Crime Review
How do we glamorize violence? Create a psychopathic killer who commits sensational murders, a tortured top cop with exceptional intellect, and make both of them unstoppable, except to each other. Layer it with cinematic action and take away anything that will create a little bit of depth to both character and story. Maybe then will you be on a similar level to The Executioner.
There has been a bloody brutal murder in the city of Los Angeles. A priest has been executed in his church. There is blood everywhere and his head has been replaced with that of a dog. Sensational. Even weirder is the fact that the killer somehow knew that this was the priests worse fear, as it is with all of his victims. He kills his victims in the way they fear dying the most. The young woman who is afraid of fire because of burns she sustained when she was a child? Oh, yes, she dies in a fire related incident. And so it continues.
We are introduced to Detective Robert Hunter, your typical tall, strong and silent dark haired type of brooder. He is troubled, as is often the case, and this manifests in the form of relentless insomnia. During this free time he reads books about pretty much everything, gaining a lot of knowledge and becoming a very educated man. He is an expert on grizzly murders and this new one is no exception. Hunter looks at the clues and sees the psychology behind the crimes.
His science and his faith are tested when a young girl claims to have knowledge of the crimes without actually having anything to do with them. A strange plot device thrown in which seems to have no real benefit to the story. It reduces what could become something complex and clever and takes the easy way out. The ending, how we find the killer, who they are and what their motivations are, is completely forgettable. The most memorable parts of the book are the murders, and without any substantial plot or character development to build the excitement you finish the book feeling like a child who sees boobs in a magazine for the first time. It’s fun for a little while but there’s not a great deal to do after that and you’re left feeling a little disappointed.
The book challenges our character to accept his faith even though he does not really shown to be suffering or struggling with it throughout. For a character with demons, the book seems to ignore them and leave the character of Robert Hunter as a shell of a character with a few common main crime characteristics thrown in, with a lot left to fill.
There are a few likeable things about this book- it’s always entertaining seeing a strong female captain going against stoic and bull headed male cops- there isn’t anything in the book that is truly original or gives Chris Carter a voice. It’s a shame really, because the book sounds so promising, you want it to be better than it actually is. The structure of the book doesn’t help. (In the UK paperback version) the chapters are only a few pages long each. It’s great for pacing and pulls the story along but what it mainly does is drag you through the story like you’re watching a movie; all you are seeing is the action and very little exposition. There is no subplot to sink your teeth into and it reads like a novel an average male high school student could write up in his spare time when he’s bored.
It’s a good book to read if you have a short attention span, don’t like a challenge or you want something you can dip in and out of when you’re going to the toilet. If you want to sit and read the story and learn about all of the characters and experience the many creative directions the author could take us, then this probably isn’t the kind of book you are going to want to read.
