Simon Duke

This is intriguing mix of investigative procedural and road trip, wrapped around a tale of personal redemption. It's given a chilling menace by a calculating, appallingly accomplished serial killer. Representing the good guys, Gerry Stokes is an actively unsympathetic protagonist. He's an arrogant, bullying, antagonistic hack, the kind of man who sees women only in a sexual sense, and who exploits every nasty angle to give him the headlines he seeks, regardless of the lives he damages in the process.

As he joins the dots between a series of grisly killings, Gerry’s perspective starts to change. The hunt between him and the killer becomes much more than a potential best-seller, and Gerry’s motivation changes from a self-interested guilt-trip into a genuine desire to see justice served, no matter the consequence.

Author Simon Duke incorporates some clever plot conniptions and a selection of plausible supporting characters – each presented as a potential suspect for our consideration. In this respect, The Perfectionist echoes an old-fashioned whodunnit, where the reader gleefully participates in the investigation.

Inevitably, a book about a psychopathic murderer who mutilates his victims in order to perfect different techniques is going to have its gory bits. But the reader is insulated by the dispassionate delivery of the crime scene descriptions. Some sections of The Perfectionist could be a serial killer’s handbook, but they are almost clinically written. It’s like a particularly brutal biology lesson.
The editing and production of the ebook are far superior to most self-pubs, and there are only a few moments where an editor’s pen might’ve tightened things up a touch.

The Perfectionist is something of an American epic, spanning three decades and sprawling from one side of the continent to the other. Yet, like the very best crime fiction, it tells a relatively simple story – of an isolated man, who is reunited with the better aspects of humanity through an encounter with the very worst that man can accomplish.
8/10

There's more detail on this and other thrillers at
https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/the-perfectionist-hunter-hu...… (altro)