I approached this book a bit warily (if not wearily). Another serial killer thriller, another brilliantly devious murderer, another detective going off-limits to track him down ... But in fact Jonathan Nasaw succeeds in breathing a bit of new life and death into a formula that must be almost played out by now.

The premise of Fear Itself is that the killer is targeting those whose lives are distorted by phobias. Using a fake phobic-support society to contact them, he traps and confronts sufferers with what are literally their worst nightmares, taking pleasure in their dying anguish. When the book opens several have already died, arousing the suspicions of Dorie Bell, who suffers from prosoponophobia (fear of masks, if you want to know). This is grim stuff but Nasaw provides a detailed and convincing picture of the killer Simon Childs - his identity is revealed within the first few pages - and of his motivation, all of which helps to humanise him even if it doesn¹t make him sympathetic. A redeeming feature for Childs is his devotion to his Downs syndrome sister. If I add that one of the FBI investigators is suffering from mutiple sclerosis and only just managing to cling on to her job, while the ‘hero’ Ed Pender is a balding, overweight near-drunkard, then it should be obvious that this novel shakes up some of the cliches of thriller characterisation.

It’s not all grimness either. At least two of the phobics manage to overcome their worst terrors, and there’s a resilient humour to parts of the story. The narrative is well organised, using multiple viewpoints (the killer, the victims, the hunters) with some tense set-pieces. The minor characters are nicely observed, including a criminal hacker and an acid-dropping therapist, and the action ranges from San Francisco to Washington, taking in the mid-west on the way. The climax is perhaps a little contrived and predictable - why do killers always strike at the detectives on their home turf? - but, that aside, Fear Itself can be recommended as an exciting and intelligent read.