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You’re seventeen years old and your father is the most notorious serial killer America has ever produced.
He brought you up. Taught you everything he knows. Everyone in your ordinary American town knows who you are. So even though Dear Old Dad is safely behind bars, when the killing starts all over again, you are the first person the police come to see.
They don’t know whether it’s nature or nurture. And neither do you

First of all, I had a copy of “Game” and then realised that it was a book 2 – so thank you SO much to Transworld for indulging me and sending me this so I could start at the beginning. And what a beginning it was…

As a premise it was brilliant. Jasper Dent had a unique upbringing – his father was a serial killer, and like most fathers he was keen for his son to follow his career path. Jasper knows a lot about the deadly game of murder, so when bodies start popping up in and around his hometown, he is determined to discover what is going on and to prove once and for all that he is a decent human being and not someone who is about to gut you with a knife. However Jasper himself struggles with his true nature v nurture and this makes for some compelling reading..

Definitely an addictive rollercoaster ride this one – the author manages to offset Jasper’s inner struggle with his outer persona brilliantly – you are never quite sure what he is going to do. In a lot of ways he is a typical teenage boy, up to no good with his best friend, testing the waters of a relationship with his girlfriend and testing the boundaries of life. In all the other ways though he is anything but typical – horrific thoughts and flashback memories of his childhood haunt his dreams and he worries that one day he will step over a line that there is no coming back from. And yet he is SO loveable, compelling and utterly fascinating.

The story unfolds in breakneck fashion, interspersed with more thoughtful and emotional moments. The people surrounding Jasper are all intriguing in their own right for various reasons, best friend Howie is particularly well drawn. There is also a thread of dark, ironic humour running throughout that will often make you smile and the author casts a wry eye over those “coming of age” scenario’s by using an extreme method of insight. Very clever. And “Dear old Dad” is an enigmatic lunatic. Within the reading world I just love one of those..

Never have I been more pleased to have another instalment waiting at my fingertips – keep an eye out for a review of “Game” coming very soon.

If you like serial killer thrillers this is one like no other… and that is not all it is either, this is many things all wrapped up in one addictive reading package. I’m not really sure who I’d recommend it to. Hey actually I do know. Everyone! Try something new and improved, meet Jasper Dent.

Happy Reading Folks!