Book Review: Red Dennis

Posted on  15/06/2020 19:42:50

Red Dennis by Shapiro, Eric

My rating: 5 chilling stars 


'WOW!..... Just... WOW!' That was my reaction after turning the last page of Red Dennis.

Dark, intense, chilling and scary as hell, this is one hell of a thriller. The first class goosebumps kind!


Not because of blood and gore, event though there is enough of that within it's pages. But because of that slow descent into madness that Dennis drags you into.

A story of red rage, red madness, and a bright red, all-American, hyper-masculine psycho, Red Dennis gives us a man on the edge, then invites us to follow him down into the abyss. In such an irresistible manner that you won't want to set the book down until you've reached the last page.

Dennis Fordham has it all: the wife, the kids, the established small business. And he is content with it all. Until he isn't!
When did his discontent begin? Dennis doesn't know it himself. Perhaps at his wedding, when he suddenly wondered if it might not be a good idea to grab each and every guest by the shirt, and one by one, pitch those fucks into the sea.

Or maybe later on, at a pancake breakfast, when he suddenly started to talk kind of funny and terrified his dental hygienist. Perhaps the moment he realized that everyone seemed to have more than he did? Or when he started feeling angry because he couldn't have his colleague, the hot Nina!
Whatever the reason, Dennis was slipping. And he knew it.

If he'd planned on wrecking himself, it wasn't conscious. But that's exactly what ole' pal Dennis did.

When he started getting that bad itch to visit illicit massage parlors, Dennis was already well on the way of getting screwed. But the moment everything goes down the drain is when he tried to make things right.

You know the old expression, “You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube”?
Well, I'm Red Dennis.
I was going to try.


Dennis looses it then. Stops being a man. Becomes testosterone. Or perhaps something more. And from here on we witness his direct descent into the abyss of madness, or perhaps fame. In an incredibly vivid and cinematic manner!

What makes Red Dennis truly incredible is that unsettling insight the author offers into a psycho's mind. Dark, violent and terrifying, especially because of WHERE the madness starts. Masterfully done!

This is a book about the #MeToo movement, gun violence, Nazis, and an embittered white male. It will show you in vivid strokes and powerful characterization, all that can go wrong with the human mind. And you're going to find it very difficult to set it down. I know I did!

If you love a good dark thriller, Red Dennis is a MUST READ!
It's a hell of a ride!


Evil... was pretty banal. Flat, regular, run-of-the-mill.
But real evil, I was coming to learn, had a notch more banality than even I'd suspected.
Real evil didn't even come within a million miles of knowing it was evil.


Check out this book and more of Eric Shapiro here.