The Prumont Method – Trevor J Houser

The Prumont Method is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Firstly, it was sent to me all the way across the world from the wonderful team at Unsolicited Press (thanks, fam!).

Secondly, it’s got a bonkers premise that hooked me from the very beginning. It’s a road trip novel, of sorts, driven by a suicide mission in the hope of saving lives (and maybe leaving an impressive legacy for a recalcitrant daughter of divorce).

It’s best summed up by this neat little slice of narration by the protagonist, Roger Prumont.

I’m just an ex-healthcare marketing executive who was noodling around in his notebook and stumbled upon a way to predict random mass violence. What can I say? I got lucky.

The Prumont Method (Page 140)

Yes, Prumont’s method – discovered accidentally while indulging in his maths “hobby” while his life crumbled around him – is a formula to predict the time, location, and potentially perpetrator of the next mass shooting in the U.S.

Given the state of gun culture over there at the moment, a novel full of gallows humour about it might seem a bit confronting, but Houser manages to endear the reader with Prumont’s hard luck and self-deprecation. It’s a conceit that could have been explored in an epic way, but instead The Prumont Method is a short little tome told in fragmentary chapters, with no overarching view of the story but snippets of insight into Prumont’s past and present dilemma.

This is a challenging and surprising read, and I devoured it in a single sitting.

Buy The Prumont Method on Booktopia here. (affiliate link)