The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper
Nov. 30th, 2008 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Who is the Sandman: Dream Figure or killer?
When recently widowed journalist Patrick Rush joins a creative writing group in Toronto, it proves a fertile time for his imagination. A terrifying killer is taunting the police, leaving cryptic clues on the horribly dismembered bodies of his victims.
Soon the group, influenced by the atmosphere of menace and fear that pervades the city, begin to write their own dark, unsettling tales. One, Angela, tells a mesmerizing story about a child-stealer called the Sandman. Patrick, though, finds fantasy and reality are becoming blurred. What does the Sandman have to do with the real-life maniac? Does Angela know something ... and is he himself being stalked by the killer?
But it is only when his own son is snatched that Patrick finally understands what he must do: embark on a horrifying journey into the unknown, to where our darkest dreams and realities meet. To the Sandman.
Patrick Rush is a Toronto-based widower, trying to deal with the loss of his wife while raising a precocious young son, Sam. Unhappy with his job as a tv critic for the local newspaper, he dreams of writing a novel but can't come up with an idea to write about. When he sees an advert for a writing group meeting in his area, he decides to join. There he meets a variety of people with similar writing aspirations including Len (a SF&F geek who wants to write horror), Ivan (a lonely Tube driver once accused of a terrible crime), William (a creepy giant who writes of terrible torture and murder) and Andrea (the true talent of the group who writes a story that captures the others about a serial killer called The Sandman). At the same time a serial killer is abducting and murdering people in Toronto in particularly gruesome ways and from the verses left at the scene to taunt the police, Patrick begins to wonder whether the killer is the Sandman and whether Andrea's story is fact or fiction and whether the killer is a member of his own writing group ...
Although this is at heart a standard serial killer thriller, Pyper has drawn in some creepy supernatural overtones. Patrick's increasing paranoia veers between suspicion of the other writing group members and fear that some supernatural entity or ghost is responsible. Particularly enjoyable are the scenes where he sees the ghosts of the Sandman's victims, which are very creepy and ambiguous as you wonder whether they're manifestations of Patrick's guilt and suspicion or genuine ghosts. Told in the first person by Patrick, Pyper makes him a credible character and his struggles to come up with an idea for a novel and his jealousy of published writers will draw wry chuckles from anyone who has tried to write their own novel. Also good is his growing dissatisfaction with his job and the way in which his newspaper has 'dumbed down' the arts from literary reviews to reviews of reality tv shows.
Ultimately though, the book is very slow to get going - the first third basically amounting to build up to the mystery and Patrick's writing struggles and the opening chapter did nothing for me - filled with cliches from horror movies (including running through corn fields, allowing a child to wander off on their own etc etc). Although the book builds up speed in the second third and sees the introduction of an interesting detective - Ramsay who views Patrick as a suspect in the killings after members of his writing circle start to disappear - the central twist (which involves Patrick plagiarising the story written by one of the writing circle members) doesn't really go anywhere and there is a sense that Patrick is wandering around waiting for something to happen rather than a master of his own destiny. The revelation of the Sandman's identity wasn't a particular shock and there wasn't enough background to why the Sandman is killing for it to be interesting. In addition, the notion of a character with a son in peril didn't really work because Sam is simply too precocious to be a credible 8-year-old, reading novels that are way ahead of his age group and having the kinds of conversations with his father that are simply there to move the plot along. Pyper gives the book an open ending, inviting the reader to decide what happens to Patrick, but by then I was beyond caring. I'd be interesting in reading more of Pyper's work, but the lack of focus in this novel left me rather cold.
The Verdict:
The writing's good and I liked the creepy ambiguity of the ghost scenes, but there wasn't enough here for me to really care about the central character and the notion of a son-in-peril doesn't work when the son is too precocious to be credible.
When recently widowed journalist Patrick Rush joins a creative writing group in Toronto, it proves a fertile time for his imagination. A terrifying killer is taunting the police, leaving cryptic clues on the horribly dismembered bodies of his victims.
Soon the group, influenced by the atmosphere of menace and fear that pervades the city, begin to write their own dark, unsettling tales. One, Angela, tells a mesmerizing story about a child-stealer called the Sandman. Patrick, though, finds fantasy and reality are becoming blurred. What does the Sandman have to do with the real-life maniac? Does Angela know something ... and is he himself being stalked by the killer?
But it is only when his own son is snatched that Patrick finally understands what he must do: embark on a horrifying journey into the unknown, to where our darkest dreams and realities meet. To the Sandman.
Patrick Rush is a Toronto-based widower, trying to deal with the loss of his wife while raising a precocious young son, Sam. Unhappy with his job as a tv critic for the local newspaper, he dreams of writing a novel but can't come up with an idea to write about. When he sees an advert for a writing group meeting in his area, he decides to join. There he meets a variety of people with similar writing aspirations including Len (a SF&F geek who wants to write horror), Ivan (a lonely Tube driver once accused of a terrible crime), William (a creepy giant who writes of terrible torture and murder) and Andrea (the true talent of the group who writes a story that captures the others about a serial killer called The Sandman). At the same time a serial killer is abducting and murdering people in Toronto in particularly gruesome ways and from the verses left at the scene to taunt the police, Patrick begins to wonder whether the killer is the Sandman and whether Andrea's story is fact or fiction and whether the killer is a member of his own writing group ...
Although this is at heart a standard serial killer thriller, Pyper has drawn in some creepy supernatural overtones. Patrick's increasing paranoia veers between suspicion of the other writing group members and fear that some supernatural entity or ghost is responsible. Particularly enjoyable are the scenes where he sees the ghosts of the Sandman's victims, which are very creepy and ambiguous as you wonder whether they're manifestations of Patrick's guilt and suspicion or genuine ghosts. Told in the first person by Patrick, Pyper makes him a credible character and his struggles to come up with an idea for a novel and his jealousy of published writers will draw wry chuckles from anyone who has tried to write their own novel. Also good is his growing dissatisfaction with his job and the way in which his newspaper has 'dumbed down' the arts from literary reviews to reviews of reality tv shows.
Ultimately though, the book is very slow to get going - the first third basically amounting to build up to the mystery and Patrick's writing struggles and the opening chapter did nothing for me - filled with cliches from horror movies (including running through corn fields, allowing a child to wander off on their own etc etc). Although the book builds up speed in the second third and sees the introduction of an interesting detective - Ramsay who views Patrick as a suspect in the killings after members of his writing circle start to disappear - the central twist (which involves Patrick plagiarising the story written by one of the writing circle members) doesn't really go anywhere and there is a sense that Patrick is wandering around waiting for something to happen rather than a master of his own destiny. The revelation of the Sandman's identity wasn't a particular shock and there wasn't enough background to why the Sandman is killing for it to be interesting. In addition, the notion of a character with a son in peril didn't really work because Sam is simply too precocious to be a credible 8-year-old, reading novels that are way ahead of his age group and having the kinds of conversations with his father that are simply there to move the plot along. Pyper gives the book an open ending, inviting the reader to decide what happens to Patrick, but by then I was beyond caring. I'd be interesting in reading more of Pyper's work, but the lack of focus in this novel left me rather cold.
The Verdict:
The writing's good and I liked the creepy ambiguity of the ghost scenes, but there wasn't enough here for me to really care about the central character and the notion of a son-in-peril doesn't work when the son is too precocious to be credible.
