I adored Lilith so knew I would love this one as well! FBI's Lukas Stark is working the Tableau Killer case as entire families have been discovered, tied up in chairs facing each other so they are aware they will each be killed. Now Stark is partnered with Gilles Garnier as he can "see" things "remotely" and can predict where the killer will strike again. It all goes back to The Mentors and a program involving Q, a genius at manipulating others for his own pleasure. It's creepy-good and of course leaves the door open for a sequel! Yikes!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Remote: The Six
Eric Rickstad
04/08/2025
Blackstone Publishing


FBI Special Agent Lukas Stark is after the Tableau Serial Killer. An unsub who is moving around the country killing families in a very specific and disturbing manner, but so far, there seems to be no connection between the victims. Starks’ investigation is not progressing as fast as the killer is racking up body totals, so the agency brings in a man, Gilles Garnier. Gilles and Starks are polar opposites in the in the world of investigation. Starks is by the book and Gilles – well – he has zero background, but all of the clearance and too many secrets. As the story progresses, we get a connection between Gilles and the unsub and pieces of a puzzle that go too far up the chain of command and are too numerous to put into one novel.

Remote viewing is the practice of using the mind to gain information about a person, object or event that cannot be seen. During the Cold War, the CIA and US military took remote viewing seriously using a classified program called Stargate. There are a lot of questions surrounding this program and the experiments that went on, who was involved, the results and outcomes.

Rickstad has brilliantly pulled a piece of obscure military history and brought it to life. This book is not for the faint of heart. It is a nonstop, no punches pulled thrill ride with descriptions that are so graphic it is nothing short of cinematic. This gritty thriller had me hooked from the beginning and I stayed up all night, unable to put it down. It ranks among the very best in the psycho-criminal genre. To truly understand the mind of a sadistic killer is to delve into a dark, terrifying world that few would ever dare to enter.

I picked this one up as a possible comp for my current manuscript and I am so glad I did! It was so good! I genuinely hope this book gets tons of reviews because it absolutely deserves it! I’ve never read anything from this author, but I’m definitely adding him to my author list. The characters were fantastic, the pacing was incredible, and the story was an absolute page turner. I could not put it down. I especially liked how the author managed to make something impossible (remote viewing) seem like it was something that could actually happen without making it seem cheesy. It’s a really hard line to not cross, as I know from personal experience. A truly wonderful read and I will absolutely be reading the next in the series!

Huge thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

FBI Special Agent Lucas Stark has been transversing the country for 18 months on the hunt for a diabolical serial killer who ties entire families to chairs in a staged setting. The case has taken a toll on his health and his family life and he longs for closure. When the bureau assigns a special consultant to aid him he is resistant. Gilles Garnier is a trained "remote viewer", a psychic who can travel out of himsbody and observe activity in a far away location. Garnier is one of six subjects who have been trained and observed by the government since childhood. Lucas is distructful and doubts the benefits but soon forms a relationship with Giles. I was intrigued by the unusual concept for this dark and gritty crime thriller and was not disappointed. In the past I had read a few articles concerning remote viewing and wanted to learn more so looked forward to this read. I found it interesting and informative. Also a fan of serial killer narratives with solid plotting and a fast pace this checked all the boxes. Lucas and Giles are complex flawed protagonists and their interactions as they struggled to work together and accept each others quirks added human interest. This is the proposed beginning of a series and will definitely read others. Perhaps we will meet a different one of the Six , the group of remote viewers in the Mentor program with each entry? If you are looking for a different concept in a crime novel add this to your to be read list. Well written with strong character development and a compelling series of crimes. Does contain graphic passages.

I think I stopped blinking around the first quarter of this book. I might have forgotten to breathe until gasps involuntarily occurred.

Seriously, Eric Rickstad, your books should come with warning labels.

REMOTE: THE SIX is the first book in a new series, and it’s not for the squeamish. We don’t have graphic gore, but the content is… disturbing. And oh so realistic. And twisted. And dark.

I have to admit that I didn’t always like Lukas Stark, our main character. He did some stuff that made me cringe. But I understood the drive behind the behavior, which is what mattered.

And the plot? Yikes! It’s a fast, furious, intense ride!

I didn’t read the synopsis beforehand, so I had no clue what I was getting into. You are, of course, welcome to read that synopsis, but I’m not giving even a hint of what to expect from this story.

Pub date is April 8. I immediately pre-ordered book 2, which releases in July!

Warning: This heart-pounding page-turner is not for the faint-hearted. Read at your own risk.

The gore, the sadistic puzzles, and the relentless chase take the reader on an adrenaline-packed journey. The methodical academic references to Ted Bundy, and other notorious baddies provided educational insights into what makes these ruthless people tick. I often found myself absorbed in the prose, and the plot was full of twists and turns, keeping me on the edge of my fearfulness all the time. The protagonist Stark is human and rational, which made me vicariously wonder what his next strategy would be.

Remote: The Six is a gritty thriller that kept me up all night, reading nonstop. It is right up there with the best in the psycho-criminality genre — read The Zodiac and The Silence of the Lambs. It is indeed true that to get into the mind of a sadistic killer is to enter a dark, spooky tunnel with foreboding background music. That's exactly how this thriller unraveled.

I wish the author good luck and success with the book. Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to preview the ARC. I can't wait for it to be released to read other readers' reviews and opinions about it.

Eric Rickstad does a great job in writing this opening chapter to the Remote series, it had that element that I was looking for and had that element that I wanted. The characters worked with the overall story and was everything that was promised in a thriller novel.