SENSELESS by Ronald Malfi – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Senseless by Ronald Malfi
Published by Titan Books on April 15 2025
Genres: Adult, police procedural, Thriller
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A multilayered murder mystery with supernatural overtones, Senseless flawlessly captures the essence of seedy Los Angeles.

Senseless is a Los Angeles based murder mystery full of twists and secrets, and I absolutely loved it. This isn’t your typical police procedural, though, although fans of that genre will find lots to love. Malfi adds layer upon layer to make this a standout piece of crime fiction, a complex and compelling page-turner that was almost impossible to put down. If you’ve never read Ronald Malfi before, this is an excellent place to start.

The plot centers around a murder, and the narrative weaves in and out of three different sets of characters involved with the crime in some way, although at first it’s hard to understand how everything fits together. Bill Renney is a homicide detective who recently lost his wife Linda to cancer. When the body of a young woman is found in the Mojave Desert, Renney is called to the scene. When Renney sees the body, he’s shocked at how closely it resembles an unsolved case from a year before: both young women, both bodies mutilated—their eyes, noses, tongues, ears and fingers removed—both found in the same remote desert location. Does Remmey have a serial killer on his hands?

Next, we meet Maureen Park, who has recently become engaged to movie mogul Greg Dawson. Maureen is an author who is working on her second book, and she has an uncomfortable encounter with Greg’s troublemaker son Landon when he shows up unexpectedly at their engagement party.

Finally, we are introduced to Toby Kampen, a mentally disturbed twenty-two year old who calls himself the Human Fly. Toby thinks his mother is a spider and is trying to trap him in her web, and so he’s left home and is living in a dirty storage container. Toby is drawn to the seedy dive bars in Los Angeles and one night meets an enigmatic woman with pointy teeth who convinces him she’s a vampire. Toby becomes obsessed with this woman and begins stalking her, hoping she’ll turn him into a vampire as well.

Malfi alternates chapters among these three main characters, slowly bringing their stories together in some shocking ways. There are several side characters who are important to the story as well. Dr. Alan Andressen is the husband of the first murdered girl, and he and Renney became close during the investigation. They initially bonded over their shared membership in the “dead wives club,” but later their story takes a very dark turn. The reader knows that something happened between them in the past, but we don’t learn what it is until later in the story.

Maureen becomes involved in the murder investigation after finding incriminating evidence in Landon’s bedroom, and when she goes to Greg for advice she begins to realize what sort of family she’s marrying into. I would say Maureen’s story was the least interesting for me, although I was fascinated by her weird relationship with Landon, who is creepy AF and is obviously hiding secrets. Maureen, like the others, has a terrible secret in her past that she can’t escape, and that reveal was a big emotional punch for me.

Toby’s story is by far the strangest, and at first I couldn’t figure out his connection to the others. He’s supposed to be on medication but he’s gone off it since moving out of his house, so he’s a prime example of an unreliable narrator since you don’t know if what he’s seeing is real or not. When he meets the “vampire,” his obsession with her takes over, leading him on a odd, dangerous journey. Toby has a possession that he calls THE WONDERFUL THING, and this object is very important to the story. I loved the way Malfi wove it into each character’s narrative and how it ties into the final reveal.

There’s a bit of a supernatural aspect to the story, but it’s one of those things that may or may not be real, so it’s up to the reader to decide what to believe. I won’t give it away, but it’s one of the more emotional parts of the book, and I absolutely loved it. It brought to mind Malfi’s Come with Me (which remains my favorite of his books), so if you’ve read it, you might guess what I’m talking about.

The mystery itself has an almost Hitchcockian feel to it, and some scenes had a wonderful cinematic quality to them that made me feel like I was watching one of his movies. Remmey’s dialog in particular felt so authentic, so clearly the author has spent time around law enforcement and has learned the lingo (I loved the way Remmey calls handcuffs “bracelets,” for example). And I have to mention the setting, which is spot on. I’m very critical about stories set in and around Los Angeles, and Malfi nails all the details perfectly, including the scenes in Antelope Valley just outside of the city where the bodies were found.

Eventually everyone’s secrets come out into the open and surprising connections among all the characters are revealed. I thought it was a great idea to have two murders a year apart, which allowed for so many interesting story details. I also appreciated the fact that the ending, while satisfying, is a bit messy too. Just like real life, not everything is tied up in a neat bow. My favorite stories are ones that leave me thinking about them long after I finish reading, and Senseless did that for me.

Finally, I have to give a shout out to the title, which you may or may not understand based on parts of my review. There’s a double meaning there too, once you learn more about Renney’s history. This one was excellent, folks, don’t miss it!

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.