This is not a horror thriller for the cozy lover. Not that playwright and Hawaiian Public Radio personality Gardner McKay's Toyer is gory, but this debut novel pulls some terrifying strings. Toyer is a "serial-lunatic" in Los Angeles who doesn't kill or rape his beautiful female victims. Instead, he "toys" with them psychologically and uses a surgical instrument to place them in a coma. Neurologist Maude Garance is Toyer's opposite. She has treated his victims and considers herself in a personal battle against his sadism. Because Toyer is not technically a killer, the police department and the district attorney could only charge him with mayhem--hardly a crime worth investigating. So, L.A. Herald reporter Sara Smith, who has helped expand her paper's readership by covering the
… read more...city's latest demon, enlists Garance to draw Toyer out. Their weapon is the Herald's op-ed page, and they inevitably become targets of Toyer as they wage their war of words with him. In a story that moves between a critical commentary on the uses and abuses of the media and a driving (sometimes melodramatic) suspense narrative, Toyer is sure to bring McKay's prose talents to a broader audience. --Patrick O'KelleyRead More read less...