What is always welcoming about a Ronald Malfi novel, is 9 times out of 10 he is covering a different facet of the horror genre.
For Senseless, Malfi turns his attention to a more procedural affair that has echoes of the first series of True Detective.
The basic premise being that a detective is tasked with finding out who has mutilated a woman in Los Angeles, and cutting away all of her sensory bodily parts, such as their ears, eyes, noses and fingers.
Malfi does not hold back in really painting just how depraved these crimes and also gives us the setup, that this might be a burgeoning killer, as the slaying echoes one that took place 12 months earlier.
Senseless has the twists of a hard-boiled noir tale mixed with psychological horror that wouldn’t feel remiss in the Hannibal TV series.
We also have the sideplot of a woman who has recently started dating a Hollywood producer (this is LA after all), and having to deal with his erratic and potentially harmful son.
This is the type of novel which will keep you guessing until its final few chapters, when the bombs really start to land and our characters are forced to pick up the pieces.
It’s almost played out like an anthology at first, as it feels like there is such a disconnect between the stories but as soon as they converge you won’t want to put this down.
Senseless by Ronald Malfi is released in various formats from Titan Books on 15 April 2025.
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