"Intense and captivating." -Readers' Favorite
"Once again, AJ McCarthy has crafted a masterful mystery." -Mary Ellen Bramwell, author of The Apple of My Eye
"[A] clever and engrossing serial-killer story." -Jeffrey James Higgins, author of Furious: Trapped in a Perfect Storm of Terror
"Dark, innovative..." -Timothy Gene Sojka, author of Payback Jack
In the Ottawa region, a chilling game blurs the line between reality and fiction in "By the Book." When a murder scene unveils an unsettling clue-a page ripped from a paperback bearing the title "Murder by the Dozen" -local author Tierney McGinnis is thrust into a nightmare she never penned.
Detectives Josh Riddell and Clint Weller, stalwarts of the Ottawa Police Service, are confronted with a grim reality: a serial killer is transforming the novel into a deadly playbook, executing each murder according to its pages. As panic swells and the body count mounts, the detectives race against time to unmask the predator before more lives fall victim to this macabre adaptation.
With each crime scene crafted to mimic the novel's horrors, Tierney and the detectives struggle to decode the chilling enigma. They're haunted by the looming uncertainty: can they outwit a murderer who seems to know their every move? Is Tierney in the killer's sights, and can Josh protect the woman who has gotten under his skin?
As the narrative hurtles towards its climax, tension mounts, and the detectives grapple with the most pressing question of all: who is the killer's ultimate target? With every second counting down, the boundaries blur between hunter and hunted, reality and fiction, and the unthinkable becomes undeniable. In By the Book, A.J. McCarthy spins a web of suspense that grips readers from the first page, and as the novel's pages turn, the Tierney and Josh edge closer to a revelation that will shake them to their core.
