The Crucifix Killer, by Chris Carter
Reporting from Beta Blogs.
Every now and then, I’ll read books, and review them too. This review will be appearing in the book review blog, On the Nightstand.
Say Your Prayers
When the body of a young woman is discovered in a derelict cottage in the middle of Los Angeles National Forest, Homicide Detective Robert Hunter finds himself entering a horrific nightmare. Naked and strung from two wooden posts, the victim was sadistically tortured before meeting an excruciatingly painful death. On the nape of her neck has been carved a strange double-cross: the signature of a psychopath known as the Crucifix Killer. But that’s impossible. Because two years ago, the Crucifix Killer was caught and executed.
Could this be a copycat killer? Or could the unthinkable be true? Is the real killer still out there, ready to embark once again on a vicious and violent killing spree, selecting victims seemingly at random? Hunter knows he will risk everything to find out - even if it means becoming the hunted.
This book is due out in August 2009, from Simon and Schuster. You may preorder from BookDepository and Amazon UK.
Before I continue, I’d like to say thank you to Simon and Schuster UK for sending me this book. As this copy is an Uncorrected Proof, I shall not be quoting from the text directly, nor shall I be commenting on any spelling, grammar, or syntax issues (beyond to say: Please check those tenses, and the Point-of-View shifts. Oh, and there’s a spelling error on page 346. Sorry, I’m still at heart a beta-reader).
There comes a time when a new detective novel is so brilliant, so wonderful, so absolutely spot-on, that it’s a joy to read.
This…
Is not.
The protagonist is set up to be a likeable everyman. Only, he’s clearly not. He’s not-so-secretly a supergenius profiler (when he’s twelve, his intelligence is measured, and is apparently extremely high), who knows everything, the only explanation for the latter of which is that he ‘reads a lot’. This, along with ‘tell-tale signs’, follows the comedic rule of three - it gets mentioned three times (actually, tell-tale signs may be brought up more than that, in a small number of pages), but feels entirely overused within the book. I was left wondering when he read all that - was it while he was getting his degree? I’m not sure he had enough time to be reading, given as he breezed through both school and university, and gained his black belt in two years (more on that later), and got superfit while he was at university, and then joined the police just after he’d gotten his PhD and then was sent off to RHD very quickly, and all the while his thesis on criminal behaviour is required reading for the FBI.
Information dump there, much? Sorry, but that’s essentially how it plays out in the book. I honestly wish I were kidding. Worse, that’s how the information about practically everybody is provided in the book. It’s actually easy to figure out the killer, if you bear that in mind (oh, dear. Did I give the game away with that? Whoops!), and really, that’s just sloppy.
(On a short tangent re: the black belt issue: Yes, it is possible to gain a black belt within two years, in some styles of martial art. It is not generally advised. There is a saying, ‘it takes two years to learn how to stand’, and I’d like any new students to any martial arts style to bear that in mind. Moving on…)
Speaking of ‘two years’, please don’t tell me that it took the better part of two years to get the protagonist a new partner for homicide work, especially if he’s as good as he’s supposed to be.
Initially, I was rather enjoying this book. The first few chapters are snappy, grabby, make you want to read more, and there’s even a quick shot of humour (I’ll admit it. I did like the teddy bear underpants). It all goes downhill from there, however. The pacing is fairly okay in the middle, but the beginning is jerky, with a veritable wealth of character backstory given far too quickly. I do hope we don’t see this happen in the next few books, it would be difficult to sustain such a style without having it turn into any given book in The Baby-sitters’ Club (I have nothing against that series, it was great fun. When I was seven). Very dull for the reader, too.
The end is too sudden, and the reader is left completely lost over what the ‘connection’ might be, until it’s spelt out a few chapters later (and on that, I would love to know how one of the connections was worked out, given as- ah, but that would be telling). Now, I’m fine with that happening in mysteries, really I am - after all, if the reader’s informed, then where’s the Big Reveal? But give the reader a chance to figure out the motive(s) too! The direct result of the protagonist’s personal crisis (to stop a criminal or to let that criminal torture another set of criminals) towards the end is possibly the least-well thought out aspect of the book, although I’d greatly enjoyed that particular subplot up until that point (interestingly, this subplot had minimal interaction with the protagonist), with only one small mental question of ‘where are the other bodies?’ to slightly spoil it. I very much hope the events of that crisis will have an aftermath in at least one subsequent book.
The story (and many of the chapters) ends on sharp quips and/or hearty laughter, lending some parts an almost Scooby-doo-like vibe. Sure, I’ll accept that there are ways to deal with the pressures of being a detective, and everything that accompanies being injured. Pretending to be in an episode of an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon could well be one of them. But the moments feel forced, like the author is trying to show a growing partnership and instead tells us about it (the best ‘showing’ of the partnership I saw was the bit about the coffee’).
I’m going to give this book two stars. Half a star because it’s clear that at least some effort went into this book - the level of research is fantastic, and I note that the author himself is a criminal psychologist - half a star for the absolute best bizarre-death-that’s-not-murder I have ever read in my life, and one full star for at least partial accuracy in police procedure. I am, however, glad that I did not spend money on this book myself.
I intend to read the second book in this series, on the off chance that the writing might improve.
Every now and then, I’ll read books, and review them too. This review will be appearing in the book review blog, On the Nightstand.
Say Your Prayers
When the body of a young woman is discovered in a derelict cottage in the middle of Los Angeles National Forest, Homicide Detective Robert Hunter finds himself entering a horrific nightmare. Naked and strung from two wooden posts, the victim was sadistically tortured before meeting an excruciatingly painful death. On the nape of her neck has been carved a strange double-cross: the signature of a psychopath known as the Crucifix Killer. But that’s impossible. Because two years ago, the Crucifix Killer was caught and executed.
Could this be a copycat killer? Or could the unthinkable be true? Is the real killer still out there, ready to embark once again on a vicious and violent killing spree, selecting victims seemingly at random? Hunter knows he will risk everything to find out - even if it means becoming the hunted.
This book is due out in August 2009, from Simon and Schuster. You may preorder from BookDepository and Amazon UK.
Before I continue, I’d like to say thank you to Simon and Schuster UK for sending me this book. As this copy is an Uncorrected Proof, I shall not be quoting from the text directly, nor shall I be commenting on any spelling, grammar, or syntax issues (beyond to say: Please check those tenses, and the Point-of-View shifts. Oh, and there’s a spelling error on page 346. Sorry, I’m still at heart a beta-reader).
There comes a time when a new detective novel is so brilliant, so wonderful, so absolutely spot-on, that it’s a joy to read.
This…
Is not.
The protagonist is set up to be a likeable everyman. Only, he’s clearly not. He’s not-so-secretly a supergenius profiler (when he’s twelve, his intelligence is measured, and is apparently extremely high), who knows everything, the only explanation for the latter of which is that he ‘reads a lot’. This, along with ‘tell-tale signs’, follows the comedic rule of three - it gets mentioned three times (actually, tell-tale signs may be brought up more than that, in a small number of pages), but feels entirely overused within the book. I was left wondering when he read all that - was it while he was getting his degree? I’m not sure he had enough time to be reading, given as he breezed through both school and university, and gained his black belt in two years (more on that later), and got superfit while he was at university, and then joined the police just after he’d gotten his PhD and then was sent off to RHD very quickly, and all the while his thesis on criminal behaviour is required reading for the FBI.
Information dump there, much? Sorry, but that’s essentially how it plays out in the book. I honestly wish I were kidding. Worse, that’s how the information about practically everybody is provided in the book. It’s actually easy to figure out the killer, if you bear that in mind (oh, dear. Did I give the game away with that? Whoops!), and really, that’s just sloppy.
(On a short tangent re: the black belt issue: Yes, it is possible to gain a black belt within two years, in some styles of martial art. It is not generally advised. There is a saying, ‘it takes two years to learn how to stand’, and I’d like any new students to any martial arts style to bear that in mind. Moving on…)
Speaking of ‘two years’, please don’t tell me that it took the better part of two years to get the protagonist a new partner for homicide work, especially if he’s as good as he’s supposed to be.
Initially, I was rather enjoying this book. The first few chapters are snappy, grabby, make you want to read more, and there’s even a quick shot of humour (I’ll admit it. I did like the teddy bear underpants). It all goes downhill from there, however. The pacing is fairly okay in the middle, but the beginning is jerky, with a veritable wealth of character backstory given far too quickly. I do hope we don’t see this happen in the next few books, it would be difficult to sustain such a style without having it turn into any given book in The Baby-sitters’ Club (I have nothing against that series, it was great fun. When I was seven). Very dull for the reader, too.
The end is too sudden, and the reader is left completely lost over what the ‘connection’ might be, until it’s spelt out a few chapters later (and on that, I would love to know how one of the connections was worked out, given as- ah, but that would be telling). Now, I’m fine with that happening in mysteries, really I am - after all, if the reader’s informed, then where’s the Big Reveal? But give the reader a chance to figure out the motive(s) too! The direct result of the protagonist’s personal crisis (to stop a criminal or to let that criminal torture another set of criminals) towards the end is possibly the least-well thought out aspect of the book, although I’d greatly enjoyed that particular subplot up until that point (interestingly, this subplot had minimal interaction with the protagonist), with only one small mental question of ‘where are the other bodies?’ to slightly spoil it. I very much hope the events of that crisis will have an aftermath in at least one subsequent book.
The story (and many of the chapters) ends on sharp quips and/or hearty laughter, lending some parts an almost Scooby-doo-like vibe. Sure, I’ll accept that there are ways to deal with the pressures of being a detective, and everything that accompanies being injured. Pretending to be in an episode of an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon could well be one of them. But the moments feel forced, like the author is trying to show a growing partnership and instead tells us about it (the best ‘showing’ of the partnership I saw was the bit about the coffee’).
I’m going to give this book two stars. Half a star because it’s clear that at least some effort went into this book - the level of research is fantastic, and I note that the author himself is a criminal psychologist - half a star for the absolute best bizarre-death-that’s-not-murder I have ever read in my life, and one full star for at least partial accuracy in police procedure. I am, however, glad that I did not spend money on this book myself.
I intend to read the second book in this series, on the off chance that the writing might improve.