Review: Short List by L.R. MacAllister

Having less than six months to live, a terminally ill writer embarks on a coast to coast road trip. Seven names are on his list: the ones who had stolen from him in various ways and would pay for their transgressions. His latest manuscript had been rejected by every literary agent he'd sent it to, but its research has not been in vain. Less than 50% of homicides are solved. The odds are in his favor.
Two veteran detectives, Houston's Bill Healy and Barstow's Kevin Walsh, have a mandatory two weeks to solve their similar homicides. If not solved in that time-frame, their respective department chiefs will invite the FBI to intervene. With no pertinent clues, fingerprints or DNA left at the crime scenes, they depend on hunches and luck in order to track down the extremely intelligent killer, who they refer to as "DSB."
His first victims were in Texas and California, but the body-count continued on a national scale. All horribly mutilated, a sheet of cardboard is fastened around their necks, a cryptic message written on it.
There is only one exit on Richard Calder's highway to either Hell or heaven. Being a serial killer is more fun than writing about them. It's not how you die, but what you die for.

I received this book via Story Cartel to give an honest review.

Let me say this, I LOVE murder mystery books! Especially if they can draw me into the story and keep me there even with all the details. With the Short List, I was surprised at how long the book actually was and I was glad that it was long. You have Richard Calder who unfortunately is dying, but he is not going to just die! No he has to make those that did him wrong pay for what they did so they don't do it again. It is like you get inside the mind of serial killer and it is a bit scary. Now the killings are not overly gruesome like some of the actually serial killers are now a days, but it makes you still get the shivers. 

The plot was wonderful done, you can actually picture Richard on his road trip through towns and staying at motels. 

The character Richard is done to where you would not forget who he is! Which I think is amazingly done. 

Parts of the story are Richard's thoughts of life and thinking about what went wrong with the people he trusted so bear with it. There is not a whole lot of action but you get the feel of it in a sense.

When you think it is the end of Richard, there is someone who takes his place. And this character you only get a glimpse of. I totally forgot about this character and was surprised that this person came back into the picture which I thought was awesome. 

If the author can keep writing stories like this one he will have a new fan! 

Previously published under psuedonym Dane Taylor, L.R. MacAllister's 1994 book 'Gigolos' received international attention as the first modern day work on the subject, and was the inspiration for Showtime Network's reality show of the same title. With a background in music and film, including his associate producer credit for the 1977 Oscar nominated short documentary, titled Kudzu, he's also appeared on television and radio. A collection of short stories, the first of a series, is due for release in May 2014. Currently a full-time writer, he lives in the Carribean. To learn more about his debut novel "Short List" and its lineage, you can peruse it at: www.shortlistnovel.com