The Nothing Man is a well written psychological thriller about a serial killer and the victim who survived his attack. It is told from both the perpetrator's and victim's perspective. Such an original concept with engaging twists and turns. I loved that it was set in Ireland A very modern read

Eve Black was the only survivor of her family unit after a brutal attack by a serial killer in County Cork. He was called the Nothing Man because he never left anything traceable behind. He had not attacked since, which is curious in itself.
Eve has lived a quiet and isolated life with her nannie until her death at 84 years of age. Taught to be guarded so that she remained safe and unknown, it was really her nannie’s death that finally gave her the chance to grieve.
Pursuing an education in creative writing, she finally puts pen to paper about what happened, which gets published as a book that is an international success. Jim, a security guard in a supermarket spots it and is compelled to read it – as he is the Nothing Man, he becomes obsessed about reading of his achievements…
Eve as a character connects straight away. Her voice whilst only in print, is candid, describing the tough implications of what happened to her, how she struggled to forgive herself and recover – but is never conveyed in the tone of a victim, just a matter of fact, researched account. She is clearly intelligent and she hopes that as science has improved, maybe this is her chance to catch the man that got away to live an uninhibited life. She is also canny as she taunts the Nothing Man by changing some aspects of the facts that only he will know. And so she draws him in… And he is isn’t happy…
This is an excellent psychological thriller. It is written with excerpts of the Eve Black’s book being read via Jim. It has as a consequence a very real feel to it, so that you could forget it was fiction. The denouement left me a little bit disappointed though. It was loose with too many incidental events lining the ducks up to feel as compelling as the rest of the tightly woven text. This did dampen the overall effect somewhat but doesn’t detract from the fact that this is a really engrossing page turner, well researched with some very intricate details and is hard to put down. I guess you know the ending from the beginning, but nonetheless it is a very riveting journey getting there.

I loved this book. It engaged me from the first chapter. Eve is a survivor. Her family had been murdered. Jim murdered them.
We see how the drama unfolded and how Jim feels about it all. Interesting perspective following both the author of the events, Eve, (she has written a book about it all) and the perpetrator Jim (who reads the book). We understand both sets of reactions that unfold. Fat paced and engaging. Excellent book :)

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

When the serial killer known as The Nothing Man attacked the Black family, 12-year-old Eve was the only survivor. Her life was changed forever by the terrible events of that one night. There were no more murders to follow but Eve never stopped wanting to reveal the identity of the man who destroyed her family. Years later she publishes her true crime memoir, The Nothing Man, the result of her own investigations to track down the killer. Security guard Jim Doyle is reading the book. He has a vested interest in it. He is the Nothing Man and he knows that Eve is very close and she will not stop. He realises his biggest mistake was not killing her all those years ago. It’s time to put that right.

I do enjoy Catherine Ryan Howard’s psychological thrillers very much and it came as no surprise that The Nothing Man is every bit as good as its predecessors The Liar’s Girl and Distress Signals. Once again we have a stand alone thriller that is very much character driven while still maintaining pace, chills and tension.

I love the style of it. Much of the novel is Eve Black’s true crime memoir, right down to its acknowledgements. It’s extremely clever and it’s a great way for us to get inside Eve’s head and understand what’s happened to her and to the other victims. It’s also fascinating as a piece of fictional true crime. This mixes with the chapters spent with Jim Doyle, which I particularly enjoyed. Eve always remains a little aloof from us as we only know her from her memoir and what she chooses to reveal about herself, but we’re given full access to Jim Doyle’s mind and what an unpleasant place it is. It’s good to watch him squirm as he reads the book. What I also found intriguing is that this is also a portrait of a retired serial killer, raising all sorts of interesting questions about the nature of such people and why they might stop and why they might do it in the first place. It really is one of the most fascinating depictions of a serial killer that I’ve read.

As you’d expect from this excellent author, The Nothing Man is very well-written and compelling. It’s surprising, original and very entertaining. The portrayal of Jim Doyle especially stands out while Eve Black’s pursuit of a killer is engrossing. Which reminds me I must read Rewind very soon!

Other reviews
The Liar’s Girl
Distress Signals

I literally could not put this book down. I say book, when in fact it is a book within a book which sounds much more complicated than it is!

Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive a serial killer - The Nothing Man - and years later writes a book about him in a bid to unmask him. The killer then spots the book on the shelves of the supermarket where he works and his life begins to unravel.

Written from the point of view of both the victim and the killer this is an excellent read.

I loved the idea of a book within the book - Anna was the only survivor following the murder of her family and, yers later, she writes a book about it which is read by the murderer.

Sometimes, the book slowed a bit too much and I found my mind wandering and had to pull it back, mainly when reading the ‘book’ portion of the novel.

I questioned The content of some of the ‘book’ within the novel. Would you really put the following in a book you hoped would catch a murderer (in relation to whether you would ever get a conviction): “... you almost certainly won’t get it. Not unless he confesses which after all these years and no physical evidence, he’d be very unlikely to do”?

There are many small shocks/twists throughout the course of the book with regards to our murderer - he he is now, who he was then, which built the tension. Is it a lack of power in his own life that causes him to commit these crimes? Is it his disgust of his wife or another woman in his life? In the same way, you don’t get to know about the victim, who she has grown to be. This is interesting (and maybe an underlying message) for the fact that people remember the names of serial killers, they don’t often remember the names of their victims.

But our offender, self-important and egotistical, enjoying the thrill of his notoriety; violent, but going through his boring everyday ‘nothing’ life, devoid of love or warmth, the only emotion anger. A coward.

The final twist of what actually happened that night was just wow. What an ending.

A really good read.

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I loved it every bit as much as I hoped I would. I read The Liar’s Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard a couple of years ago and it was brilliant – but The Nothing Man is even better. The story follows Jim, the titular Nothing Man, who terrorised the Cork area years ago. Eve Black survived the attack that killed her whole family and has written a book about The Nothing Man in an attempt to catch him once and for all.

This is such a clever book, told in such an addictive way. The reader follows Jim’s experience reading the book Eve has written about him whilst also reading the book for themselves. I love a ‘book within a book’ especially when done as perfectly as this! I could not stop reading until I knew the end result – this is one of those books that could quite easily be read in one sitting simply because you won’t want to be interrupted at all until it’s over. It is compulsively compelling and totally gripping. Throughout, I was getting an ‘I’ll Be Gone in the Dark’ vibe (an excellent true crime book by the sadly deceased Michelle McNamara) especially in the way it shows serial killers for what they really are, rather than what the media and public have built them into. I read in the author’s note at the end that I’ll Be Gone In The Dark was one of her inspirations and I loved that she managed to create a story that put across her point whilst also writing an original and emotional book which had me completely hooked from beginning to end.

The Nothing Man is dark and at times brutal. It feels frighteningly real which makes it all the more shocking and is testament to the author’s skill. As the book hurls to it’s unknown conclusion it is almost unbearably tense. The sense of anticipation of the final showdown is fantastic. I loved this book and I think true crime fans especially and anyone who enjoys an intense thriller will be totally captivated by it. I highly recommend it and can’t wait to read whatever Catherine Ryan Howard writes next!

The Nothing Man was a killer who escaped without leaving a single clue behind. Now one of his survivors has written a book about his experience and she is hopeful at last he will be found. However the nothing man has seen her book and he has no intention of being found.

Wow what a ride this was. The story is told by the Nothing man and then through extracts of the book about him. It gives a really interesting insight into the killer. The story itself is steady but builds to a dramatic climax. I had guessed how it would end but enjoyed reading how it happened. The book extracts are well done and does read like a true crime novel. The story was well written and I am a fan of the authors work. Jim is instantly unlikeable and yet you get pulled into his world. I liked Eve, her strength shone through her work and at the conclusion. A brilliant thriller.

Thank you to net galley for the opportunity to read the nothing man. This was a different style of writing to what im used to. Its basically a book inside of a book. Its the story of Eve Black and her search for the nothing man who killed her family years ago. She has written the book in hope of finally finding the man who killed her family. The book was good, but i found it quite slow to begin with. It did get better as the book went on but if im totally honest i did struggle to keep engaged throughout. I think it was just the style of writing as its something im not used to. That being said, all in all it was a good book, it all came together really nicely in the end . I would recommend people give this book a go, and keep at it because it does get better the further in you get.

The Nothing Man is Catherine Ryan Howard's fourth thriller with a premise that has sparks of refreshing originality to it and leads to an interesting high-stakes game of cat and mouse. At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker The Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life. Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man; the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family’s killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim’s not just interested in reading about The Nothing Man. He is The Nothing Man. Jim soon begins to realise how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won’t give up until she finds him. So he has no choice but to stop her first...

What a heart-thumping and terrifying read this is and it also happens to be chilling and wholly original in its plotlines too. It is high-concept crime fiction that is incredibly satisfying and the twists in the narrative certainly have shock value, that's for sure. With each book she produces Howard continues to exceed expectations but this time she's well and truly blown them out of the water! It's beautifully written from first page to last and as it progresses the tension is ratcheted up until it is intense and palpable. It's no doubt a real page-turner and a cracking must-read for crime connoisseurs as it's captivating, clever and really quite creepy, and I must admit that Jim was a fascinating character. A memorable and thoroughly entertaining thriller. I look forward to her future books. Many thanks to Corvus for an ARC.

A superb read and fully deserving of many 5 star ratings
This is different from most crime murder thrillers in that you know the victims beforehand and you also know the murderer.
Don't be put off by this as it is a real page-turner. The chapters alternate primarily between what happened nearly 20 years ago by clever use of book extracts and how this impacts the murderer now.
You really hope there will be an 'all comes good' ending but you are never quite certain. There are a couple of big twists on the way and these contribute to the overall enjoyment of the book
Definitely not to be missed

I've never read anything by Catherine Ryan Howard, but the premise of this book gripped me by my throat and I knew it was a story I had to read. I'm incredibly fascinated by crime novels, especially if they're about serial killers. Catherine Ryan Howard has added a bit of a twist, because from the start we know who the killer is.

Jim Doyle is the infamous Nothing Man who was active in Ireland twenty years before the start of the novel. One day a book is released by one of his female survivors. She was 12 years old when her family was murdered by this vicious killer. In the book & marketing campaign, she promises she will catch The Nothing Man. However, up until today Jim Doyle is still a free man. Amused and a little bit concerned about what has been written about him, he picks up the book.

This concept keeps on giving. It's both hilarious and enthralling to read the book from the killer's point-of-view. We get the history of the crimes from the point-of-view of the writer/survivor and of himself when he gives clarifications or further explanations.

The story propelled forward by this fact. We're reading the book at the same speed he is. He couldn't put it down, but I couldn't put it down either. I was guessing the whole time how it would all end. I have to be completely honest, the ending was a bit of a let down for me. I think this is a matter of taste though. I would've like a bit more of a exciting climax than the one we're presented with. As I said, this is a matter of taste.

Many thanks to the publisher Atlantic Books and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

Best thriller I have read in yonks!I've been put off thrillers as I have read so many badly written,boring novels of late.However,it was refreshing to read this one!This story about a serial killer was genuinely creepy and held my interest to the end.One night it scared me enough to stop me sleeping so it definitely does what it says on the tin!

I really enjoyed this book and will give it a huge thumbs up. With a great story line and excellent main characters - I would highly recommend this book.

This was a really interesting concept, and very well written. I personally am not a fan of the "book within a book" trope, so it wasn't really for me, however I can appreciate that a lot of people will love this! Many thanks netgalley for providing me with a copy

This is my first Catherine Ryan Howard book and definitely won't be my last!

The Nothing Man is a deliciously creepy thriller with many twists and turns for the reader. It reminded me a little bit of the TV series, 'The Fall' due to the setting in Ireland, plus the way 'The Nothing Man' operated.

It's very believable with two excellent main characters in Eve and Jim, whose paths crossed once and will be forever connected. Jim is 'normal', married with a daughter, working as a security guard. His past is a lot more complicated and his behaviour is incredibly scary!

The way the book brings Eve to the fore - by writing a true crime novel on her experience - is a really neat plot device and the replaying of the crimes is chilling.

This is an excellent read and I'd highly recommend it - it would also make a great film/TV series!

Unusual. Raw. Gripping.

True crime is either dry and very matter-of-fact, or overly sensationalized. "The Nothing Man", the most recent outing by Catherine Ryan Howard, is a true crime book about a serial killer encased in a gripping novel. I always loved the idea of a book in a book, and "The Nothing Man" does not disappoint.

The Nothing Man is a memoir written by Eve Green, the survivor of the very last crime committed by the titular villain. Eve's story is a cathartic journey she takes to deal with the survivor's guilt and reconcile the loss of her entire family to a mindless crime. A crime, that has never been resolved. Then we have Jim. Jim reads Eve story and corrects it in his very own head. Because, you see, Jim is the titular Nothing Man...

The novel is indeed a fantastic example of what a gripping thriller should be. Tense, claustrophobic, full of twists. We learn the story of The Nothing Man from two perspectives: the predator, and the prey.

Catherine Ryan Howard takes us inside the mind of a killer, who reads an account of his own crimes. The author takes us down the rabbit hole of his desires. His thought processes. His passions. His triggers. The more we learn about him, the easier it is for us to develop very definite feelings towards him. Catharine Ryan Howard doesn't try to romanticise the killer, as many authors do. She arms us in facts about The Nothing Man and wants you, the reader, to make up your mind about him. The narrative style is very close to soulless reporting. And it's very good! The structure of a story works brilliantly well. There's very little room for anything else but facts. It's a true crime book inside a report on crime committed 18 years ago. Totally captivating and utterly unexpected.

It's one of these books that stays with you once you've finished it. It's one of these stories which will stay with you. It's a brilliant story of a girl who just wants answers. And an old man, who wants to re-live the moments he considers as glorious, even though they are horrific.

Highly recommended. Many thanks to Catherine Ryan Howard, Corvus, Atlantic Books and NetGalley for the advance reader's copy of "The Nothing Man". Thoroughly enjoyed it.

This was a very different sort of thriller. The killer present in the story throughout. The sections from his point of view were very chilling. Unfortunately I didn’t feel much empathy for Eve in the novel. I am not sure why? Maybe it was because she was also telling the harrowing stories of his other victims, but she did feel quite a cold character to me.
I really enjoyed the novel. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read a preview copy of this novel I am sure it will do very well on its release. It certainly deserves to it was an extremely well written and researched thriller.

This was certainly different.The writing style was totally unique to me, a book within a book.The security guard who committed the atrocities all those years ago was a nasty and totally unlikable character,I also thought he was very realistic .I didn't like him and thought he was really quite scary.I felt sorry for his victims and the one who survived.I can't say any more without getting too far into the plot and I don't want to spoil it for other readers.I didn't find this a comfortable book to read,but I don't think it was intended to be.Well worth a read though.

The nothing man grabbed me from the first page, it was an interesting premise, written as a book with in a book, it is told through two the two main characters Eve the authour of a new book titled the Nothing Man and Jim, the aging security guard who no one takes any notice off, but what no one realises is Jim is the nothing man - who 20 years ago raped and murdered people in their own homes including Eve's parents and sister. Hes now seen that she has written a book about him and his crimes and she is determined to track him down and find him.

Jim can not let this happen and starts plotting again. Cleverly written and engaging I really enjoyed the story and I look forward to more from Catherine Ryan Howard.