Normal

by Graeme Cameron

Overview

"The truth is I hurt people. It's what I do. It's all I do. It's all I've ever done."

He lives on your street, in a nice house with a tidy garden.

He shops at your local supermarket. He drives beside you on the highway, waving to let you into the lane ahead of him.

He also has an elaborate cage in a secret basement under his garage.

The food he's carefully shopping for is to feed a young woman he's holding there against her will—one in a string of many, unaware of the fate that awaits her.

This is how it's been for a long time. It's normal…and it works. Perfectly.

But this time it's different…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780778317777
Publisher:	MIRA Books
Publication date:	03/29/2016
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Graeme Cameron lives with his family in Norfolk, UK. Normal is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

"Hypnotic and chilling-you won't forget this in a hurry."

-Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"This is simply a brilliant book-utterly compelling and unforgettable. I loved it."

-Jamie Mason, author of Three Graves Full and Monday's Lie

"A black comedy... A painfully funny story."

-Kirkus Reviews

"Blackly humorous."

-Publishers Weekly

"Normal is a wild and fun yet serious debut sure to garner many fans."

-The Oklahoman

"Brilliant...original and hilarious... This is a book that will have you rooting for a psychopath and hating yourself for it."

-BN.com

From the Publisher

01/12/2015
A highly unusual serial killer is the star of British author Cameron’s blackly humorous first novel. The nameless narrator first appears to fit the stereotype of a meticulous killer untroubled by normal emotions. He researched 18-year-old Sarah Abbott, who was taking a year off from school before heading to Oxford, killed her in her house, and carefully cleaned up afterward. On returning to his van, however, he discovers that he has locked its keys inside. A brick through the van’s window solves that problem, but later, back at the victim’s house, he runs into a friend of Sarah’s, Erica Shaw, who winds up in a cage in the basement of the narrator’s garage. His bumbling continues throughout. In a big departure from the standard serial killer trope, he begins nonpredatory relationships with three different women. He even falls in love with one of them. Those who have no trouble accepting a humanized serial killer will be most satisfied. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management (Canada). (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

02/01/2015
The unnamed protagonist just wants things to remain normal. Sure, normal for him is kidnapping and killing young women (sometimes after he's held them captive for a period of time), but is it too much to ask that he be allowed to pursue his calling in peace? Up until now that hasn't been a problem. But two young women are about to change that. One is the "victim" he currently has in his cage in the basement. Though she's been kidnapped, Erika isn't about to let her captor set the tone. The other is the young woman he meets at the grocery store. For the first time in his life he's interested in getting to know someone (all while not wanting to kill them). Suddenly, he's not sure he needs to keep up with his "normal" life anymore. The problem is, there's someone still in the cage. And the police are starting to ask questions. VERDICT Certainly not everyone wants to read a book from a serial killer's point of view, but for the ones who do this debut thriller may be just for them. While the murderer is a horrendous person, there is a very dark humor in his plight, and the author adds a couple of satisfying twists. Fans of Jeff Lindsay's "Dexter" series may enjoy.—Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

Library Journal

2015-01-18
Cameron's novel inserts readers into the life of a man who is anything but what the title implies—normal.Nameless throughout the novel, the main character's personal boundaries fall well outside what's considered acceptable beyond a maximum security prison or mental hospital for the criminally insane, and Cameron wastes no time getting down to the killing. The first victim introduced is Sarah, an 18-year-old whose brief live appearance only foreshadows her larger role as a victim. But the poor killer had a bad childhood: His mother left him in the custody of his brutal father, so naturally, Daddy Dearest became the first victim. He then moved on to more interesting subjects, like young women. After slaying Sarah, he carves her up like a side of beef, because, after all, he has another mouth to feed: He's holding Erica Shaw hostage in his specially built underground facility. Erica's proven to be a bit of a difficult case, though. She throws the food he provides her and, wisely, as it turns out, refuses to eat it. Although the reader never knows why he insists on keeping Erica alive while stalking new prey, he even goes grocery shopping for her. And it's there that he eventually meets the one woman who changes everything. In the meantime, he prevents a girl named Annie—originally intended as a victim—from being raped and picks up a hapless hooker who has a very different fate from Annie's. Soon his new infatuation, his prisoner and the police collide, causing all hell to break loose in ways that even a creative serial killer couldn't have envisioned. A black comedy featuring a bizarre murderer who believes he suffers for his "art." Cameron has written a painfully funny story that's littered with corpses, both intentional and unintentional, and proves that sometimes spotting the craziest person on the block isn't quite as easy as it seems.

Kirkus Review