Book Bag – October 2013: Killer Serials

Murder, Mayhem, Truth – Here and Across the Pond

reviews by Sharon L. Shervington

Movie and book tie-ins seem to be ubiquitous these days. But we will also be seeing more and more book and small-screen tie-in series too.

Target one of the best with Luther, the Calling. Detective Chief Inspector John Luther is intense and driven. His is a wonderful, meaty character with a sixth sense when it comes to criminals. The novel is actually a prequel to Part One of the television series, which stars Idris Elba, a great actor who fully inhabits this somewhat larger-than-life character.

The TV show picks up right after the events in the novel. (Although I watched the show before reading the novel, and that was fine, I recommend reading the book first because it introduces most of the main characters in the series.) Compared with so many other detective shows, these are people one might really like to meet and get to know. I wouldn’t say that about the criminals, only that they are very well played. A fan favorite is Ruth Wilson, as a brilliant woman, Alice, whose parents have been murdered.

Among the other main characters are Luther’s wife Zoe and his partner Ian. All slowly come face to face with the power of evil where ethical conundrums and life or death choices sometimes intersect. This BBC series has aired on BBC America and the first three sets are available on DVD now. They can easily be found for purchase online.

Title of Master of the Universe when it comes to creating serial killers and thrillers goes to James Patterson. His new book is Gone, and it is the latest in the Detective Michael Bennett series about an Irish cop from New York City with ten children.

As the story opens they are all in the FBI’s witness protection program. That’s because Bennett was the only person ever to have caught sociopath drug lord Manuel Perrine, who then unfortunately escaped from prison. He puts a bounty on Bennett, his children, and their beloved nanny — who is also Bennett’s sometime girlfriend.

On his way to them he begins an outrageous campaign of assassinations and terror, and he and his top lieutenant, Vida, prove to be wholly fascinating and repulsive. Next month look for the new Alex Cross novel, Cross My Heart in stores or online.

Another great TV series available on DVD is Jack Taylor, also about an Irish detective. Because of drinking issues, as well as his zero-tolerance policy toward corruption, he has been kicked out of The Guards, the local law-enforcement agency, and is now working as a private investigator.

Played by Iain Glen, who has a recurring role on Game of Thrones and can also be seen in episodes of Downton Abbey and Ripper Street, this detective has a good heart, a simple lifestyle, and a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time—lucky for us! Jack Taylor is a well-acted, tautly-directed show set in Galway, Ireland and is presented in three 90-minute features.

Also set in Ireland is The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson, who in recent years has appeared in several well-received costume dramas such as Great Expectations. She plays a high-ranking and deeply intuitive British detective who is called to Belfast to take a closer look at three murders that may be linked. She’s looking for a common theme, and she finds it, but not before Belfast is caught up in the serial killer’s brazen web of madness. The killer is a seemingly normal husband and father, who is hiding in plain sight.

A more literary sensibility infuses Daddy Love, about a pedophile with two enviable personas, one as a loving single father, the other as a popular preacher. But what the teachers and congregations he interacts with don’t know is that his son is not his son at all, but rather the latest in a series of young boys whom he brainwashes and tortures, after kidnapping them at about the age of five.

Once they hit puberty, or around age 11, he has no more use for them. It is also the sad story of a marriage disintegrating after years of pain in the wake of the kidnapping, with the parents never knowing what has happened to their son and largely unable to comfort each other in their grief.

As ever, Joyce Carol Oates quickly sets a scene of mounting dread and terror that oddly seems as ordinary as everyday life, and yet the suspense never lets up. Robbie, the boy Chester Cash has most recently kidnapped, is smart and insightful, and over the years begins to realize how much he is being damaged. Yet he tries to be true to himself amid a waking nightmare and the constant threat of death.

Also in a literary vein, I recommend the Penguin Classic edition of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is a beautiful cloth-bound volume with a place-holding ribbon and many other special features. It boasts an extensive introduction, a timeline of Wilde’s life, his original preface, and as an appendix, several reviews of the book that were printed when it was first published. It is a beautifully designed keepsake or gift edition of this classic tale about good and evil, and one soul’s slow decay.

There are some great young-adult titles available now too, such as the second book in Mr. Patterson’s Confessions, the Private School Murders series. Book one, Confessions of a Murder Suspect, introduced us to the wealthy Angel family of New York City, headed by parents who led a huge pharmaceuticals company before their murder. The story is told from the point of view of now-eldest daughter Tandoori (yes, she is named after the popular Indian dish), who cracked the case when her parents were killed. Rounding out the characters who appear in both books are Tandy’s siblings and her twin, as well as their menacing Uncle Peter.

This time around, they have an Israeli commando for a guardian, though that doesn’t keep the killer from planting deadly snakes in their apartment in the fabled Dakota apartment building, or otherwise creating mayhem. A series of murders of private-school girls has begun, and Tandy is both sleuth and prey. Lots of scary fun abounds.

Confessions, the Private School Murders series, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro; Little, Brown; $18; 422 pages

Christopher Pike has never really become a household name like Stephen King or James Patterson, but he should be, because he is really that exceptional and prolific a writer. He writes for both adults and young adults.

His latest is Chain Letter, about a group of teenagers who get a letter insisting that they do “a small service,” and then pass on the letter or the author will expose a deadly secret known only to the group. Of course the deeds become bigger and bigger, and the punishments, besides the blackmail, turn deadly. Pike deftly chronicles the shifting dynamics and allegiances in the group, while hinting at a horror that might not be quite human.

In his work generally, Pike likes to use a multi-dimensional palette and to explore the nature of both evil and human nature. Fans are eagerly awaiting Witch World II, which is due out next year, and is set in an alternate Las Vegas.

Proving once and for all that truth is stranger than fiction is True Crime: an American Anthology. This extraordinary collection is remarkably informative. For example, who knew that Benjamin Franklin (my favorite founder) was at one time a crime reporter?! These are accounts, mostly of murder, that begin with an account of the first known murder in the Plymouth colony.

Authors from Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain are represented early in the book. It’s a Who’s Who of great writers, many better known for their work in other genres. Among them are Dorothy Kilgallen, Damon Runyan, A.J. Liebling, Zora Neale Hurston, James Ellroy (whose own mother was murdered), Jimmy Breslin, Ann Rule, Gay Talese, Dominick Dunne (whose daughter was murdered), and many more. Furthermore, read carefully it is an insightful peek into the history of the United States.

True Crime: an American Anthology, edited by Harold Schechter; The Library of America; $40; 788 pages)