Today is my turn on the audio blog tour for The Genius Killer by Mark Robson

Here’s the blurb

The dark heart of a brilliant and ruthless psychopath

A celebrated but haunted detective

A determined young reporter hunting for justice – and the big story

Karl Jackson is a particularly vengeful sociopath with his unique way of ‘problem-solving’. DCI Tex Deacon suffers from the trauma of his beloved wife’s death and finds it immensely difficult to come to terms with it. As a Detective Chief Inspector specialising in murder and killer profiling, Tex has a relentless workload from his base on the edges of the mountains of the Lake District.

Tex is under pressure from his superiors to take a step back to grieve properly. It’s clear that Susan’s death has ripped out part of his soul. There is no doubt that Tex is suffering, but this DCI is a driven man. Tex’s welfare is the responsibility of his boss Chief Constable Barbara Bracewell, and she and Tex go back a very long way. However, Bracewell must do what is right for Tex and the Cumbrian police force.

Despite falling into a mental abyss, Tex’s instincts for the hunt never leave him. A hyper-intelligent and devious murderer appears in his crosshairs – the self-styled ‘Genius Killer’. So what will Tex do? What can he get away with doing with the Chief Constable monitoring his every move?

And then there’s Debbie Pilkington, a tenacious and hugely ambitious cub reporter at the local paper – The Rimpton Chronicle. Debbie has big stories and a big future in her own sights. A young journalist, a craggy and vastly experienced detective, and one of the most dangerous serial killers Britain has even seen. Their lives were about to intertwine. The chase to stop a cunning killer begins. Tex is a master at breaking down the thinking processes of those he hunts but with Tex enduring his own psychological meltdown, can he penetrate the mind of this supremely malevolent psychopath?

Review

The Genius Killer follows the life of Karl. Karl didn’t have the best upbringing… abused as a young boy he as a temper and an evil streak that’s just bursting to come out.. the thing about Karl though is he has patience.. he’s methodical.. each murder has a purpose.

Karl is quite the character; he’s got a good job as a chemistry teacher and uses the knowledge he’s gained to commit what he sees as the perfect crimes.

The issue for Karl is that he becomes overconfident leaving too many links.. but the question is can anyone find tangible evidence? Karl has thought of every little detail but surely he will slip up at some point?

Truthfully the younger Karl I didn’t like, his attitude, he struggles to hide his dark side.. not so as an adult… he’s perfected his image and uses this to manipulate people. It’s strange.. but I kind of liked the grown up Karl… his honesty..he’s a psychopath and he doesn’t feel empathy but for him feeling is just a waste of time…

I quite liked Tex too, this DCI has his own struggles but when the threads are there he knows how to unravel them.. the question is will he follow the trail the right way?

Oh, as ever, not to spoil anything but that ending!! What a finish.. it just summed up Karl perfectly and I think it would have been a shame to end the book any other way.

I can’t do an audio review without talking about the narrator – Anna Wilson-Hall.. smashed it! Absolutely nailed it and gave depth to the story of Karl. Such a good range of tone used to give differentiation between characters.

I’d be interested in seeing where the author goes next, very enjoyable, intense read. Flow was super smooth and easy it absorb.. more please. I’m interested to see how the character of Tex will develop too and if he will continue to team up with Debbie.

5* from me.

My thanks go to the author, publisher and Zoé @ zooloosbooktours.co.uk for having me on the tour!

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Why not follow the tour?

Author Bio

I’ve been a journalist and broadcaster for over forty years working almost exclusively in sport. I was employed for fifteen years by SKY Sports, eleven years by the BBC, and three years by UTV. Elsewhere I have worked on significant national contracts for ITV, Eurosport and Viaplay Sport and have freelanced for many top class broadcasters like BT and NEP. I have been involved in BAFTA and Sony award winning programmes. For the last number of years I have focused on rugby, my main sporting passion, as a commentator and reporter with SKY, as well as Premier Sport and, formerly, Setanta Sport and Eirsport. I’ve commentated on four Rugby World Cups and two football World Cups and covered the Olympics in Sydney in 2000. I was working on the Six Nations Rugby as a commentator for NEP when all sport stopped due to the corona virus pandemic, so, after some persuasion from my then girlfriend Petra, I decided to write my first novel.

The seed for the novel came from a comment made to me by a senior member of the fell running community who knew well many members of the amazing, life saving Mourne Mountain Rescue Team in Northern Ireland. We were out for a fell run one day and were talking about the thousands of rescues Mourne Mountain Rescue had carried out. Out of the blue my craggy companion whispered, “If you want to commit murder – and get away with it – the mountains are the perfect place to do it” Fell running has been a passion for me. I’ve run over a hundred races and competed in many navigation focused Mourne Mountain Marathons. Unbelievably, for me, I managed to crawl to the finish line in a couple of 50 mile Ultra races. One was in the Addo Elephant Safari Park in the Zuurberg mountains in South Africa and the other was the Grand Raid des Pyrenees. I was rubbish – always one of the stumblers right at the back of the field! I’ve hiked in the Andes, the Blue Mountains, the Picos de Europa, the Alps and other ranges around the globe so no surprise then that quite a bit of ‘The Genius Killer’ is set in the mountains. In this case the magnificent peaks of the Lake District.

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Mark’s Links

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markrobsonauthor/

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/MarkRobsonAuthor

Twitter : https://twitter.com/rugbyjaffa

Website : www.markrobsonauthor.co.uk

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Book Links

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128439226-the-genius-killer

Buy Links – https://mybook.to/geniuskiller-zbt