First and Only by Peter Flannagan

This has to become my favorite book. A great and novel story, wonderfully written with oodles of depth, characterization and splashes of the kind of smarmy humor that I like. It’s the story of a psychic who has seen that he will be murdered at the hands of a serial killer in five days time. Some years ago, as an adolescent, Psimon (yep, corny, I know) witnessed the serial killers first murder, that of a priest in a confessional box. Psimon himself was only spared by the approach of two work men. Now able to hone his psychic skills in many ways he has seen the meeting of the killer and himself and so has enlisted the help of a desperate ex-SAS man to help. One of the nice touches in the depth of the plot comes from the background of small actions that Psimon carried out that are described clearly but their purposes are left unanswered until the very end. It comes together quite nicely (a better ending than Cottam’s “The Colony”) which was a near miss but First and Only has a finale worthy of note. Favorite lines of the text….. “So what happens if we don’t do as you say?” “We sink your f*****g boats!!” Moved over Angel and Demons, there is a new king!!!!!