The Unclaimed Victim

by D. M. Pulley

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Pub Date Nov 14 2017 | Archive Date Nov 28 2017

Thomas & Mercer

General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers

Description

What if the last victim of Cleveland’s infamous Torso Killer got away?

In 1938, a serial killer terrorizes Cleveland, Ohio, leaving a trail of bodies along the rails and riverbeds. Ethel, a street-hardened woman who’s lost everything, takes refuge inside a city mission only to find that its righteous facade conceals the darkest of secrets. As she wanders the twisting corridors, it becomes clear she may never leave the mission alive.

Sixty years later, the police discover the body of Alfred Wiley, dismembered in a disturbingly familiar way. His daughter, Kris, finds herself pulled into Cleveland’s haunting past as things he never told her begin to surface. Stolen books about the unsolved Torso Murders, missing archives, serial killer chat rooms, and an abandoned city mission are all somehow connected to his disappearance. The more she learns of her father’s obsession with the Torso Killer, the further she stumbles into a madman’s sights.

Separated by decades but trapped in the same killer’s web, Ethel and Kris must unravel the truth behind the city’s most notorious unsolved murders…or die trying.

What if the last victim of Cleveland’s infamous Torso Killer got away?

In 1938, a serial killer terrorizes Cleveland, Ohio, leaving a trail of bodies along the rails and riverbeds. Ethel, a...

A Note From the Publisher

D. M. Pulley lives just outside Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband, her two sons, and her dog. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a Professional Engineer, rehabbing historic structures and conducting forensic investigations of building failures. Pulley’s structural survey of a vacant building in Cleveland inspired her debut novel, The Dead Key, the winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. She is also the author of The Buried Book.

Advance Praise

“Thoroughly grounded in the sparse known facts of the murders, Pulley’s well-paced and, at times, even hair-raising thriller also successfully portrays the gritty social and human realities of Depression-era Cleveland. Her use of a parallel narrative structure is enviably cunning, and her plucky but beleaguered heroines—1930s Ethel and 1990s Kris—will have readers rooting for them from first page to last. A genuine gothic treat, leading me to suspect that what the Torso Murders saga needed all along was a woman’s touch.” —John Stark Bellamy II, historian and author of They Died Crawling

“Architecture speaks to D.M. Pulley, and it tells her the most wonderful stories. Her mysteries are as twisty and strange as the real-world buildings that inspire her. The Unclaimed Victim is a new exploration of Cleveland’s most notorious unsolved mystery: Who was the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run? D.M. Pulley offers a chilling explanation that suggests the murders go on to this day. Has she cracked the case that drove Eliot Ness insane? I think maybe.” —James Renner, author of True Crime Addict

“A murder in the present intertwines with a set of killings from the past in D.M. Pulley’s engaging, addictive thriller. Pulley is both a natural storyteller and a meticulous researcher, and her tale takes us into a fascinating, forgotten corner of 1930s Cleveland. The Unclaimed Victim is a haunting and unputdownable novel!” —Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

“D.M. Pulley dips from past to present with the touch of a master, squaring the bloody circle of two lives with an ending that’s both shocking…and perfect.” —Matthew Iden, author of The Winter Over

“Thoroughly grounded in the sparse known facts of the murders, Pulley’s well-paced and, at times, even hair-raising thriller also successfully portrays the gritty social and human realities of...