Hangman

Special X #8

by Michael Slade

The game begins in Seattle, where a hanged woman is found with one leg missing. Then, in Vancouver, a corpse is found with both legs missing. The clue that binds these horrific crimes together is a game of "Hangman" crudely drawn at each location--painted in the victim's blood.

The victims, it seems, were jurors on a controversial case years ago, in which a man was sentenced to death--by hanging. Two cops on both sides of the border--Canadian detective Zinc Chandler and American detective Maddy Thorne--are up against a killer whose every move means death. To stop him, they must solve the riddle of the hangman--before the madman makes his final, murderous move...and wins the game.

Genres: Horror, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Suspense, Mystery Thriller

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Slade on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MountieNoir

Slade on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MountieNoir

Criminal lawyer MICHAEL SLADE has acted in over one hundred murder cases. His specialty is the law of insanity. He argued the last death penalty case in Canada’s highest court.

Backed by his forensic experience, Slade’s Special X and Wyatt Rook thrillers fuse the genres of police and legal procedure, whodunit and impossible crime, suspense, history, and horror.

Slade was guest of honor at both the Bloody Words crime convention and the World Horror Convention. As Time Out puts it, “A thin line separates crime and horror, and in Michael Slade’s thrillers, the demarcation vanishes altogether.”

Slade was guest speaker at the international Police Leadership Conference and several RCMP regimental dinners. As Reader’s Digest puts it, “The Slade books have developed a strong following among police officers because of their strict adherence to proper police procedure.”

For the stories behind his plots, visit Slade’s Morgue at www.specialx.net.

Reviews

[Orient · Rating 5 out of 5]

During my trip with Mr. Slade I was charmed, intrigued, disgusted a bit, all in all enchanted with almost every single read (a bit disappointed with Burnt Bones, but it seems it was just a short stop to recuperate and get back to awesomeness). There is a new energy and intrigue with “Hangman”, I guess it’s the new teaming up (Michael Slade is the pseudonym of Vancouver trial lawyer Jay Clarke. In “Hangman”, Clarke teams up with daughter Rebecca Clarke).

The story has lots of twists and turns, it definitely feels like a new taste of spice. Traditionally, mysteries are backed up by action, gore and incredible amount of research into police and legal procedure. It kept me intrigued from beginning to end. I kept guessing, while diving into several different characters stories. Some mysteries were easier to crack, but the very main one just blew my mind and I was left with my jaw hanging down.



I loved the tasty bit about the origin of



You could say:
“ So much fuss about a picture of a woman who has lost her earrings . ” And you would probably be right. I look at that from this angle 😂

" A scream a day keeps the shrink away "

My fave part, characters:
Slade is famous for his complex, scarred characters with tough past, but at the same time they are so realistic. Centered upon the portrayal of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, with my beloved Zinc in the lead and several gruesome murders for dessert, “Hangman” is soaked with suspense, interesting historical facts and a fantastic race to guess who the culprit is! Damn, I had five suspects myself and only one of them matched the killer (there are way more killers than one there, so go on, try to solve “Hangman” mysteries yourself!) And I came to the part, which is a heart-breaker for me, people died, sometimes they were worth it and I cheered the Hangman to kill that mind-pooper! But one death was very sad for me, I loved that character a lot, also I think that it’s unfair to another character who was again left with a broken heart 🙁 Damn it, but will there be enough of bad times for my faves?! Ugh.




All in all, that is an awesome read and if not for my passion to Malazan, I would have swallowed “Hangman” in a couple of days. Can’t wait to see what this new teaming has in store for me in other books in the series!

[Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8 stars [Not a 4 because of the slow start. More than 3.5 because of how quickly I became interested once it picked up for me]

This book started out so slow for me, honestly. The storyline sounded interesting and I wanted to get as anti-Valentine's Day as I could, so I grabbed the closest book on my TBR list. I was reading what I assume was a 2000 paperback copy, so the print was really small and took some getting used to. For the first hundred pages or so, I found my attention straying. Somewhere between page 100 and page 171, I became involved. Finally, the mystery was getting juicy and the murders were getting more gruesome. I had so many different suspects - Justin, Ethan, Peter himself!, a juror from Peter's trial, a psychotic fanatic. Of course I won't give anything away. But the twists and turns are so unexpected, you can't help but scramble for people to be the face behind the mask. It may have taken me a while to get into, but once I did, I was hooked. I'm ashamed to say I almost put this aside to finish at a much later date or just not bother with at all, but because I'm stubborn, I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. The only spoiler I will provide is this: I'm greatly disappointed that we don't discover who killed Anna, the little girl Peter was accused of murdering. It may not have been important to the overall moral of the story, or even the plot, but it would have been nice to see some kind of justice for that poor girl.

[Gevera Piedmont · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't a bad book, but I could not get into it. Too many similar characters doing similar things made it hard to keep track of who was who and after a while I just didn't care. The end came totally out of left field and was rather disappointing.

[Courtney Torres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written!
Loved poping from one person to the other, city to city...never knowing who was the killer and then hoping it wasn't who they were hinting at!
The ending is totally a suprise!
Loved it! Loved it! Loved it!

[Calli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely not a book for those with weak stomachs, but an AWESOME read nonetheless.

Unfortunately, one can't really review this book without giving spoilers but I have to say it's a must-read for horror and crime fans.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very good. A few shocks and surprises. Very gory killings and an interesting method/reason behind the killings. Will be reading more by this author. A fast read, also. And you get a history of hangings and hangmen throughout. Highly recommended to those who like mysteries.

[Jaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

very exciting psychological thiller

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great psychological thriller. I will definitely have to re-read this book.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars for this one. Really did not like the time jumping: "tonight", "16 days ago", "tonight", "2 weeks ago", etc. Hard to follow and keep characters aligned. Written by two people, father and daughter, and it shows. An excellent history of hanging, primarily in the English legal system but some in the American. Some interesting background on word origins: "toe the line", "red herring", etc. Very anti-capital punishment, much on the Canadian legal system, comparisons of US and Canadian law. serial killer(s)?, lawyers and police, really all over the place. I did read to the end and the ending surprise came out of the blue.

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished reading Hangman more out of curiosity. I needed to know who the "real" hangman was! Getting to that last page was more work than I care to go through when I am reading for enjoyment. There was A LOT of unnecessary detail in this book. I learned more about hanging than anyone really needs to know in order to enjoy this book. Many details were repeated, again without necessity. Michael Slade is intelligent and has done his research. His characters are real and believable. It just took too much time to get to the point.

[Brian Sammons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad addition to the Slade mythology/universe. A bit of a throw back to his earlier, better books. Not as good as Headhunter, Ghoul, or Ripper, but still an enjoyable read.

[Jara Eunice · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good, kept me hooked.

I recommend it to anyone who's a fan of crime/mystery.

[Ryan Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. I don't read much fiction but I read this one while in the hospital.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically, the writing style frustrated me. I made it about halfway through and gave up.

[Mii · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great read!

[Denzel Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read depicts the crimes quite gruesomely also, you never know who the murder is at the plot twists like 3 times.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like the way the story jumped around. I found it hard to keep track of who was where and when...

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this for a vacation read. Was great. Haven't been able to find anymore of the novels by this father-daughter duo.

[Barbara ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read in this series and it'll be the last. Though I liked the plot and the surprise ending, the execution was irritating. Too much like a textbook - preachy and teachy.

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I originally started to read this book based on the fact that there were so many mentions of it on the inside of the book and a few claiming this was as good as Stephen King.

First off, this book is just hard to follow and messy for no good reason...I absolutely don't like this ADHD writing style where it shifts from character to character and then we, the reader, are bombarded with a bunch of not very useful context.
Random hanging history, Canadian/American legal system knowledge, some Vancouver local and city history and so on. I don't care about that in a book supposedly about a revenge murder.
Far too many characters that aren't fleshed out at all, literally just 2D cardboard cutouts. Generic cops, slimely lawyers and bad-guys.

Lastly the "plot twist" or surprise I guess made me just roll my eyes, I guess I also didn't care because I wasn't invested in this story or the characters at all and just wanted to know what happened.

I would save your time for far better stories

I haven't read any of the prior books or know the characters but they don't seem very interesting at this point. Mostly this book just seems to like to be gory and parts of it are just sick but not in a creative or any good way.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 8th novel in the Special X series. Lots of history on Hangings and capital punishment in the US and Canada. Very well researched, as usual. We are back with Zinc Chandler taking the lead on this one, with very little other Special X members in it.

I enjoyed the history and research on this one. This felt more like the first few Special X books as I didnt really like Burnt Bones too much. The Hangings and the courtroom procedures all made for great story telling.

Poor Zinc. Between his love interests in Ghoul and Cutthroat and finding happiness at the end of Ripper , I really wish Slade would have stay away from his partners/love interests.

Decent twists at the end that I did not see coming. There is a Hangman/vigilante off to hang Jurors and ppl involved in a false imprisonment that ended in its own hanging. Lots of red herrings on who the culprit is (we learn about the phrase Red Herrings too) and we find out that the victim had 2 brothers that both changed their names (convenient) and an old lover. Plenty of ppl to get upset at the wrong verdict and to make you think whodunnit

4 stars.

[TJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hangman is a rather strange, convoluted serial killer mystery. It has a number of interesting characters, many of whom are regulars in the Special X series. The book moves at a fairly rapid pace with few slow spots, but it jumps back and forth, timewise, which may it a little tough to keep up with for this reader. (Maybe I'm just a dullard...)
The plot has a number of satisfying twists, plus one really big one that I didn't see coming, but the ending left me wanting.
I've read a number of Michael Slade books in the past and have to say that this one wasn't "his" best.

[Sheila Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent thriller that kept me turning pages late into the night. Michael Slade has created some great characters with interesting back-stories. The plot has many twists and turns and an ending I didn't see coming.

[Sami Thibodeau · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book certainly had me intrigued. The jumping timeline and different characters POV was a little difficult to follow. I feel like a lot of the lawyer stuff was also unnecessary. But overall really good. Very gory.

[Patrick Connolly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great last 20 pages; everything before that was a muddled chore. There are bones of a really good novel here but for me I just could not deal with the random deep dives and time jumps. 2⭐️

[Brandi Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very slow start for me. A lot of details that were being repeated. Finally it picked up about midway through and I found myself enjoying it and having trouble putting it down.

[Kouju Tokieda · Rating 5 out of 5]

スペシャルXシリーズ、日本語への翻訳が止まっていると思ったら、この本のせいだった。
これは、日本語翻訳でのメッセージ解読は不可能。
飛ばして翻訳しようにも、以降の巻に影響するので無理。作者の鬼畜ぶりは相変わらず。
翻訳不可能な作品ではストップしても仕方がない。これ以降は英語版で読む。
数年前に読了済。

[Frankenoise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book was trying to do two things at once; 1) Tell a story about a serial killer and 2) Give the readers a history lesson on Hanging. To me this didn't work and I found the story was written very oddly because of this. I think some of the scenes were written very well but the back cover says "This revivals Stephen King." and "Would make De Sade wince." Reading those made me laugh because I've read nearly all of De Sades works and I don't think he'd bother with a single page of this story. Even though I didn't like this book much I still wouldn't mind reading his other novels. The subject does interest me and I actually learned a thing or two from this book, even though I wasn't expecting to.

[Gypsykat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good crime story in its own right for sure, but it wasn't Michael Slade! The style was totally different, part of it even written in first person! Lots of jokes & puns and places that actually made me groan & shake my head... nominal gore... Like i said, a cool crime novel, but it wasn't the HORROR-Crime that it usually is. If i wanted this, i'd read Dean Koontz.

I wonder if the daughter part of the re-formed Slade duo was the one who did most of the writing this time. It was just too different and non-gruesome. I read Michael Slade for good old-fashioned horror and gore! I think if this kind of writing continues, he’s lost a fan.

[Karen Magill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book kept me on the edge of my seat! A serial killer is crossing the Canada/US border and killing victims in both countries. What connection do the victims have with each other?

Set in Vancouver and Seattle, Hangman kept me guessing and when the killer was finally revealed it was a surprise. Slade is a master and planting misleading clues that make the reader think he or she has the plot figured out when in fact they don't.