The Nothing Man: The No. 1 bestseller. A brilliantly twisty blend of true crime and psychological thriller

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I loved “Rewind”, the first that I read by this author last year, and I am even MORE IMPRESSED with “The Nothing Man”! November 1993 at Kingsway Studio, New Orleans, Louisiana; vocals recorded in February 1994 at Bad Animals Studio, Seattle, Washington That Ryan Howard manages to give Eve a presence in this book, as Jim reads her novel, is a testament to just how damned good a writer she is. What I loved most about THE NOTHING MAN is that it was a "book within a book" - which is a favourite trope of mine. I enjoyed "reading" the true crime novel by Eve while simultaneously being put into the mind of Jim, the actual Nothing Man. It felt dark and voyeuristic to experience the story through Jim's perspective and I was contently on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what his next move would be. I just had to know if Eve would be able to reveal the true identity of the Nothing Man or if he would find her first. No spoilers here, you'll just have to read the book to find out! This is terrifying without being too gory, it’s expertly written with great character development. It has everything I love in a great mystery/thriller.

Atreyu starts his journey with his horse, Artax, while having to escape both the Nothing itself and its main agent, the werewolf by the name of Gmork. This journey is being recorded in the normal world into a book called The Neverending Story, and displayed as a friendless boy named Bastian Balthazar Bux is reading it. Far from being a simple fantasy novel, the book is the link between the normal world and Fantasia, and Bastian is helping sustaining it by sympathizing with the Fantasians' plight and making mental pictures of all that he reads about. The Nothing is influenced by the mysterious Manipulators: incarnations of the worst aspects of imagination, who seek to unleash the lies it spawns on the real world to break humanity's spirit and take control. They are never seen and can be viewed as a metaphor for everyone shunning originality and twisting beliefs for their own gain. This is remarkable mash up of True Crime podcasts- documentaries-memoirs. You’re reading a memoir hid inside a thriller book and getting inside of a serial killer’s brain at the same time like binge watching Making a murderer, Confession Tapes, Amanda Knox. The writing style is impeccably unique. In the novel, the Nothing is an inconceivable, formless, featureless, colourless negation of existence, impossible to describe, surrounded by an otherworldly mist. An abstract oxymoron that cannot and should not exist, for it does not and yet it is. When Atreyu attempts to look at it from a distance, he is unable to process what stands before his eyes, and the very sight causes him such pain that he is forced to look sideways. The sensation is described as like going blind. What comes too close begins to lose colour, then become transparent and gaseous, before vanishing.This book was so unique and so well written and I was incredibly hooked. The book is written in two POVs. For Eve’s part we are reading her actual published work along with Jim. Interspersed with Eve’s case reports and personal recollections, we get inside Jim’s head to see how he is feeling about what he’s writing, his own memories of the killings so many years before, and his life now. Each perspective uncovers secrets that bring twists that I didn’t see coming. Impressive ... skilfully executed ... The Nothing Man is a compelling and considered crime thriller. More than just fodder for crime fiction fans, it is an astute examination of our problematic modern obsession with serial killers, and the importance of truth as well as thrills. * Sunday Times (Ireland) *

Nothingman is usually performed at a slightly, though perceptibly, faster tempo in concert compared to the studio version, as is Pearl Jam tradition with many live songs. Catherine Ryan Howard is a gift to crime writing. Her characters are credible, her stories are original, and her plotting is ingenious. Every book is a treat to look forward to.” Jim and his unsolved crime spree gave me the Golden State Killer vibes. Now that GSK has been caught, it was easy to picture an old man reliving his glory days through a true crime profile about him and wondering if he had it in him to kill again. If you are familiar with GSK’s crimes, then you know they are quite horrendous. Fair warning then that parts of The Nothing Man include brutal scenes of rape and murder.The queen of high-concept crime fiction strikes again: this is the first novel I’ve read that really captures the chills and twists of the true crime that obsesses us. Catherine Ryan Howard has always been thrillingly good at what she does, but she’s just getting better and better with every book.” I don't know what it is about books with the word "Man" in them, but I have yet to read one I didn't love. The Chestnut Man, The Whisper Man, The Chalk Man and now The Nothing Man! Ryan Howard’s characterisation of Jim, and of Eve through her writing is powerful stuff. Jim is a misogynist, powerful once as The Nothing Man before he stopped killing and now he’s trapped in a powerless life. What I loved most about THE NOTHING MAN is that it was a "book within a book" - a favourite trope of mine. I enjoyed "reading" the true crime novel by Eve while simultaneously being put into the mind of Jim, the actual Nothing Man. It felt dark and voyeuristic to experience the story through Jim's perspective and I was contently on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what his next move would be. I just had to know if Eve would be able to reveal the true identity of The Nothing Man or if he would find her first. No spoilers here, you'll just have to read the book to find out! The author’s debut novel is a pretty clever one with a book within a book making it interesting. It is written from Jim’s POV but the book within the book is by Eve. It was confusing a bit with this pattern as the other characters are constantly in and out but it gets more clearer pretty soon. With the POVs, the narrations move between past and present giving few clues step by step to unravel the killings. It almost feels like a true-crime fiction novel.

The story begins when the Childlike Empress sends the young warrior Atreyu to find a cure for her illness, so as to dispel the Nothing that is slowly consuming Fantasia. Eve is no longer a child, she is a grown woman with an agenda - she is going to catch the Nothing Man. A writer from a young age, Eve has written a true crime memoir about the Nothing Man, his victims and her personal experience with him the night he killed her family.

This brilliant and creepy book blew my mind! I was utterly addicted — my mind was thinking of this book even when I wasn’t reading it — anxiously awaiting the next time I could steal a few moments (or hours) to sit down and inhale this story. Nothingman" was featured in the Californication episode "In Utero" in 2008. The song was also featured in the Cold Case episode "Into the Blue" in 2009. It’s no easy feat to make Eve feel as present as she is in the book, while Jim is in present time, reading her book. And even more impressive, is that Howard makes even the most minor of characters complex, and compelling.