried it for one second. I won't tell you what it is though and I wonder if other readers will notice or not.

I think the point the author is trying to make is that he can be and is everyone. He can be the nice neighbour, the loving father, the one night stand or the nameless person stood next to you at the bus-stop. The killer is just so very normal.

Not sure what exactly is more disturbing, the fact he is so normal, whilst being so abnormal or the fact the author has captured the quintessence of him so well. Perhaps a little too well.

The inner dialogue was quite fascinating and revealing. He spends half his time killing and the other half trying to atone for those crimes by perpetrating acts of kindness. When he decides not to kill someone, who happens to wander into his web, that also counts as atonement in his mind.

Why is it different between him and Erica? Why is Erica not dead yet? It is perhaps because he sees something in her that he sees in himself? Or has she changed due to her new circumstances and that change has in turn made him change his attitude towards killing?

Fascinating read that had me shaking my head, speaking out loud to the potential victims, and at one point squinting and reading with one eye closed, because at times the ever so normal killer can be a bit gruesome..
I received a copy of this book courtesy of Harlequin UK and Harlequin MIRA.