The Poison Artist - Hardcover

Moore, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0544520564 ISBN 13: 9780544520561

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016

Synopsis

“An electrifying read... I haven’t read anything so terrifying since Red Dragon.” —Stephen King

"Patient, stylish and incredibly suspenseful"—Lee Child

“Magnificent, thoroughly unnerving...I dare you to look away." —Justin Cronin

A gripping tale of obsession and deadly mystery, where the secrets of salvation and the most devastating desires are all written in blood

Dr. Caleb Maddox is a San Francisco toxicologist studying the chemical effects of pain. After a bruising breakup with his girlfriend, he’s out drinking whiskey when a hauntingly seductive woman appears by his side. Emmeline whispers to Caleb over absinthe, gets his blood on her fingers and then brushes his ear with her lips as she says goodbye. He must find her.

As his search begins, Caleb becomes entangled in a serial-murder investigation. The police have been fishing men from the bay, and the postmortems are inconclusive. One of the victims vanished from the bar the night Caleb met Emmeline. When questioned, Caleb can’t offer any information, nor does he tell them he’s been secretly helping the city’s medical examiner, an old friend, study the chemical evidence on the victims’ remains. The search for the killer soon entwines with Caleb’s hunt for Emmeline, and the closer he gets to each, the more dangerous his world becomes.

From the first pages up to the haunting, unforgettable denouement, The Poison Artist is a gripping thriller about obsession and damage, about a man unmoored by an unspeakable past and an irresistible woman who offers the ultimate escape.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Praise for The Poison Artist
 
“Patient, stylish and incredibly suspenseful.” — Lee Child, New York Times best-selling author of the Jack Reacher novels
 
“The Poison Artist is an electrifying read, building from shock to shock. I read the last one hundred pages in a single sitting. The final chapter is an absolute stunner. I haven’t read anything so terrifying since Red Dragon.” — Stephen King, New York Times best-selling author of Finders Keepers and Mr. Mercedes

“The Poison Artist is an elegant, gripping, hair-raising gothic chiller, a wicked mix of Poe, The Silence of the Lambs, and Vertigo. Settle in for a long night of reading — once this one grabs you, it doesn’t let go.” — William Landay, New York Times best-selling author of Defending Jacob
 
“Jonathan Moore has written a wickedly smart, emotionally complex novel that will haunt you long after you turn the last page. Whether you find it seductively terrifying or terrifyingly seductive, in my mind, The Poison Artist is better than Hitchcock.” — Lou Berney, author of Whiplash River and The Long and Faraway Gone
 
“With The Poison Artist, Jonathan Moore has given us a brilliant debut thriller, confident, mesmerizing, edgy and very cool. So much happens on every page, it’s almost dizzying. Hitchcock should come back from the grave and film this story.” — Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist and Next Life Might Be Kinder

From the Inside Flap:

A gripping tale of obsession and deadly mystery, where the secrets of salvation and the most devastating desires are all written in blood
 
Dr. Caleb Maddox is a San Francisco toxicologist studying the chemical effects of pain. After a bruising breakup with his girlfriend, he’s out drinking whiskey when a hauntingly seductive woman appears by his side. Emmeline whispers to Caleb over absinthe, gets his blood on her fingers and then brushes his ear with her lips as she says goodbye. He must find her.

As his search begins, Caleb becomes entangled in a serial-murder investigation. The police have been fishing men from the bay, and the postmortems are inconclusive. One of the victims vanished from the bar the night Caleb met Emmeline. When questioned, Caleb can’t offer any information, nor does he tell them he’s been secretly helping the city’s medical examiner, an old friend, study the chemical evidence on the victims’ remains. The search for the killer soon entwines with Caleb’s hunt for Emmeline, and the closer he gets to each, the more dangerous his world becomes.

From the first pages up to the haunting, unforgettable denouement, The Poison Artist is a gripping thriller about obsession and damage, about a man unmoored by an unspeakable past and an irresistible woman who offers the ultimate escape.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0544520564
• ISBN 13: 9780544520561
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288