I Hunt Killers

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga is a YA thriller published in 2012. The novel’s central character is Jasper “Jazz” Dent, son of the nation’s most notorious serial killer, Billy Dent. The novel is told from a limited third-person point of view, mostly from the perspective of Jazz; however, at certain points in the novel, the perspective shifts to that of the Impressionist, a new serial killer who has descended upon the small town of Lobo’s Nod where the story is set. The identity of the Impressionist is not revealed until the final, climactic chapters of the book.

The novel opens with a young woman’s naked corpse being discovered in a field just outside of Lobo’s Nod. Jazz lives at his Gramma Dent’s home, the house where his father was born and raised. His Gramma Dent is almost completely senile; Gramma Dentis also violent, always at the ready with her shotgun. Melissa Hoover, a local social worker, frequently visits Jazz at Gramma Dent’s house to check on him. Melissa believes that, due to Gramma Dent’s rapidly diminishing mental faculties, Jazz would be much better off placed in foster care.