Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #239053 in Books
• Published on: 1986-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1 pages

Customer Reviews

The Book that started it all.
I've been a big fan of Michael Slade ever since reading his EVIL EYE. This one HEADHUNTER is the first novel in his/ theirs series of horror/mystery/thrillers featuring policemen Robert DeClerq (here still without Zinc Chandler) and the Canadian Special X unit of the Royal Mounted Police.

HEADHUNTER is about this serial killer who kills women and takes their heads. The above mentioned unit is called in to track the killer down and a nerve shattering, and extremely deadly game of cat and mous ensues.

I refuse to go into the plot any further. I just have to tell you there's this mindboggling twist in the end which turns the book you've just been reading completely on it's head (no pun intented) and had me - as an aspiring writer - seeing green with envy- as brilliant as I thought the ending was. That same twist also makes reading the book for a second time almost a must!

HEADHUNTER really is that good a book. I can understand some of the criticism in that Slade doesn't pay all that much attention to the killers motives and his/ their priorities clearly lie with the police procedural-whodunnit aspects of the plot.
For me personally that didn't spoil the fun though and I still give it a maximum score of five stars.

I also just have to say a few things about the author. For who doens't know it Michael Slade is the pseudonym for a bunch of Canadian lawyers, and their expertise (and their knowledge of both policework and the justice system) clearly is evident in their books. Besides HEADHUNTER and EVIL EYE I'd also recommend RIPPER and especially GHOUL.
Although I catagorise Slade here as a thrillerwriter the series above all really is horror. It was marketed like that by ONYX in the late eighties and got rave reviews from FANGORIA magazine. Almost un-typically I also found Slade's name under the 'horror section' at my local bookshop.
Having concluded that, there's (not suprisingly) enough gruesomeness here to give even the most diehard horrorfan a run for his money, and it gets worse (or better?) with every following volume in this series. Just don't go expecting the next Stephen King novel. BE WARNED!

I've Read It 3 (that's three, folks) Times . . .
This is the book that started it all . . . looking for a good read at my local library years ago . . I stumbled across this gem. As a devotee of the RCMP and mystery and police fiction in general . . . this offering provided them all . . . and it's true claim to fame is that I have read it 3 times . . . and no other author has provided that same feeling and interest to get me to do THAT!!! If you go to the web site you can check out all that he has written since and see what his latest book is all about . . .
www.specialx.com

A good "who done it"
The review on the cover suggest that the book is "gruesome"...it is not. I'm a fan of gore and gruesome so I was excited to give it a go. While the killer is termed "The Headhunter", the book does not give bloody details, at least not what I call "bloody". The storyline itsself is excellent. It took me a few chapters to really get into it, but once I did I enjoyed it a great deal. The ending was a true suprise to me and very unexpected.