HOLLOW MAN

Austin’s music scene provides the backdrop for a creepy psychological thriller.

Dominic is a member of the English landed gentry transplanted to Texas, where he’s a prosecutor who enjoys playing his guitar in local clubs. He’s also a psychopath. Well-aware of his condition, he does his best to resist temptation until an innocent conversation with a close friend leads to big trouble. Dominic has just been reassigned to juvenile court, and the cut in salary strains his resources. So when his best friend, immigration lawyer Gus Cronstedt, tells him about a sleazy client who collects the rents on more than 150 trailers in cash, they hatch a plot to steal the money. Dominic comes up with what he thinks is a perfect plan with a little help from a stunning young woman he meets because her brother’s in the system. When Gus backs out, Dominic ends up enlisting his roommate, Tristan, a computer geek with a major gambling addiction, and Otto, a security guard about to be fired from his dead-end job. Despite the best-laid plans, things go wrong, and two men end up dead. Dominic hurriedly buries the money in a nearby patch of woods, then he and his helpers work at avoiding getting caught and charged with capital murder.

In a departure from his Hugo Marston series (The Reluctant Matador, 2015, etc.), Pryor has produced an audacious stand-alone that dares the reader to sympathize with a coldblooded killer whose lack of empathy allows his cunning to run free.