Thank you to Netgalley/Blackstone Publishing for the ALC and to the author for the advanced copy of Remote: The Six in exchange for my honest opinion.
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: April 8, 2025
Summary:
A serial killer is rampaging across the country, tying families to chairs–arranged in puzzling tableaus–then murdering them, without leaving a trace of evidence.
FBI Special Agent Lukas Stark has been hunting the Tableau Killer for eighteen months but is always two steps behind in a maze of dead ends. He has no understanding of why the killer stages the scenes so meticulously or chooses entire families. Burning out, Stark is forced to take on a new partner, Gilles Garnier.
Garnier, an odd loner with a vague past, claims he’s a remote viewer who “sees” people, places, and events far away–remote–as if they’re right in front of him. Stark knows this sort. Cons. Wannabes desperate to worm their way onto a sensational case. Stark dismisses his new partner as a fraud … until Garnier precisely describes a new Tableau Killer crime scene from hundreds of miles away.
As Stark and Garnier track the Tableau Killer across the country, they start to believe they finally have the advantage. But Garnier’s ability to remote view fails him and leaves him ill and weak. Then Stark realizes how the killer has stayed ahead of them all this time. The reason is more terrifying than either man can fathom.
They face a killer who may be unstoppable, and stand at the abyss of a conspiracy so ominous, it shakes their reality to the core.
My thoughts:
I have been a fan of Eric Rickstad’s books for a long time and was thrilled when he reached out to me about his new series. And let me just say, what an exciting start this series is off to…
I do want to caveat this review by saying this book/series will not be for everyone…it’s dark, disturbing, graphic at times, and downright brutal–but this is Rickstad at his best. If you’ve read his New Canaan series, you know how gritty and dark he can get and we have some of that here – this is a story of a serial killer targeting entire families after all. But what sets this book/series apart is that our MC – FBI Special Agent Lukas Stark – is paired up with a partner, Gillespie Garnier, who claims to have a unique ability to “remote” view — he can see things remotely and predict where the killer will strike again.
This book had me in a choke-hold…I both needed to know more but also felt my anxiety rising each time the killer struck. I couldn’t read it fast enough completely spooking myself. The intensity of this book is crazy…and the author’s vivid writing really hits home – it’s so vivid it might give you nightmares!
This is only the 1st book in what I’m hoping will be a multi-book series. The ending leaves us wanting more and lucky me…book 2, Remote:The Five, which isn’t out until July, showed up in my mailbox today! I know what I’m taking on the plane with me next week!!!
Audio thoughts:
I alternated between print & audio and thought the narrator, Ari Fliakos, did a great job bringing this book to life.
Books in this series:
- Remote: The Six
- Remote: The Five – due out July 8th
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