Thomas Laird has added another frightening book to the list with Malignant. ‘A Poe-loving perp kidnaps his targets, binds and gags them, then, slowly, methodically, over a period of days, proceeds to drain veins, arteries, and capillaries. Think vampirism, think occult, think Black Masses. And think Poe, for whom the misogynistic brute seems to have developed a passion, especially for his “Spirits of the Dead,” a poem in five stanzas. On learning of this literary fixation, Jimmy P. instantly flashes to what must certainly be the killer’s m.o.
