Linda P Young's 15 Minutes and Before 15 Minutes is one of the most unusual stories I have read in forever. At the start we learn that “he” had to kill and it was something he had been doing for many years, starting as a little boy with a neighbor’s dog. His choice of victim and how he killed each one, as well as a description of where he killed them, is shared with the reader as well as the fact that so many people were missing and had never been found. We then meet a restaurant owner who is interested in opening a new restaurant as well as buying a farm outside town. The restaurant owner and his brother also open a butcher shop as their parents had had one for many years and they both grew up learning the trade. All was good in their lives. We next meet Captain Ritnmeyer who is trying to find the missing people and who is responsible. The answers he finds took me totally by surprise.

When the second half of the story begins, we meet Anton and Camille and learn about their lives in Sitlo, a small Italian village. Camille lived in an orphanage and liked taking the smaller children into the nearby woods and killing and burying them so that they would never be found. Anton came from a rich family that did not approve of Camille or the love he felt for her. This did not stop the young couple and they married and soon moved to America. They opened a shop and enjoyed the benefits of living in New York City. The final ending is one that is impossible to see coming and brilliant writing by Linda P Young makes 15 Minutes and Before 15 minutes amazing, containing all of the ghastly, grisly, gruesome things you can imagine in a story that is impossible to put down.

Interestingly, 15 Minutes is the name of a small, fictional American town where a popular chef retires from the big city to open the type of restaurant he had always dreamed of. He also buys a small nearby farm so that the meat and produce for his restaurant are fresh, local and, as far as possible, organic. The farm is managed by his brother Jacob and together the brothers create a very successful local business. Linda P. Young's 15 Minutes and Before 15 Minutes has a second, more sinister thread that follows the dark movements of a serial killer who refers to himself as the predator. The protagonist’s gory killings are described in some detail so the book is not for the squeamish. The book is also in two parts; the second of these, Before 15 Minutes, describes the life of Camille, a young orphan girl growing up in a convent-run children’s home in Sicily, and Anton, the young man she marries and with whom she emigrates to America.

It is difficult to give too much detail about the plot of 15 Minutes and Before 15 Minutes by Linda P. Young. There are a number of twists, turns, and surprises in the storyline which would be a shame to give away. Slowly the various threads unite and the narrative culminates in an unexpected and dramatic ending. The narrative moves along at a steady pace, in the first part alternating between the creation of the town’s new restaurant and the brothers becoming integrated into the local community, while the second concentrates more on the life of Camille, a pivotal character in the overall plot. I can say that it is suitably gory and substantially horrific. The activities of the ‘predator’ reminded me of the callous and unfeeling character Patrick Bateman from the famous novel American Psycho. But perhaps not quite as nasty.