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Title: long-winded and bloated.
Review: I had just finished one of Connolly's later books, "Bad Men", and saw this. Since it was his first book, I reasoned that this was the one in which he "made his bones" in the Crime/ Horror genre. Well, I can see evidence of the books to come in this, his first attempt. However, I found this to be a bit bloated and long-winded. No doubt Connolly wanted to show his "chops" and start strong but fell into the "look how tormented I am" school of florid and sometimes silly exposition and "can you believe this?" piling-on of gore upon gore. We get it, John! Unlikely scenarios are coupled with long-winded psychological babble from who else?: a foxy criminal "profiler", who, of course, is drawn to our "tragic" hero. If only...As I said, his later stuff is more finely drawn and much tighter than this. Try one of them.
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