Thirteen

Carl Marsalis is a "Thirteen" — one of a shelved government program's genetically engineered supersoldiers, bred for raw aggression and branded a mutant threat once the public learned of the project, condemning his kind to exile on Mars. Carl slipped back to Earth and scraped by as a bounty hunter until a sting landed him in a Florida jail.

Offered a deal by the Rim States, he's tasked with hunting down Allen Merrin, another Thirteen who crash-landed back on Earth, cannibalized his fellow passengers to survive, gathered a cult of followers who believe he's the second coming, and disappeared into a string of bizarre murders. Working with detective Sevgi Ertekin and PR specialist Tom Norton, Carl discovers the murders are only the surface of something much larger. Richard K. Morgan's near-future thriller (published as Black Man outside the US) interrogates genetic engineering, masculinity, and manufactured monstrosity.