Emma is a brilliant scientist who finds her life a nightmare after a bizarre assault. She is the only survivor of a man known in the tabloids at “the barber.” This killer shaves the heads of his victims before killing them. The challenge is that there appears to be little to no proof other than a shaved head that Emma has been attacked. Her hotel room number does not exist. A woman she encountered in the hall doesn’t appear to be a real person, and her husband works for the police and has found no additional evidence other than the word of his wife. Emma quits her job and retreats into her home. With a large dog and limited access to the outside world, she is doing all she can to avoid communications with anyone other than her closest friends and husband. She is used to not being believed. As a child, she had an imaginary friend that lived in her closet and promised to protect her always. She was the only one who could see him. The trouble begins when Emma’s neighbor is out and their local package delivery service asks Emma to hold onto the package for the neighbor. What follows is a series of bizarre twists and turns. I can promise you won’t see the ending coming.
I’d read the initial chapter of The Package and was expecting a standard mystery novel. What followed was a roller coaster of a book and far better than I was expecting. Be advised that this book does have sexual assault feature heavily in Emma’s attack, so readers who are sensitive to it should know that going in. The book was originally published in German, as Sebastian Fitzek is a well-known mystery writer there. Just when you think you’ve finally got your answers and you’re sure you’ve figured out the killer, everything changes again. I read a great deal of mysteries and thrillers for reviews and this one surprised even me.
Sebastian Fitzek’s The Package is available in print on January 1st from Head of Zeus publishing for UK readers and February 4th for readers in the United States.
