Tour & Review: Scream Catcher by Vincent Zandri

Scream Catcher by Vincent Zandri
Publisher: StoneHouse Ink
Publish Date: October 1, 2011

Publisher’s Description
This is how your life ends: Not with a whimper, but a scream! Jude Parish is afraid. The former violent crimes cop turned bestselling true crime author has a fear-filled demon lodged inside of him. A demon so real he can only imagine a slimy reptilian beast with scaly skin, black eyes, and razor-sharp fangs having taken up residence inside the place where his once confident and fearless soul resided. Now, in the wake of his literary success, the ever anxious Jude is hoping to lead a quiet, peaceful life in the idyllic Adirondack vacation town of Lake George, New York with his new pregnant wife, Rosie, and Jack, his young son from a previous marriage. But when Jude becomes the accidental witness to a bizarre “kill game” in which the killer, video game designer and master of disguise, Hector “the Black Dragon” Lennox, insists on recording the screams of his victims prior to shooting them dead, the ex-cop’s life is turned upside down. When Lennox is arrested by the L.G.P.D. and Jude is asked to act as the state’s “star witness,” he has no choice but to fight his demon-fear and take on the role. But what he doesn’t realize at the time, is that the killer’s arrest is actually the first level in what is a carefully designed and scripted first-person video kill game that will involve his entire family as “players” and “victims.” How will the kill game end? Like all violent video games, it will end in death. But it won’t be “Game Over” until Hector Lennox catches the screams of his tortured victims.

Book Review
Zandri's done it again! After reading and loving Moonlight Rises, I had high expectations for Scream Catcher and the author didn't disappoint. First and foremost, Zandri is exceptional with words and his descriptions throw the reader headfirst into the story. I really appreciate an author that can get me so involved with the characters in a crime thriller, instead of being all about the action, which totally bores me. Even more impressive than his actual writing is Zandri's ability to successfully beat a dead horse (ah, that made me laugh). I really thought the whole 'murdering people just to hear them scream' thing was old news, but Zandri brought new light to it by creating a murderer that develops games using real screams from his victims. It was actually fairly disturbing to imagine how in-tune with killing game developers of that genre need to be and how people prefer the most realistic simulations. I guess it's probably common sense, but the detail in Scream Catcher really made me think about it more than ever.

Although I really enjoyed Scream Catcher, there were a few things I wasn't too crazy about. At first, I thought the mention of an iPhone was tacky, but it makes sense when you find out what the killer does and how tech-savvy someone like that would reasonably be (although it still wasn't necessary). I got over that after the first few chapters, but it was a bit off-putting until I learned more about the killer. Another thing that bothered me was how unbelievable a couple situations were. I expect a fiction novel to be just that, but it's difficult to lose myself in a story when I keep thinking, 'well, that would never happen'.

Despite a couple minor issues, I was still very impressed with Scream Catcher. The short chapters and cliff hangers between them make it hard to put down, so plan to set aside the entire day to finish it. You'll keep convincing yourself, "just one more chapter", then realize your kid's been at soccer practice for the last 8 hours or something. I'm not sure if that says more about what kind of mother I'd make or about how freaking awesome Vincent Zandri is, but I'm hoping it's the latter.

Book Rating: 4/5
Book Received From: Partners in Crime Tour
Reviewer: Brittany

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