'Eventually Leighton stops lecturing me, probably just to catch his breath. After our last encounter I can take it a bit better and am feeling more robust. I even manage to look at the artery increasingly protruding and pulsing in his neck as he spits venom at me. I wonder what it would be like to pop a pencil straight into it and watch it burst like crimson rain all over his office. I might enjoy that.'
Meet Jez.
Jez is adulterous husband to Maxine, devoted father to Jamie, promiscuous lover, university professor, pro-vice-chancellor for research – and a serial killer aiming to get to the top by any means necessary.
His passion for murder parallels his love of music, and he matches each kill with its own special theme song to enhance the experience as he works towards assembling his very own top forty greatest hits.
When the vice-chancellor of lowly ranked Francis Drake University begins to sexually pester Jez's mistress Bella, it accelerates his plans for domination. But will he get there?
The Psychopath by A M Edwards was published on 10 February 2022 by RedDoor Press. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this blog tour.
Well, this has been a shocking, rocky, disturbing and at times, hilarious read. Reading The Psychopath felt a bit like watching something terrible happen, you know you really shouldn't look, but you just can't help yourself.
Some people will hate this, some will be offended, some will not appreciate the humour. Lead character Jez; the psychopath of the title is utterly contemptible. He is vile, his thoughts are misogynistic, he's seriously violent ... he kills people. He makes his own kill play list and he is very matter of fact about it. I was drawn in from the beginning and raced through this one in a couple of sittings. You may feel grubby after reading, but your head will be buzzing!
A M Edwards writes like a mash up of early Will Carver and Bret Easton Ellis. If you've read either of those authors, you know what to expect. This doesn't have the social issues that Carver cleverly weaves into his narrative but the voice of Jez reminds me so much of the killer narrative of his first novel; Girl 4.
I didn't like Jez, it would be impossible to like anything about him as a reader, as we are privy to his innermost thoughts. However, Jez is pretty much adored by the women around him. He is handsome and keeps himself fit, he wears good quality, well cut clothes and is a charmer. He's also married to Maxine, a woman who feels like a victim too, but in fact, is a pretty layered character herself.
Told over two time lines; the present day and earlier in Jez's life, when he first got a taste for murder, the reader is exposed to a life that on the face of it, seems to be of a man on the up. However, Jez's real life is made up of dark violent episodes, mixed in with various sexual adventures. He's very good at hiding the truth, but for how long?
I particularly enjoyed the insider look at academia and how universities are run. The author writes about this setting with authority due to his personal background and it's certainly interesting and eye opening stuff.
This is total entertainment, suspend your disbelief and your inner prejudice and just read it, if you dare. Enjoy the darkness of the humour, and grit your teeth at the sexism and violence and remember, Jez isn't real!
Watch out for the ending!
He subsequently gained undergraduate, masters and doctoral qualifications at Sheffield Hallam University in Yorkshire before commencing his academic career with the University of Reading in 1999.
Since then, he as worked as an academic across the UK, New Zealand and Australia and is the author of the best-selling academic text Pacing in Sport and Exercise published by Nova Scientific.
He had two young adult novels published in 2014 and The Psychopath is his first adult novel.
Twitter @amedwardspacing
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