Promise

I read Promise by Tony Cavanaugh who has written a number of Australian screenplays.  This is his first novel which is about a former Melbourne homicide detective Darian Richards who "escapes" to Noosa for a quiet life.  However, it is not long before he is caught up in the hunt for a particularly gruesome serial killer who stalks his mainly girl victims before snatching them and subjecting them to horrific acts.  Darian is determined to track down the murderer and ensure he will never kill again.  He has some help from a female detective working at the local police station and also from a computer geek able to hack into systems to expedite the investigation.  The story is told in the first person by both Richards and the murderer.  The first time the reader "meets" the murderer is a surprise and then as we get to know more about his psyche and his motivation, it becomes very creepy.  A well-written but awfully disturbing story.  Haunting. 3/5