They Kill Without Mercy. Disappear Without Trace.

They are The Two.

And now the stakes are raised once more for Detective January David.

Five lie dead, brutally murdered – the first taken on the night of Halloween and as autumn bleeds into winter more ritualistic murders are discovered.

January must battle his demons, for in his mind lies the clue to stopping a ruthless murderer.

But his worst nightmares have literally come true when he discovers there’s not one but two twisted killers on the loose ……

My Review

Once again I listened on Borrowbox. There are still two narrators – one male and one female – but many different voices and points of view. These include Detective January David himself, the killer, Celeste and the victims.

As with most of Carver’s books, The Two is not for the faint hearted. The descriptions of the killings are extremely graphic, as are Jan’s visions of the boy and the girl. We also know from book one that Jan’s sister Kathy was taken as a child and never found.

The killings revolve around Wicca rituals which the man known as ‘V’ claims have been carried out by Celeste to cleanse the victims, all of whom were either old, dying or wanting to die. ‘V’ also claims that Celeste is the killer. He has captured her and kept her locked in a room to prevent her from killing again. It’s all very confusing!

Again you will either love it or hate it, and probably never read Carver again. However, if you are reading book two then I can only assume that you enjoyed book one. I love all his work although he evolves over the years. Just because you don’t take to the January David series doesn’t mean you won’t love the (very) dark humour in The Beresford, or even darker in Psychopaths Anonymous.

Carver is an acquired taste but I personally believe he’s one of the best authors of our time.

About the Author

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series, which includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press. Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by the literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous, The Daves Next Door, Suicide Thursday and Upstairs at the Beresford. Will spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He and his partner run their own fitness and nutrition company, and live in Reading with five children and a tortoise.