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    The Skin Gods: A Novel of Suspense
    Unavailable
    The Skin Gods: A Novel of Suspense
    Unavailable
    The Skin Gods: A Novel of Suspense
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Skin Gods: A Novel of Suspense

    Written by Richard Montanari

    Narrated by Scott Brick

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    With the breakneck pacing and intricate plotting of his most recent novel, The Rosary Girls, Richard Montanari established himself as one of the most exciting suspense writers working today. Now he proves himself a virtuoso with The Skin Gods, an explosive new thriller featuring Philadelphia homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano.

    It is the steaming heart of summer in the City of Brotherly Love. Back on the force after taking a bullet during the arrest of a sadistic murderer, Detective Kevin Byrne warily returns to police headquarters. He cannot shake the memory of the Rosary Killer's innocent victims—or his growing sense that the evil has not been vanquished. And when he and his partner, Detective Jessica Balzano, are called in on a bizarre case, Byrne's gravest suspicions are confirmed.

    A madman, dubbed The Actor by the homicide unit, is meticulously re-creating Hollywood's most famous—and most gruesome—death scenes. The first murder is caught on film, spliced into a rented VHS edition of the Hitchcock black-and-white masterpiece Psycho. But in place of Janet Leigh is a real-life woman, and this time, the blood is red and the knife is real. Soon, more thrilling classics are turned into terrifying snuff films and placed on video store shelves for an unsuspecting public to find.

    The key to this horrific puzzle could lie with any of The Skin Gods' supporting cast: the A-list Hollywood director, the ruthless executive assistant, the convicted mass murderer—or perhaps someone else who has made a sinister art of gruesome violence.

    Hot on the psychopath's trail, Balzano and Byrne descend into the mouth of madness and beyond, deep into the depraved underworld of S&M clubs and the porn industry, where the worship of flesh leads to malevolent evil. Before the final credits roll, the investigators will discover that none of The Actor's victims are as innocent as they appear to be, and that the clue the police need to prevent future murders might be found in Detective Byrne's own dark past.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 14, 2006
    ISBN9781415930106
    Unavailable
    The Skin Gods: A Novel of Suspense
    Author

    Richard Montanari

    A novelist, screenwriter, and essayist, Richard Montanari's work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and scores of other national and regional publications. He is the OLMA-winning author of the internationally acclaimed thrillers Deviant Way and The Violet Hour that have now been published in more than twenty countries. Montanari currently makes his home in Cleveland, Ohio, where he is slavish only to the high arts of boxing, Italian food, and independent film.

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    Reviews for The Skin Gods

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    • 5/5
      This is just as good if not a smudge better than The Rosary Girls, and that was a darn good read! This picks up right where The Rosary Girls leaved off. Bryne is in Recovery from being shot on the last book. He's trying to come to terms with everything that happened in Rosary Girls. While all of this is going on, it seems that there's a killer lose, and he has a horrific agenda. He wants to recreate famous murders that happen on screen, but make them a reality. The first one he copies is Psycho, and the nightmare starts. He doesn't just recreate them, he...well.... you'll have to read The Skin Gods to find out, but I will say this. The killers plan is unique. To make matters worse Bryne isn't working on this case full time, he still hasn't come back from being shot. He's getting better physically, but he's still limited on what he can do, so he's never really into the loop on what's happening. That's okay because the killer brings in Bryne in his own special way. He does something that sends horror, and chills right to the heart of Bryne. Again, if you want to find out what the killer has planned for Bryne, you need to read this. With all of this going on, Bryne has another mission he has to complete. It seems that someone he put way is out, and Bryne wants to put him away for good. Montanari is a very unique writer. He has the ability to hold the reader through plot twists, sharp dialogue, realistic settings, and fantastic characters that you can't help to care about. I can promise you that you'll lose a lot of sleep because you'll want to find out what happens next, and will keep you up to all hours of the night. The saga continues, and I'm glad I'm along for the ride.
    • 5/5
      i couldn't put it down especially towards the end. numerous twists & turns. yet excellent character protrayals & writing.
    • 4/5
      The concept of the book was interesting. I liked the idea of a psycho killer re-creating classic horror movie killings. This would have been a 5 star book, but I felt the author tried to take a plot-driven book and make it character-driven book. As a police procedural, it was fantastic, but too much time was wasted on trying to make me connect to the officers in the story. The plot really didn't call for that. I would definitely read another in the series though, so I guess I connected a little after all.
    • 4/5
      It amazes me how quickly some authors – Montanari included – shape up their story-telling ability between first and second-in-a-series novels. Not that there was anything overtly wrong with The Rosary Girls, but if I hadn’t already bought The Skin Gods, I might have quickly forgotten my urge to try another, and the author would have fallen by the wayside of my reading journey. In the Skin Gods, broken but still-in-the-game Detective Kevin Byrne and his partner Jessica Balzano discover that the spliced-to-videotape murder of a young woman is just the beginning of a series of murders-by-film-homage. As Jessica follows ‘The Actor’s deliberately seeded clues and Byrne spends his enforced recuperation leave pursuing personal vendettas, the plot winds in seemingly random directions, the only straight line being from one murder to the next. There’s something punchy, grass-roots gutsy about Montanari’s storytelling, so that even when he moves over old ground (forensic procedure, relationships between cops, the habits of the cops themselves) they feel like important parts of the storyline rather than a writer deliberately trying to inject authenticity, thus gaining authenticity and freshening well-trodden routes. It helps that the stories themselves are fresh, diverting and quite gruesome.Two mild disappointments – [spoiler warning] for the second time, a principal character’s family is placed in danger and rescued last moment, and for the second time the motive is revenge for a cop’s actions. The details are different enough that I was still able to enjoy the story, but it did occur to me to wonder if Montanari’s plot wheel is stuck. And, finally, I still don’t know what to make of Byrne’s ‘prescient’ ability. It’s never used to solve the identity of the bad guy, but has bumped forward progress when time has been an issue, so is this dues ex machine, or a sort of sub-genre in play? It has not, so far, made me put down either story in disgust, so I guess I’ll keep going – I have the third book here, too, after all.
    • 4/5
      There comes a moment in every crime novel when everything falls into place and I know. Sometimes is happens sooner than at other times, but it is rare when a book takes me by complete surprise. I do not intentionally set out to solve the crime on my own, however, it is the direction my mind automatically takes as soon as I begin reading a crime fiction novel. Of course, there are occasions where the author introduces the killer or villain right off the bat and his or her identity is not a mystery. The motive and the chase then become the mystery. I will let you decide which category this particular book falls into.Detective Kevin Byrne is recovering from a near fatal head injury and is not sure he wants to return to the force. However, when he learns that the killer who almost took his life is out pending an appeal, he figures the best place for him to be is back in the trenches of the Philadelphia Police Department’s homicide unit. His timing could not be more perfect. Detective Byrne, his partner Detective Jessica Balzano, and FBI agent Terry Cahill are assigned to discover whether or not they have a new murder to investigate. A popular horror movie had been spliced and what appeared to be a real life murder scene inserted at a crucial point in the film. With little to go on, the two detectives have their work cut out for them. One murder leads to another, each proving to be more gruesome than the one before. The detectives are determined to find the common thread between the murders in order to stop the killer in his tracks. The investigation takes the police into the underbelly of pornography and the glitzy world of a Hollywood movie. Like with The Rosary Girls, Robert Montanari has swept me off his feet with this thrilling novel full of suspense and intrigue. Jessica Balzano has grown up a lot since she first joined the homicide team and it shows in The Skin Gods. She is competent and strong and not afraid to kick ass when necessary. She is loyal to her partner and dedicated to her job. Her partner, Kevin Byrne, is a little worse for wear. He has been through a lot and it shows. He is a papa bear who will protect those who he loves at any cost, including risking his own good name and possibly his life. The Skin Gods had me on the edge of my seat with my hand over my mouth right up until the end. I am looking forward to reading the author's next book, Merciless.