I Don't Want to Kill You

February 7, 2011
In Wells's smart and sassy third supernatural suspenser featuring likable teenage sociopath John Wayne Cleaver (after Mr. Monster), the Handyman, a serial killer who removes the tongues and hands of his victims, is targeting the town fathers of Clayton, N.Dak. John, who sometimes assists his mother in the local mortuary business, believes the killer is demon possessed and consults with a local priest, who's horrified to discover that empathy-empty John is a potential murderer himself. Then a rash of teen suicides breaks out, threatening John's girlfriend, Marci, and forcing him to revise his deductions about the killer's identity. Wells lards his fanciful narrative with enough mortuary science to ground it in the cold realities of forensic pathology and give it a grisly edge. His true achievement, though, is his compelling depiction of John, who nurtures a darkness within that makes him seem much older than his actual years.