Book Review: Chris Carter – “One By One”

‘I need your help, Detective. Fire or water?’
Detective Robert Hunter of the LAPD’s Homicide Special Section receives an anonymous call asking him to go to a specific web address – a private broadcast. Hunter logs on and a show devised for his eyes only immediately begins. But the caller doesn’t want Detective Hunter to just watch, he wants him to participate, and refusal is simply not an option. Forced to make a sickening choice, Hunter must sit and watch as an unidentified victim is tortured and murdered live over the Internet. The LAPD, together with the FBI, use everything at their disposal to electronically trace the transmission down, but this killer is no amateur, and he has covered his tracks from start to finish. And before Hunter and his partner Garcia are even able to get their investigation going, Hunter receives a new phone call.
A new website address. A new victim. But this time the killer has upgraded his game into a live murder reality show, where anyone can cast the deciding vote.

Oh my sweet Lord.

Officially, this book isn’t even available in Germany yet, but as Chris Carter is one of my 3 favourite authors of all time, I couldn’t wait and already got it for my Kindle. And good God, am I glad I did.

It often happens that you’re reading a book that’s so gripping, has so much suspense that you feel like you just can’t put it away even for a second. I think a lot of people can relate to that. But has anyone ever read a book that was so gripping that you didn’t want to read it too quickly because then it would be over too soon?

“One By One” did this exact thing to me.

I will not be giving anything away by explaining the entire story here, but the three people that are being killed during this book are being tortured in the worst possible ways I have ever read about, and I have to admit, one of the killing methods gave me the absolute creeps.I still feel a shiver going through me when I just think about it. But if you are a person who loves these kinds of books, thriller with a lot of brutality – psychological brutality as well as physical – then this book is the best choice for you (just as it was for me). For the first time ever, Chris Carter even goes as far as enter the holy grounds of Carlos Garcia’s personal life, which was shocking and exciting at the same time – you read certain chapters and you read and read, because you just feel the physical need to know how it ends for him.

What I especially love about this book is the hidden message behind it. People are publicly voting for someone else’s destiny without any remorse. If that is possible nowadays (I know this is just fiction, but still, there are possibilities everywhere…the human mind can be cruel), the reader might be asking him-/herself how far the world has come, what big of an impact do social media websites and the internet in general have on everyone’s life?

And the end…wow. I had tears in my eyes at one certain of the last few sentences, and I felt a slight heartache throughout the entire last chapter, because from what is said, you have no idea how it will go on from there, if the damage that has been done will ever be fully repaired. And me as a huge lover of the Hunter/Garcia story/bromance, it’s almost impossible to wait for Chris Carter’s next masterpiece. In one of my earlier blog posts about my all-time favourite books I’ve already talked about their friendship (by the example of “The Crucifix Killer”), and I still think they are the best detective team I have ever read about. There is so much friendship, respect, humour and whatnot between them that you might actually forget that they are not even real, that they are just made up characters, and you just wish they were real, that you knew them. And the fact that in “One By One”, you get to see more of the serious sides of both of them is really interesting for a change, compared to all the witty, snippy comments and amicably banter that the reader gets to see in the other books.

All in all, “One By One” is one of the best thriller novels I have read in a very very long time. First time a book is so gripping I never want it to end and prolonged reading chapter after chapter. So I really hope Chris Carter doesn’t wait too long to publish a new thriller, even if it’s a big thing to wish for, considering this novel has just been published.

Well done, Mr. Carter. You and Mr. Stephen King now share one and the same step on my “That one author that will forever be my hero” podium. Congratulations.