The Caller By Chris Carter

If you are looking for a disturbing and spine-tingling thriller, The Caller by Chris Carter fits the bill. But be warned. If you have a weak stomach, this book is not for you. Filled with grisly details of each murder, you will be left feeling shaken by the gore.

The Caller by Chris Carter

After a tough week, Tanya Kaitlin is looking forward to a relaxing night in, but as she steps out of her shower, she hears her phone ring.  The video call request comes from her best friend, Karen Ward.  Tanya takes the call and the nightmare begins.

Karen is gagged and bound naked to a chair in her own living room.  If Tanya disconnects from the call, if she looks away from the camera, he will come after her next, the demonic voice at the other end of the line promises her. He tells her to answer two simple questions: ‘How many Facebook friends do you have?’ and ‘What is your best friend’s phone number?’. Unable to answer the second question, Tanya watches her best friend brutally murdered and sees the masked face of the figure who did it. Tanya calls the police but she has to deal with the guilt of not knowing her best friend’s number for the rest of her life.

As detectives Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia investigate the murder, they are thrown into a rollercoaster of evil, chasing a predator who scouts the streets and social media networks for victims, taunting them with secret messages and feeding on their fear.

While scary, The Caller will keep you hooked with its down-to-earth characters and clever non-linear plot sequence. Jumping between characters and going back in time, there is never a dull moment and the cliff hangers at the end of every chapter will leave you on the edge of your seat. This is not a thriller where you can guess the killer straight away—you will have to read until the end to uncover the truth.

I was gripped, utterly gripped from the very first page. But my only grip is that when the serial killer was revealed, I felt that it was a let-down and how the detective finally cracked the case was a bit too far-fetched. This book could have become a classic if it has culminated in a more exciting and plausible way.

If you have read this book, I have two questions for you:

• Did you jump out of your skin when your hand phone rings while you were reading the book?
• Did the book make you a bit apprehensive about sharing your life on social media for the whole world to see?