"O'Callaghan is back with a vengeance ..."-- Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Is there a sociopathic killer on the loose and murdering prostitutes in New York City? NYPD’s top cop, Homicide Commander Lieutenant John Driscoll, believes there is. Someone who calls himself “Tilden” and claims to have been sexually abused as a child by his mother’s john. But what could have triggered Tilden’s rage that has him on a mission to eradicate all the women of the night in The Big Apple?
More importantly, will Driscoll put an end to the madness? He soon discovers Tilden’s not the run-of-the-mill sociopath. After all, would a common murderer have taken the time to embalm his victims, which the New York City chief medical examiner determined was the cause of their deaths?
Driscoll, a man haunted by the events of an unstable childhood himself, must put aside any sympathy he may have for Tilden and put a stop to his murderous rampage. Teamed up with Sergeant Margaret Aligante and Detective Cedric Thomlinson, who have their own issues, the commander sets out to stop the killings and bring Tilden to justice before he kills again.
EDITORIAL REVIEWS:Review
"A fast-paced and compelling read. O'Callaghan depicts a serial killer like no other. Imagine Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein, and Bible John, fused into one heinous beast. Not all serial killers are the same. Tilden, the evil antihero of this inflammable tale, is compelled by urges that wreak havoc on his human targets. Obsessed by a macabre plan, he implements his sordid designs on the bodies of his multiple victims. He baffles and disorients the forces of law and order- except for Lieutenant Driscoll, whose fervent imagination knows no bounds and whose understanding of evil makes him the prime investigator in this aberrant case. Read this novel, and be haunted!"
-- Anne K. Howard, 2020 INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARD and 2018 LITERARY EXCELLENCE PENCRAFT AWARD winning author of HIS GARDEN: Conversations With A Serial Killer
"Worth the wait! O'Callaghan is back with a vengeance and this time he delivers a complex but nuanced thriller that grabs you by the throat and never let's go. And that, by the way, is a very good thing."
-- Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of WATER'S EDGE
"No One Will Hear Your Screams is a gritty crime thriller of the highest order. Thomas O'Callaghan has woven a superb neo-noir, carved from the fabric of the likes of Michael Connelly and James Elroy with just enough Don Winslow mixed in for good measure. Bracing when it needs to be, bold when it wants to be and blistering from beginning to end, No One Will Hear Your Screams is sure to leave you screaming for more."
-- Jon Land, USA Today Bestselling Author of the eleven book Caitlin Strong series
"Thomas O'Callaghan's No One Will Hear Your Screams, features NYPD homicide lieutenant John Driscoll, a man fighting his own demons, on the trail of a diabolical killer who's unleashed a murderous rampage on the city. Not for the faint of heart, No One Will Hear Your Screams, is coldly graphic in its depiction of the grisly acts of a depraved killer, yet compassionate in its portrayal of the human heart at war with itself in the pursuit of justice."
-- Con Lehane, author of six mystery novels, his latest being MURDER OFF THE PAGE
"A first class crime thriller: a fast moving story that never deviates from its goal: find the killer, stop the killing, save the lives of very vulnerable women."
-- Pat Mullan, Ireland's Chair of The International Thriller Writer's Association and author of A DEADLY GAMBLE
"Thomas O'Callaghan has created a dark, compelling novel filledwith thrills, kills, twists and turns that feel so real you'll be scared to readit alone. Police procedurals don't get much better than this. I highly recommendedit."
--Alex Shaw, #1 International Kindle Bestselling author ofthe Aidan Snow, SAS thriller series.
THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
I loved reading about NYPD’s top cop, Homicide Commander Lieutenant John Driscoll. Driscoll’s character is brilliant - he wears his heart on his sleeves, is dedicated for sure, with a tough history - a wife in a coma and his only daughter dead from a tragic car accident. This time Driscoll is faced with the worst - O’Callaghan delivered with an unthinkable sociopathic killer that had me squirming in fear for this character. The plot is razor sharp and the story pacing moved quickly with the short chapters that I really enjoyed.
ENJOY AN EXCERPT:
Excerpted from No One
Will Hear Your Screams. Copyright © 2020 by Thomas O'Callaghan. All rights
reserved. Published by WildBlue Press.
Pearsol
opened the mortuary cooler and pulled out the stainless steel tray supporting
the victim. “Lieutenant, meet Jane Doe,” he said sliding the woman’s
bloated body under Driscoll’s gaze. “Harbor Patrol fished her out of the
muck. I’d say she was a feast for the gulls for a day. Maybe two.”
“What’s that smell? Paint thinner?”
“Phenol.”
“She was doused in phenol?”
“Injected.”
Driscoll’s eyes narrowed.
“The complete autopsy will fill in the
blanks, but I’d bet my pension I already know what killed her. The who,
and the why, I’ll leave to you.” Pearsol handed the preliminary lab
report to Driscoll. It identifies a mixture of substances inside her
vascular system.
“Phenol, formaldehyde and Chloride of
Zinc?” Driscoll looked perplexed.
“The same Chloride of Zinc they put in dry
cell batteries?”
Pearsol nodded. “There’s three more.”
“Myrrh, aloe and cassia,” Driscoll read
aloud. “That’s a strange mix.” He glanced at Pearsol, who
nodded. “Says here you drained 851 milliliters from her circulatory
system. What’s that? About two pints?”
“Just under.”
“A body contains five to six quarts of
blood. So the rest of this mixture?”
“Still in her.”
Using his finger, Driscoll pushed back a
lock of the victim’s hair. “What could you have done to warrant this?” he
whispered, eyes on the corpse.
“Right now the unofficial cause of death is
phenol poisoning by arterial injection. Familiar with the German word,
‘abgespritzt’, Lieutenant?”
“No.”
“Abgespritzt was a method of genocide
favored by the Nazis in the early 1940s. Hitler’s henchmen delivered
instantaneous death by injecting 15 milliliters of phenol directly into the
heart.”
“What kind of syringe injects six
quarts?”
“More than likely he used a centrifugal
pump. And he knew what he was doing.” Pearsol pointed to the side of the
victim’s neck, where a semi- translucent latex adhesive covered a two inch
stretch of rippled flesh between the carotid artery and the jugular vein.
“An extreme method of murder, Lieutenant. He arterially embalmed her.”
Driscoll winced.
“There’s more.” The M.E. produced a
transparent evidence bag containing a locket. It was an inch in diameter
and featured Saint Vitalis of Gaza; his name etched in a half circle below his
likeness. “I found it under her tongue. Someone apparently placed
it there before suturing the tongue to the floor of her mouth.”
“What’s that about?” Driscoll wondered aloud.
“Good question. I’m not familiar with
that saint. You?”
“She‘s the patron saint of prostitutes.”
“Well, there’s a lead. Oh, and there’s
one other bit of information you’re sure to find intriguing. The myrrh,
aloe, and cassia injected with the embalming fluid were once embalming
solutions on their own. Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“They were the purifying fragrances applied
to the linens that wrapped the crucified Christ before he was laid in his tomb.”
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT:
Thomas
O'Callaghan's work
has been translated for publication in Germany, Slovakia, Indonesia, the
Czech Republic, China, and Italy. As an internationally acclaimed
author, Mr. O'Callaghan is a member of both the Mystery Writers of America
and the International Thriller Writers associations. A native of New York
City and a graduate of Richmond College, Mr. O'Callaghan resides with his
lovely wife, Eileen, a stone's throw from the Atlantic Ocean in
beautiful Belle Harbor, New York.
His
debut novel, BONE THIEF, republished by WildBlue Press on April
28, 2020, introduces NYPD Homicide Commander Lieutenant John W.
Driscoll.
THE
SCREAMING ROOM, the second in the John Driscoll series will be
republished by WildBlue Press on May 5, 2020.
The
third book in the series, NO ONE WILL HEAR YOUR SCREAMS, will be
released by WildBlue Press on June 16, 2020.
