My Ramblings on I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

I Hunt Killers
By: Barry Lyga
Release Date: April 3, 2012
Author Website

Summary:

It was a beautiful day. It was a beautiful field.

Except for the body.

Jazz is a likable teenager. A charmer, some might say.

But he’s also the son of the world’s most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, “Take Your Son to Work Day” was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal’s point of view.


And now, even though Dad has been in jail for years, bodies are piling up in the sleepy town of Lobo’s Nod. Again.

In an effort to prove murder doesn’t run in the family, Jazz joins the police in the hunt for this new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret—could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

My Ramblings:

This book is creeptastic (that's creepy and fantastic). First off, the cover is amazing, and when you open the book up to the title page it looks like you are leaving fingerprints on it, so that's pretty brilliant. As for the story itself, it's really well done. There are a ton of twists and turns and just when you think you know what's up something else happens that makes you second guess yourself. 

Jazz is a very likable character and I think Lyga got into his mind perfectly. What if your father was a notorious serial killer and he raised you to take his place? What if those images and those "lessons" came unbidden to you all the time? What if you were doing everything you could to make sure you didn't turn out like him but you didn't know if it was working? We get to see how Jazz's brain processes everything and it's like a little window into the creation of a monster, only we don't know if he is one or not. 

My favorite character was a secondary one, Jazz's best friend Howie. Howie is pretty much a serial killers dream, a hemopheliac who could die at any minute, so it's almost like a test to Jazz. If he can protect this thing, this person, this friendship, then it's proof he's not a bad person. Plus Howie is the comic relief, he's up for anything and he's loyal to Jazz regardless of who his father is. 

I don't want to give anything away here so I'm going to keep this review short, but if you like mysteries or psychological thrillers, then this is a perfect book to grab. It will keep you guessing and scare you from page one all the way to the end.