They call me The Wanderer.

Someone in the media gave me that name. A TV woman from New York City named Clare Carlson. But more about her later.

The media always likes to give nicknames to serial killers. And yes, that’s what I am. A serial killer. Not just any serial killer though. I am the best – the most successful, the most prolific and the most deadly – serial killer ever.

Or at least I will before I’m finished.

My nickname The Wanderer comes from the fact that I’ve traveled around the country a lot to find my victims. It’s from that old song by Dion called “The Wanderer.” All about someone chasing pretty girls everywhere, never staying long in one place – but moving on after each girl. “I roam around, around, around…”, the refrain goes.

So that’s me. Hey, I kinda like the name. It sets me apart from all those others who came before me. Son of Sam just killed people in New York, the Zodiac in California. Sure, Ted Bundy traveled around the country to find his victims too just like I do. But I’m different from any of them.

Want to know why?

Because I’ve been doing this for a long time – almost 30 years now – and no one was ever aware during all that time that I even existed!

That makes me the most dangerous kind of serial killer you could imagine.

The kind of serial killer no one even knows about.

Until now. Until that TV reporter Clare Carlson woman came along. Carlson somehow connected a bunch of the murders I committed, and she went on the air to tell the world that I was out there killing all these women. Clare Carlson was the one who made me famous. Here’s what Clare Carlson said about me:

“There is a misconception by the public about the serial killer phenomenon – a mistaken belief that a serial killer always seeks media attention. This is fueled by all the movies, all the TV shows, and all the thriller novels about serial killers.

“This is true for many serial killers. Like Son of Sam or the Zodiac Killer and others who taunted the police and the public with messages boasting about their rising body count and threats of future victims. Yes, they did crave the public spotlight.

“But I believe there is a different kind of serial killer out there right now.

“Carrying out murder after murder quietly – over a period of years and in many states and cities and locations around the country – without anyone noticing the connections between all these killings.

“I’m calling him ‘The Wanderer’. . .”

Of course, Clare Carlson doesn’t know who I really am yet.

But she will very soon.

I know the question you want to ask me: Why do I do this?

It’s about playing the game.

You see, the game is even more fun than the actual killing.

I guess you might say I owe Clare Carlson something for making me a media star by giving me that name The Wanderer.

And so I’m going to pay her back.

In my own special way.

Yes, we are going to have a lot of fun together, me and Clare Carlson.

The Last Scoop is the third book in the “Clare Carlson” traditional mystery series, released May 5, 2020.

The scariest kind of serial killer—one you don’t know exists

Martin Barlow was Clare Carlson’s first newspaper editor, a beloved mentor who inspired her career as a journalist. But, since retiring from his newspaper job, he had become a kind of pathetic figure—railing on about conspiracies, cover-ups, and other imaginary stories he was still working on. Clare had been too busy with her own career to pay much attention to him.

When Martin Barlow is killed on the street one night during an apparent mugging attempt gone bad, it seems like he was just an old man whose time had come.

But Clare—initially out of a sense of guilt for ignoring her old friend and then because of her own journalistic instincts—begins looking into his last story idea. As she digs deeper and deeper into his secret files, she uncovers shocking evidence of a serial killer worse than Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, or any of the other infamous names in history.

This really is the biggest story of Martin Barlow’s career—and Clare’s, too—as she uncovers the path leading to the decades-long killer of at least twenty young women. All is not as it seems during Clare’s relentless search for this serial killer. Is she setting herself up to be his next victim?

Clare Carlson is perfect for fans of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone and Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski

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About the author
R. G. Belsky is an author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. His newest mystery, The Last Scoop, was published in May by Oceanview. It is the third in a series featuring Clare Carlson, the news director for a New York City TV station. The first Clare Carlson book, Yesterday’s News, came out in 2018. It won the David Award at Deadly Ink for Best Mystery of 2018. Below The Fold, the second Clare Carlson mystery, was published in 2019. Belsky previously wrote the Gil Malloy series – The Kennedy Connection, Shooting for the Stars and Blonde Ice– about a newspaper reporter in New York City. Belsky himself has had a long career in the New York media as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. Visit his website at rgbelsky.com.

All comments are welcomed.