The Death Collectors

I have just finished reading The Death Collectors, J.A. (aka Jack) Kerley's second mystery novel.  I thought I had ordered - via the internet - his most recent book, The Death File, but wound up getting this book instead.  Since it cost too little to return, I decided to go ahead and read it anyway, and found that it was quite good.  It features Mobile, Alabama police detective Carson Ryder (whose brother is a serial killer and locked away in a mental institution) and his partner Harry Nautilus as they try to solve a series of killings revolving around the artwork of a long dead Charles Manson-like serial killer and his former followers.  I had jury duty this week (and was not picked for a trial, thank God), and this story made the time pass very quickly.  It makes me want to read the rest of the series, too.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, Kerley eventually has his hero, Carson Ryder, take a job as a major crimes investigator in Miami, changing the location of the series, which is when I started reading these stories.  Surprisingly, The Death File, his latest book, which I recently ordered online for $10.45 (postage included), was only printed in book form in the UK, where my copy is coming from.  What is the deal with that?  And how come it is so cheap to mail books to the US from there, as the few remaining independent college bookstores in this country want to know?  In any case, I strongly recommend this series, but also have to warn that it is not for the squeamish, as I assume life in the UK isn't these days, either.