Worm

By Cindy Glander and Michael Glander

Book Overview

A killer walks the streets of New Milford. He kills discriminately. He kills with purpose. He kills so cleverly that no one in the sleepy little town knows he exists. He masks his murders under the guise of suicides and accidents. His victims share a common thread: each has been abusive to animals, and each has crossed the path of Maggie McCarthy.

All Maggie McCarthy ever wanted was to live quietly and anonymously in her home town, running the small pet shop she inherited from her father. Instead, she unwittingly finds herself at the epicenter of a string of serial murders.

At the center of the investigations is Detective Jake Allen, a small-town cop with a disturbing past. To piece together the puzzle, Jake - or "Worm," as he was known as a boy - must first unravel the mysteries of his own tortured past.

Worm combines the twists and turns of a murder mystery with the spine-tingling undertones of a horror novel. It is a story of abuse and retaliation, of love unrequited and fulfilled, of each person's search for his true identity. From the heart-grabbing opening to the shocking conclusion, Worm will keep you guessing until the very end.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595315429
• ISBN13: 9780595315420
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

An enthralling, suspenseful read cover to cover

Worm is a gripping murder mystery. A serial killer stalks the streets of a sleepy little town, ruthlessly murdering individuals who are cruel to animals. Each victim has some connection to Maggie McCarthy, who only wanted to live in peace; now she is absorbed into a maelstrom of vicious conflict and the mind of a tortured killer. An enthralling, suspenseful read cover to cover.

Good Read

Cindy Glander uses the art of profiling (as in FBI serial killer profiling) to create a monstrous character that will have you cringing. Each death is cleverly disguised as an accident or suicide, which leaves you thinking, "How will they ever catch this guy if they don't even know to look for him?" This is an excellent novel which I found intriguing and well worth reading. It is a mystery and a psycho-thriller combined. I have been reading a lot of James Patterson and Dan Brown lately, so it's good to find another writer of mystery and suspense on the horizon.

WORM

WORM, the novel, makes you feel its author's presence as the tale unfolds. Here is an author who laughs, snickers, and enjoys the intricate mind games involved in creating a work worth remembering. The characters are at the mercy of their own thoughts and fears while continually remaining subject to the negative and positive effects their lives place on others. WORM is a very direct presentation of a good psychological thriller which highlights the inevitable scars of mental and physical abuse and its consequences.

Worm is a bit of a psycho, while Maggie is the innocent.

Worm is a psycho-thriller murder mystery novel by Cindy Glander that I couldn't put down until the end. It skillfully tergiversates amongst the various characters, leading the reader from one suspect to another. Basically, it is the journey of a psychologically damaged boy called Worm, his parents and their circle of friends, all intertwined with a girl named Maggie. The writer is skilled at surprising twists. For example, when a rabid animal attacks Sheila to her death, I pictured a large rabid dog performing the vicious acts; but in the end, it turns out to be a small squirrel. The juxtaposition of opposites, such as the little squirrel after passages about large rabid dogs, makes the book all the more interesting to read. On the one hand, Worm is a bit of a psycho, while Maggie is the innocent. She is humane to all animals and even runs a pet shop named Critters. Worm is a book about caring for your pets, and at the same time, interleaved, there is a story about a pitiful serial murderer. Or is it the other way around? I heartedly recommend this book to people who enjoy reading this genre.

A real page-turner!

Worm is the type of book that once you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down. With a fast pace, an engaging storyline, and plenty of surprises and plot twists, it kept me glued to the pages from beginning to end. Worm is the story of Jake Allen, a small-town detective with a disturbing past, who finds himself in the middle of a hunt for a serial killer that only he believes exists. Bizarre deaths have been occurring throughout the town, and though they appear to be nothing more than accidents, Jake suspects there is something more sinister beneath it all. Central to the story is Maggie McCarthy, the owner of the town's pet store, who is completely innocent and unaware that she is the inspiration behind these vicious acts of violence. Interweaved throughout the story, we delve into Jake's past, to a time when he was an abused boy who went by the name of "Worm", both because of the thick glasses and turtlenecked sweaters he wore to hide his bruises, and his ability to mentally "split himself into two" whenever he was threatened. Worm starts out like a horror novel, morphs into a murder mystery, then culminates into a psychological thriller. I pride myself in figuring out "whodunnit" in mystery novels well before it is revealed, but in this case, I was completely fooled. You will be, too.