The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North

Hello everyone.  I hope your day is going well.

Well, my laptop screen still isn't fixed. If I don't make sense or you can't understand something, maybe tilt your head or do a handstand to read...because that is how I'm having to write this.  You know, I don't understand how my laptop hinge got damaged.  I don't understand a lot of things, like why I am cold when it is 68 degrees in the house with the air conditioning on or when it is off, but when the heat is on and it is 68, I am toasty.  It makes no sense. I think I broke my internal thermostat.  I don't understand why humans can have been on this planet for so long and still not have figured out how to get along, why I can cook anything except chocolate mousse, and all of 11th grade chemistry.  Thankfully, I understood the following book.

I recently read The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North.  If he sounds familiar, I've reviewed several of his books.  In fact, I will never forget the package I received from the publisher when they sent me an early copy of The Whisper Man.  When opening the package, it immediately started singing a spooky song. Yes, singing.  I actually posted the song when I did the review.  Needless to say, I am excited when I get to read one of his books, The Man Made of Smoke was no different.  

In this book we are following Dan Garvie, he is a doctor helping people in the prison system through trauma and learning why the behaved the way they did.  Dan is driven by a childhood experience where he sees a young boy with an odd man in a rest stop restroom.  Now Dan finds out that his father has disappeared and is presumed dead, likely due to suicide.  Dan travels home to attend to his father's estate and try to discover what happened.  John, Dan's father and retired policeman, leaves clues about something he was investigating, something dangerous.  As Dan traces his father's footsteps, he discovers his father's disappearance may be related to the disturbing scene he saw when he was a child and a prolific serial killer.

This book was intriguing.  It imparts a nervous feeling in your stomach.  The reader is filled with dread for the facts that are feared coming yet can't stop reading.  That anxious feeling imparted through words on a page is amazing and storytelling at its best.  A true thriller, don't miss this one.