I Disappeared Them

Allen (All or Nothing) takes readers inside the mind of a serial killer in this ambitious if ultimately disappointing thriller. The lead character, a Miami pizza delivery man who insists victims call him “Periwinkle” (he leaves the flowers at his crime scenes as a calling card) is introduced in the midst of slaughtering domestic abuser Eduardo Gomez in 2001. Like Dexter Morgan before him, Allen’s “hunter” operates under a strict moral code, only killing people he believes have violated the social contract—an adulterer, a crooked cop, a pedophile. As the hunter’s bodies pile up, police close in on him, but he continues to taunt them with phone calls. Meanwhile, he returns home after each murder to his children and argues with his pregnant wife about baby names, considering whether he might kill her, too. In flashbacks, Allen digs into the hunter’s difficult childhood, during which he was bullied for being overweight. Allen aims for something lyrical and elevated, and while he occasionally achieves a kind of hypnotic grace, the overall effect fails to make much of an impression. Ponderous prose (“Slow and joyless are the footfalls of Eduardo”) doesn’t help. Allen’s reach exceeds his grasp. Agent: Eleanor Jackson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary. (Apr.)