Kilborn, Jack; Crouch, Blake: Serial

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Serial (which is currently only available for the Kindle) is a novella co-written by horror writers Jack Kilborn (a.k.a. J.A. Konrath) and Blake Crouch. The story grabs your attention immediately with a great first line: "The hardest thing about killing a hitchhiker is finding one to pick up." As that sentence and the book's title should suggest, the subject matter of the book is disturbing. It's definitely not for the faint of heart.

The story is told in three parts. The first section, written by Kilborn, is about Donaldson, a serial killer who likes to pick up hitch hikers and do bad things to them. His latest conquest and Donaldson's subsequent disposal of his passenger's remains are described in lurid detail. In the second part of the book Blake Crouch tells the story of another serial killer, Lucy, who is arguably even sicker than Donaldson. I won't ruin the surprise by describing her modus operandi. The third part of the book was co-written by the two authors, who took turns contributing 100-odd-word snippets until the story was finished. But they did so blindly, without the benefit of having read one another's initial sections. (The authors describe the writing process in an interview section following the story.) The last segment reads like a macabre chess match as the two killers meet and, unaware of the other's nature and intentions, try to outmaneuver each other. The story hangs together very well, particularly given its mode of composition. And it ends fittingly, if not surprisingly. The story doesn't offer anything by way of character development, but it's a quick read and it certainly holds one's attention for the short time it takes to read it.