It’s almost impossible to review this without spoilers, and in a suspense novel like this, you don’t want any of the twists revealed. In this book, the Chaos Killer (who’s actually disturbingly methodical, with a creepy focus on righting what he sees as wrongs…) knows too much and has absolutely single-minded focus on revenge.  A man is being held prisoner, by an unknown and ruthless enemy. This enemy has all the power and knows far too much about the man’s life, which establishes both a suspenseful, dangerous situation, and introduces a darkly disturbing narrative around guilt and revenge.

Without spoilers, I can say this is not a typical thriller where readers try to figure out the villain. Instead, the enemies are clear from the start, and the stakes start off high. Readers know who the two adversaries are, but it’s not clear how the dark revenge will unfold or why the Chaos Killer has taken these actions. The villain in this narrative does horrible things because he deeply believes he’s in the right, not just that, he believes he’s correcting mistakes and putting the world to rights.  The plots are quite different, of course, but it has the same vibes as the logical, ruthless serial killer Joe Goldberg in Caroline Kepnes’ You series, or the twisted romance in Roxana M. Rotaru’s Chemical Souls.

Count to Ten is all about the stakes and about the dark motivations of the characters.