Condemned

by Michael McBride

(2015)

Publisher: Factor V Media

The book takes place in Detroit Michigan, and as the title suggests a good portion of the city is condemned, and most of the characters are on a downward spiral.

Peter Webber owns an online investigative news site called Wake the Puck Up, Hockeytown! whose primary area of reporting is the continued vandalism and deterioration of the Motor City, Detroit.. When he discovers the remains of a young woman in the old Eastown Theatre, he finds himself pitted against a serial killer who uses the bodies of his victims to recreate medieval visions of hell inside Detroit’s landmark ruins.

Webber starts to investigate and soon enough another tip leads to more of the same, a body he was now convinced had been exsanguinated.

As the body count continues to rise, he and Detective Aundray Rogers must embark upon their own descent into the underworld, one that mirrors the decline of the Motor City, if they’re to have any chance of stopping the murderer before it’s too late.

With the city deteriorating around them, they learn that the abandoned buildings aren’t the only things that have been condemned.

A powerful story, well-paced and well written, though a little slow in the beginning and a little heavy-handed at the end.