I Hunt Killers Reading Response

In the small town of Lobo's Nod, where Jazz, the protagonist of I Hunt Killers lives, people quietly fear him. Being the son of a serial killer, he understands why. Jazz's whole life has been filled with watching his father abuse and slaughter innocent people. Jazz was raised to be a killer. His father, Billy Dent, would say, “You're going to be the best one yet.”

Jazz is fighting a battle inside his own head, having all the knowledge a serial killer would ever need on one side, and being good on the other. He thinks about hurting people who get in his way, like the Sheriff, whose fingers he imagines cutting off when the Sheriff challenges him.

Now years after his father's arrest, Jazz wants to prove to himself and other he will not be like his dad. Someone in Lobo's Nod is killing again, copying Jazz's father's work down to the same initials and jobs of the victims. When Jazz hears of the new killer on the loose, mimicking his dad, he decides he should stop the killer himself. By thinking like a killer Jazz could stop the imitator, and could stop the voices inside his head, urging him to be like his dad. This would prove to others he's not a killer.

I Hunt Killers is unlike any other book I've read before. I've read horror books, and mysteries, but I've never read a book where the protagonist is trying to be good, while thinking sinister, gruesome thoughts. This makes me root for him and be scared of what he might do at the same time.

In the end, Jazz proves he is not like his dad, and he changes his fate.