Ronald Malfi’s latest offering, Senseless, emerges as a twisted love letter to Los Angeles—a city where dreams curdle into nightmares and everyone harbors secrets that could destroy them. This supernatural thriller weaves together three seemingly disparate storylines into a tapestry of psychological terror that feels both intimately personal and cosmically unsettling.
The Convergent Narratives
Detective Bill Renney: Haunted by Loss
The novel opens with Detective Bill Renney discovering a mutilated body in the high desert outside Los Angeles, bearing disturbing similarities to a murder from the previous year. Malfi immediately establishes Renney as more than just another world-weary cop—he’s a man haunted by the recent death of his wife Linda from cancer, struggling to maintain his sanity while investigating crimes that mirror the senseless brutality of his personal loss.
Renney’s investigation reveals a pattern of murders where victims have had their five senses systematically removed—eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and fingertips. The clinical precision of these mutilations suggests not just a killer, but someone making a statement about perception itself. What makes Renney’s storyline particularly compelling is how Malfi uses the detective’s grief as a lens through which to examine the nature of loss and memory.
Maureen Park: Running from the Past
The second narrative follows Maureen Park, a novelist with severe OCD who becomes engaged to Hollywood producer Greg Dawson. Maureen’s compulsions—her need to arrange objects in perfect symmetry, to take only right turns while driving—serve as external manifestations of her desperate attempt to control a world that has already dealt her devastating loss.
When Greg’s disturbed son Landon returns from Europe early, Maureen finds herself the target of psychological torment. Landon presents her with a scrapbook containing photographs of the desert murders, claiming his father might be involved. Malfi expertly builds tension through Maureen’s escalating paranoia, making readers question whether Landon is genuinely dangerous or simply a master manipulator exploiting her vulnerabilities.
The revelation that Maureen lost her young son in a car accident adds tragic weight to her character. Her engagement to Greg represents not just love, but an escape from guilt and grief—a fact that Landon weaponizes with surgical precision.
Toby Kampen: The Human Fly’s Obsession
Perhaps the most unsettling storyline belongs to Toby Kampen, who calls himself the “Human Fly.” Living in a storage unit and trapped in a toxic relationship with his manipulative mother (whom he calls “the Spider”), Toby becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman he encounters at The Coffin nightclub—a woman with vampire fangs who bites his neck and vanishes.
Malfi’s portrayal of Toby’s deteriorating mental state is both disturbing and oddly sympathetic. His delusions about becoming a vampire, his theft of his mother’s car to serve as the fanged woman’s driver, and his eventual descent into violence create a character study that feels ripped from the darkest corners of urban alienation.
Malfi’s Signature Style: Where Lynch Meets Lovecraft
Ronald Malfi has consistently proven himself as “horror’s Faulkner,” and Senseless showcases his ability to blend psychological realism with supernatural elements. His prose carries the sun-bleached desperation of classic noir while incorporating the otherworldly dread that made his previous works like Come with Me and Black Mouth so memorable.
The author’s background in rock music (he performs with the band VEER) seeps into his writing through his keen sense of rhythm and atmosphere. Los Angeles becomes not just a setting but a character itself—a sprawling organism that consumes the lost and broken, transforming them into something monstrous.
Malfi’s fascination with perception and reality runs throughout the novel. The removal of the victims’ senses becomes a metaphor for how trauma blinds us to truth, how grief deafens us to reason, how loss strips away our ability to truly feel. This thematic depth elevates Senseless by Ronald Malfi beyond simple shock value into genuine literary territory.
The Convergence: Where Stories Collide
The novel’s structure—dividing into parts titled “High Desert,” “One Year Earlier or, The Dead Wives Club,” “Hollywood Vampires,” and “Demeter”—creates a sense of inevitability as the three narratives spiral toward collision. The revelation that Greg’s early film High Desert depicted murders identical to the real crimes creates an uncomfortable meditation on art’s relationship with violence.
Landon’s ultimate confession that he purchased the scrapbook photos from a goth club to torment Maureen rather than committing the murders himself is both a relief and a disappointment. While it absolves him of serial killing, it confirms his nature as a psychological sadist who derives pleasure from others’ pain.
The true killer’s identity—revealed to be connected to Toby’s mysterious vampire woman—provides a satisfying conclusion that ties together themes of obsession, delusion, and the thin line between fantasy and reality.
Critical Assessment: Strengths and Shortcomings
What Works Brilliantly
- Atmospheric World-Building: Malfi’s Los Angeles feels authentically grimy and desperate, from the neon-lit hellscape of downtown clubs to the sun-baked emptiness of the high desert.
- Character Psychology: Each protagonist feels genuinely damaged and desperate, making their poor decisions feel inevitable rather than contrived.
- Thematic Coherence: The novel’s exploration of perception, memory, and the masks we wear to hide our true selves creates satisfying thematic unity.
- Pacing: The gradual revelation of connections between storylines maintains tension without feeling manipulative.
Areas of Concern
- Toby’s Arc Resolution: While Toby’s journey into madness is compelling, his ultimate fate feels somewhat rushed compared to the careful development of his obsession.
- Supernatural Elements: The vampire aspects, while atmospheric, occasionally feel underdeveloped compared to the psychological horror elements.
- Secondary Characters: Some supporting characters, particularly Ross and the various club denizens, feel more like plot devices than fully realized people.
Comparison to Malfi’s Previous Works
Senseless shares DNA with Ronald Malfi’s earlier successes while charting new territory. Like Come with Me, it explores how tragedy reshapes relationships and identity. The urban setting and psychological deterioration echo Black Mouth, while the multiple narrative structure recalls the ambitious scope of December Park.
However, Senseless feels more focused than some of Ronald Malfi’s previous efforts. The Los Angeles setting provides a unifying atmosphere that prevents the multiple storylines from feeling scattered—a criticism sometimes leveled at his more expansive works.
Literary Lineage and Influences
Readers familiar with Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (directly referenced in the novel’s epigraph) will recognize the influence of that work’s hollow glamour and underlying violence. The book also shares spiritual kinship with James Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet, particularly in its portrayal of Los Angeles as a city where corruption festers beneath surface beauty.
The supernatural elements feel influenced by Clive Barker’s urban fantasies, while the police procedural aspects echo the best of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series. Yet Malfi synthesizes these influences into something distinctly his own—more literary than pure genre, more psychologically complex than simple horror.
For Readers Who Enjoyed…
Similar Books Worth Exploring:
- The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell – for psychological suspense and unreliable narrators
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – for atmospheric horror with literary depth
- The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka – for multiple narrative perspectives and dark humor
- Riley Sager’s With a Vengeance – for supernatural thriller elements
- Lauren Beukes’ The Shining Girls – for time-shifting crime narratives
- Josh Malerman’s Bird Box – for psychological horror that questions perception
Final Verdict: A Worthy Addition to the Malfi Canon
Senseless by Ronald Malfi succeeds as both a gripping thriller and a meditation on grief, obsession, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive trauma. While it occasionally stumbles in balancing its supernatural and realistic elements, the novel’s atmospheric power and psychological insight make it a compelling read.
Malfi continues to evolve as a writer, demonstrating increased confidence in handling complex narrative structures while maintaining the emotional honesty that has always distinguished his work. For readers seeking horror that engages both mind and heart, Senseless delivers a haunting experience that lingers long after the final page.
The novel stands as a testament to Malfi’s growing mastery of his craft—a dark mirror held up to contemporary Los Angeles that reflects not just the city’s shadows, but our own hidden monsters. In a genre often criticized for exploiting trauma for cheap thrills, Senseless treats its characters’ pain with respect while never diminishing the very real terror they face.
For fans of psychological horror, crime fiction, and literary thrillers, Senseless represents Ronald Malfi at his most ambitious and successful—a worthy read that confirms his position among horror’s most thoughtful voices.