A Killer's Essence A Novel

“A doozy of a doom-laden crime story” from the author of Small Crimes—now a major film—and The Caretaker of Lorne Field (The Washington Post). Stan Green is a jaded New York City cop assigned to the most shocking homicide of his career—and he finds only one witness, a neurologically damaged recluse subject to demonic hallucinations. Then the murderer strikes again. Stan’s best hope is a man who claims to be surrounded by ghoulish apparitions. And there’s just a chance this witness isn’t insane, but instead terrifyingly perceptive . . . Dave Zeltserman’s grisly crime novel is backgrounded by the 2004 ALCS playoffs, when the Red Sox triumphed over the Yankees. A knuckle-whitening, surprising, and compelling trip into Stan’s obsession with a brutal case, this serial-killer mystery is Zeltserman’s darkest, most gripping work yet. “Zeltserman’s lean but muscular style, so evident in A Killer’s Essence and The Caretaker of Lorne Field, is just as sharply honed here . . . Riveting.” —The Boston Globe “This eerie thriller deftly blurs the lines between madness and the perception of reality.” —The Star-Ledger “[A] chilling page-turner attuned to the most discerning of avid crime lovers. Well written and well paced. Recommended.” —New York Journal of Books “Zeltserman’s signature creepiness is available here and there, but what really drives this novel is the engaging portrait of an honest, hardworking cop who, on the job and off, gives the best he’s got, knowing how rarely it will be enough.” —Kirkus Reviews