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Ebook388 pages5 hours
The Poison Artist
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this ebook
“An electrifying read . . . I haven’t read anything so terrifying since Red Dragon.” — Stephen King
“Magnificent, thoroughly unnerving . . . I dare you to look away.” — Justin Cronin
Caleb Maddox is a San Francisco toxicologist studying the chemical effects of pain. He’s out drinking after a bad breakup when a hauntingly seductive woman sits down at his side. He talks to Emmeline over absinthe, but their encounter is fleeting. She brushes her lips on his ear and disappears. He must find her. As Caleb scours the city, he begins helping the city’s medical examiner with a serial-murder investigation. Soon the search for the killer entwines with Caleb’s hunt for Emmeline, and the closer he gets to each, the more dangerous his world becomes. “A wicked mix of Poe, The Silence of the Lambs, and Vertigo,”* The Poison Artist spins a thrilling tale of obsession, damage, a man unmoored by an unspeakable past, and a woman who offers the ultimate escape.
“A totally new take on the mystery-thriller genre . . . Fresh and unpredictable. The writing is top-notch . . . Grade: A.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Genuinely scary, in the very best way, and nastily twisty, also in the very best way . . . Hypnotic.” — Guardian
* William Landay
“Magnificent, thoroughly unnerving . . . I dare you to look away.” — Justin Cronin
Caleb Maddox is a San Francisco toxicologist studying the chemical effects of pain. He’s out drinking after a bad breakup when a hauntingly seductive woman sits down at his side. He talks to Emmeline over absinthe, but their encounter is fleeting. She brushes her lips on his ear and disappears. He must find her. As Caleb scours the city, he begins helping the city’s medical examiner with a serial-murder investigation. Soon the search for the killer entwines with Caleb’s hunt for Emmeline, and the closer he gets to each, the more dangerous his world becomes. “A wicked mix of Poe, The Silence of the Lambs, and Vertigo,”* The Poison Artist spins a thrilling tale of obsession, damage, a man unmoored by an unspeakable past, and a woman who offers the ultimate escape.
“A totally new take on the mystery-thriller genre . . . Fresh and unpredictable. The writing is top-notch . . . Grade: A.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Genuinely scary, in the very best way, and nastily twisty, also in the very best way . . . Hypnotic.” — Guardian
* William Landay
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Author
Jonathan Moore
JONATHAN MOORE lives in Hawaii with his wife and son, and is the author of five books. Before completing law school in New Orleans, he was an English teacher, a bar owner, a raft guide, a counselor at a Texas wilderness camp for juvenile delinquents, and an investigator for a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C.
Read more from Jonathan Moore
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Reviews for The Poison Artist
Rating: 3.4649122807017543 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
57 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I really wanted to love this one but that just wasn’t meant to be. I didn’t hate it and in fact, liked it well enough but it wasn’t the kind of book that I couldn’t wait to get back to. I had a few guesses about what was really going on in this book early on which took some of the fun out of the book once I discovered I was right. I did like the concept behind the story and feel like I would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn’t guessed the twist so early in the book.Caleb is a toxicologist who is studying the effects of pain. After a painful breakup with his girlfriend, he decides to go out for a drink where he meets Emmeline. He is instantly taken and is willing to do anything to be with her. Someone who was at the bar at the same time as Caleb is missing and the police are looking at Caleb. To make matters worse, he has already helped his friend, who happens to be the medical examiner, with some of the evidence. This book did have a lot of excitement and enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. There were times where I wondered why Caleb was making some of the choices that he was. There was a lot going on in the story and I was satisfied by how everything eventually came together. I can’t say that I really loved any of the characters as I didn’t feel like Caleb was exactly likable.I decided to listen to the audiobook after learning that it was narrated by Luke Daniels. He did a great job with the narration and I loved the different character voices that he used to bring this story to life. I had no trouble listening to this book for hours at a time and believe that his narration added to my overall enjoyment.I would recommend this book to others. I am sure that I would have enjoyed this one more if I hadn’t guessed the big twist (and it is kind of strange that I did). I feel like a lot of readers would really enjoy this one and I wouldn’t hesitate to read more from this author in the future.I received a digital review copy of this book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yikes!. How to review this book and avoid spoilers, and while I generally have no problem with spoilers, in this case letting you know that the light at the end of the tunnel is indeed a train might ruin the splat.Caleb's girlfriend, Bridget, has left him after throwing an ashtray at his head. We are not sure precisely what the infraction might have been (nor do we ever find out for certain although the hints are there,) but while drowning his sorrows in the bar he sees a stunning woman, an instant infatuation. Caleb is doing research on the physical manifestations of pain, e.g. hormones released, etc. Chemicals. "Guy gets hurt, his endocrine system responds. Adrenaline, endorphins. Damaged cells dump out different histamines. There’s paracrine signaling going on—that’s cell-to-cell communication—with compounds like prostaglandin and thromboxane. Bunch of other stuff. Pain leaves markers, and I’m following them. To quantify it."He's also an expert in bizarre toxins. “Batrachotoxin." ...."The median lethal dose is ninety micrograms—a couple grains of salt,” Caleb said. “And all you’d have to do is touch it.” People start turning up loaded with this toxin. I shall say no more other than to recommend this book if you have an interest in the bizarre mechanisms of the mind. Whether the events here represent anything approaching reality is a bit frightening.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wow, I really struggled to get through this book. Two things made it hard for me.1. The first half moved very slow for me, and I struggle with books that reference events ( that have happened in the past) to a main character, but the reader is not made aware of the specifics until later in the book.2. The second half certainly paced much better, but the storyline blurred, and was too hard for me to figure out, was this book horror, fantasy, or a murder mystery.I read The Dark Room also by this author before reading this book, and I am really glad I did, as I really liked it, which made me like the author, but this book didn't work nearly as well for me.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5TPA starts off well, there’s a fight, a thrown glass, blood, an ex and a mystery woman. The subject of the fight was kept hidden from the reader for a while, as is much else about Caleb. After a while though, Caleb is a drag. He’s an emo kid all grown up, but still mooning, pining, daydreaming. But as more and more of his childhood trauma is revealed, you almost forgive him. Then after a while, the allure of the reason for the breakup becomes annoying, too. The ex in question talks about it directly to Caleb, but obliquely. No one would talk like that. During that discussion I guessed at a reason and I was right. What I didn’t guess is the deeper reason for the vasectomy; ostensibly because of his father’s sins, but really because of his own. In a sense I read the rest of the book in spite of itself. The mystery was a good one, but boy the Emmaline character really got to be too much. As a reader, you know she’s full of shit you just don’t know how much. I wish Moore had toned her down a bit. Overall though he fooled me and I was happy about that. I should have twigged, but I let my guard down and just went with the story. Sometimes it’s better that way.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5About this psychological thriller Stephen King said, “I haven’t read anything so terrifying since Red Dragon.” Based in San Francisco, it’s the story of a UCSF professor of toxicology asked to help look for the presence of poisons in a set of torture-murder victims. Something very grim haunts the scientist’s past, his wife has left him, and he becomes obsessed with a beautiful, absinthe-drinking woman named Emmeline, whom he meets in an exclusive late-night bar. As the number of victims increases and he comes to know Emmeline better, he suspects she may be linked to the murders, but could he give her up? Is he the next victim? Smartly written and thoroughly immersive.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow!! This book is amazing! So creepy that it literally made the hairs on the back on my neck stand up! One of the best thrillers I've read in a long time! Caleb Maddox is a toxicologist who has just gone through a major break-up and is trying to drink away his sorrows. Then he meets Emmeline...and husband whole life changes.This book will take you first in a very terrifying ride!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5To be honest, I was not sure how I felt about this book until I put it down. This was probably one of the books I was really looking forward to reading after having recently experienced a book slump. However this book did not help with that. It started out slow but I forgave this factor because I thought it would pick up and the suspense and intrigue would stuck me in. I was expecting this book to be dark, which is what I was looking forward to the most. I might have been able to get into this story more if I had found Caleb to be more engaging. I found him lackluster and depressing with all of traveling around town and drinking in bars. His obsession with finding the mystery woman, Emmeline was not creepy or suspenseful (in a good way). After about the half way mark, I jumped to the last few chapters of the book and the ending still left me a little unsatisfied.