I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

I Hunt Killers (Jasper Dent #1) by Barry Lyga
359 Pages (Hardcover)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
April 3, 2012
Source: Publisher
Format: Hardcover

What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?

Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could--from the criminal's point of view.

And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.

In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret--could he be more like his father than anyone knows? Wow, just wow. This book is ridiculously creepy, but amazingly so? It is like Law and Order SVU (the only good kind) told from the perspective of Jasper Dent, a boy who is connected to both a serial killer and the cops. It really is the best of both worlds.

    Jasper Dent's father is one of the most infamous serial killers. Everyone in his sleepy little town of Lobo's Nod, perhaps in the world, has been waiting for him to crack, to show just how similar he is to his father. Jazz is intent on making sure that never happens. But when bodies start piling up and Jazz knows he can solve the mystery, it becomes harder and harder to deprive himself of the life he was brought up to want - a life of death.

    So you know when you're watching SVU (because lets be honest, no one can ignore a SVU marathon) and the cops cannot figure out why the heck someone would pose the dead body, or even why they would kill him/her in the first place? Well, let's just say in I Hunt Killers, that whole part of the story is not a mystery. Jazz's father spent a lot of time trying to instill all that he knows into his son. Jazz can tell you exactly what the killer was thinking, and it is incredibly disturbing in the best kind of way. I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of research Barry Lyga did... I'm not sure I really want to find out. It payed off though, and that's all that really matters... right?

    Another aspect of the story that I loved were the characters, especially Jazz's best friend, Howie. He has a blood disease that makes him incredibly fragile, but his attitude and humor towards it are priceless. Howie is just a really cool character; he lightens up the book and makes the reader laugh in the middle of piles of gore and liters of blood.

    I would definitely recommend the insanity and creepy that is I Hunt Killers... Well, assuming that you can handle reading about severed fingers, blood, draino injections, rape and murder. The perfect novel for any crime show fans!

    PS: I know that in this review I kind of praise the blood, but I will very clearly put it out there that I do not find any of this subject mater amazing in real life. Just in fiction.