The Man Made of Smoke: A Novel

While I liked the concept and aspects of this story, the overall execution didn’t work well for me. We have quite a few POVs, plus unclear timeline jumps, which I found challenging to follow on audio. Pacing was slow through most of the book, then suddenly ramped up near the end, almost glossing over important things in order to connect all the dots. But what really drove me nuts were the imaginary conversations between Dan, our MC, and other people. The conversations with his father at least made sense, since we can often predict how our parents would respond, but the conversations with the unknown killer were all speculation based on… what, exactly? Dan’s superpowers as a criminal profiler? And these imaginary people weren’t just having imagined conversations with Dan, they were physically reacting, stomping or yelling or whatever. And this was happening all the time. I honestly expected one of the reveals to be that Dan had some sort of psychiatric disorder. Shane Zaza does a great job with the narration. He kept me entertained, even as I was often rolling my eyes at Dan’s vivid imaginary life. *Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the free audiobook download!*

What a nightmare. Such a thrilling read that blends past horrors with current murders. The different POVs were done so well and gave amazing insight into different elements of the story. This is my first Alex North book, and I am so ready for the next. This keeps you guessing at every twist and turn.

excellent narration! slow, dark and creepy story. It has a true crime, ripped from the headlines, feel to it.