Remote: The Six

The Remote Series, Book 1

By: Eric Rickstad

Narrated by: Ari Fliakos

From New York Times bestselling author Eric Rickstad, a thriller so terrifying, you must “see” it to believe.

A serial killer is rampaging across the country, tying families to chairs—arranged in puzzling tableaus—then murdering them, without leaving a trace of evidence.

FBI Special Agent Lukas Stark has been hunting the Tableau Killer for eighteen months but is always two steps behind in a maze of dead ends. He has no understanding of why the killer stages the scenes so meticulously or chooses entire families. Burning out, Stark is forced to take on a new partner, Gilles Garnier.

Garnier, an odd loner with a vague past, claims he’s a remote viewer who “sees” people, places, and events far away—remote—as if they’re right in front of him. Stark knows this sort. Cons. Wannabes desperate to worm their way onto a sensational case. Stark dismisses his new partner as a fraud … until Garnier precisely describes a new Tableau Killer crime scene from hundreds of miles away.

As Stark and Garnier track the Tableau Killer across the country, they start to believe they finally have the advantage. But Garnier’s ability to remote-view fails him and leaves him ill and weak. Then Stark realizes how the killer has stayed ahead of them all this time. The reason is more terrifying than either man can fathom.

They face a killer who may be unstoppable, and stand at the abyss of a conspiracy so ominous, it shakes their reality to the core.

©2025 Eric Rickstad (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

So glad to have read this!

This book was highly recommended by another writer I respect, and I was delighted by the sophistication of the plot and the characters.

Interesting and intense

I really enjoyed this book, and I am interested to see if the second one smooths over some of the rough edges. I definitely did not put it down from start to finish.

The over all premise was good and I really like the main character, but the supporting characters did not have enough depth. I feel that was intentional to keep you guessing about other aspects of the story. A few times though, it was just too vague and was more frustrating when the story revealed there was not much there. I hope in the next book there is more prequel development and that we understand if there is something to the wife & family perspective.

Meh

Ari Fliakos is one of the best narrators out there, so I gave this a shot for that reason alone. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting into it. There was no real hook before the twist was delivered in the first few chapters, and the repeated, graphic violence against children felt unnecessary and overused. I didn’t make it halfway through before turning it off and couldn’t finish. At its core, it’s a fairly basic serial killer plot, and I just didn’t care enough about the characters or the story to see it through.