Review: A terrifying journey into the mind of a killer
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 9, 2012
Bloody and brutal, torturous and tantalizing, this is the relating of a tale in unrelated pieces skillfully pieced together and vividly rendered with an artist's brush. The use of various eye-witness accounts, news reports and correspondence give a terrifying portrait of a family of murderers and their gruesome work. Specifically, it centers on twin brothers Charlie and Caleb Cunningham and their murderous exploits. There is an intriguing contrast between the two: Charlie is brutal, while Caleb is cunning. As time goes on and the body count rises, it begins to take its toll on the minds of these two men. The mundane becomes surreal, until is difficult to discern what is real and what is a product of the character's twisted and damaged psyche. Despite the graphic description of the individual acts, a sense of their inhuman nature prevents the reader from becoming numb to their graphic depiction. Time itself becomes irrelevant as the accounts are presented out of sequence but with special emphasis on that moment in the killer's career and its effect on all that transpires. This story puts you into the mind a killer: a journey into the depths of depravity; it is less a motorcycle hurtling into the night, than a large truck, with irresistible momentum behind it plowing through all preconceived notions and standards of sensibility. If murder is in the blood, then it is a harbinger of something truly horrific.