A review of Deviant Ways by Chris Mooney

It isn’t often that a new author appears on the scene, writing in a particular genre, and manages to create a debut novel filled with such believable characters, such vivid storytelling, and such breathtaking intensity, that it knocks a reader right out of his socks. For avid book lovers, it is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that we’re always in search of, and when we occasionally find an author of this amazing caliber, it’s like waking up on Christmas morning with dozens of exciting presents waiting to be opened.

Chris Mooney is such an author, and his first novel is Deviant Ways. This is the story of the Sandman, a serial killer who knows your every move, your every thought, and there’s no place to hide from him. As a young boy, he was part of an experimental program that was instigated by the FBI, a program in which many of its participants were methodically tortured with new drugs being tested and even with electro-shock. The Sandman is an adult now, and he wants revenge! His intentions are to kill the doctors and psychiatrists who did this to him and to bring the FBI tumbling down. The killing spree begins in Marblehead, a rich, seashore community in Massachusetts where many of his former torturers live. The Sandman doesn’t intend to just kill the individuals. Noooo. He’s going to make these good citizens suffer by forcing them to watch as he massacres their entire families; then, when the police show up, he’ll take them out, too, by destroying the neighborhoods in such a manner as to draw the attention of the FBI and the national media. That’s when the fun really begins. Only one man might be able to stop this diabolical killer: Jack Casey, a former FBI profiler, whose wife and unborn child were murdered years before by Miles Hamilton, a serial killer that Hannibal Lecter would certainly be proud of. Casey is now a detective in Marblehead and probably nobody understands the psyche of a serial killer better than he does. You see, Jack Casey has killed before in the line of duty, and he enjoyed it! If our dark hero can get his hands on the Sandman, he will teach him a thing or two about death. Needless to say, the town of Marblehead will never be the same as these two adversaries square off against each other. Who will live and who will die? How much of the town will be destroyed before justice prevails, justice in the eyes of both the Sandman and Jack Casey? Revenge never tasted better!

Deviant Ways will grab you in the first twenty pages, surprising you in ways few other novels are able to do. Each chapter will literally propel you forward like the Bullet Train in Japan as Mr. Mooney makes us peel back layer after layer of this multi-structured story, pushing us to discover the truth hidden within the core of his central characters, which is that we all have monsters lurking within us, and it only takes the right button being pushed to bring them out. This novel also has a score of secondary characters who are every bit as mysterious and intriguing as the lead ones. There is Miles Hamilton, the killer who changed Casey’s life forever and who reeks of pure evil. Then, there’s Malcolm Fletcher, also a former FBI profiler, who once tried to stop the experiments that created the Sandman. The FBI sent assassins attempted to take him out, but they weren’t good enough. Now, he’s come out of hiding to help Casey put the Sandman down and to get retribution on his former bosses. The pacing of Deviant Ways is relentless, and it has so many twists and turns that it will be nearly impossible for the reader to guess the ending. At the heart of the novel, however, are the themes of lost and redemption. Both Casey and Fletcher have done things in their pasts that neither of them are proud of, and the time has come to balance the scales.

I can’t say enough good things about this novel, and I find it rather awe-inspiring that a new author could come from out of nowhere with a first novel of such quality and magnitude, that you wonder how he did it. Chris Mooney is also the author of World Without End, Remembering Sarah, The Missing, and The Secret Friend (which brings back Malcolm Fletcher from Deviant Ways).