Review: Murder and Mayhem
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 3, 2013
So many murderous minds, so many people to kill.This is a short story that is filled with murder and mayhem. Each chapter tells a different story of murder, revenge, and death without giving names, places and sometimes reasons. In the end, the author brings the first thirteen individual chapters together and assigns names to her characters according to the chapter number they appeared in. Following the story at that point can be confusing. Because there is little backstory, or reason for the initial mayhem, the reader is not invested about the characters as they suffer a reciprocal fate in the last chapters. But, I think that aloofness by the reader about the fate of the characters mirrors the mind of the murderous characters of the book. They didn't care about their victims; the life of their victim meant nothing to them. The reader is made to feel the same indifference about the death of those characters as those characters felt about the murder of their victims. Quite genius.The words of the book are sometimes lyrical and Ms. Powell is an excellent writer. I look forward to reading more of her books.