Enigmatic characters, conspiracies on top of conspiracies, and mysteries
within mysteries make author Nick Mamatas's
The Second Shooter one of the most engaging books I've read this
year. Investigative reporter Mike Karras, on the hunt for the elusive "second
shooter" — a shadowy but ubiquitous figure at countless mass-murder scenes —
finds himself embroiled in one web of intrigue after another as he closes in
on the truth behind the reports of countless, disparate witnesses.
Enterprising and tenacious, Karras embeds himself in various families and groups of witnesses, whose bizarre personalities — and fantastic ideas about what's "really" behind the second-shooter phenomenon — endlessly complicate his quest. To top things off, Karras ends up facing a formidable personal nemesis in the form of conspiracy theorist and podcaster Chris Bennett, whose far-out ideas make Alex Jones sound like Walter Cronkite and whose reach extends into literally every aspect of Karras's life.
As one might expect from this author, no thread in The Second Shooter leads you quite where you expect — I would even say a long way into "who'd have bleepin' thunk it?!" territory.
Mamatas's assured authorial voice makes The Second Shooter a gripping, noirish story that doesn't let go even when it soars clean over the top. Four and a half out of five Damned Rodan's Dirty Firetinis.