New to the works of Michael Slade, I started with Headhunter, the first in the series. As I made my way through the first hundred plus pages, I was engaged somewhat, but also thrown slightly at the jumping around in time and place, plus the regular introduction of new characters. There was never any thought of giving up on my part, but if you start this novel and don't get into it right away, by all means, stick with it. Everything ties up in the end rather brilliantly. There are probably more characters than are necessary to effectively tell this tale, and some of the "red herring" sidetracks go on a bit long, but over all Headhunter is a smartly written dark serial killer novel that packs a wicked punch to the gut as it concludes. I look forward to reading more from the Michael Slade team.