Review: Dexter meets Hannibal - but not in  a good way.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 7, 2014
A psychiatrist turns into a serial killer. He decides to rid the world of low life scum and for the first part of this novel, which is broken up into four parts, the reader isn't sure of his motivations. It begins with a strong narrative voice that is believable. The main character comes across as arrogant and nicely detached from his actions. His coldness towards his clients is a lovely way to let the reader in on his personality and lack of empathy. His character reminded me of the TV version of Hannibal - cold, suave, and clever, but a brutal killer.So that is the premise of the story. Psychiatrists takes it upon himself to murder those clients that he decides deserve to be killed because of what they have done. The proceeding `books' that make up this novel, go on to give us an insight as to why he does what he does. I wish there was more to this story, but that's pretty much it. In fact the author sums up the entire plot in one paragraph quite early on in the book: "To be fair, I lack empathy for my victims, but only because they are scumbags. However, I do not enjoy what I do. I wish to God, and I pray every night that I did not have to do what I do. Every day I wake up and find my prayers unanswered. I have to continue. I have to continue because I do have a motive."And so he does, and we are told what it is at the end of the second book. Yes, they all give insight into to why he does what he does. Not sure if Craig V. Boren needed to structure his novel in the way that he does, since it does little to advance the plot. I'm not sure why he chose to pretend that his killer was a cold and calculated murderer in the first book, since the successive first person narratives clearly outline that he has a very strong motive to kill. The narrative voice changes in the later books so that it could almost be a different person speaking, so again, why bother to do this?I thought the first few chapters were somewhat slow. There was a lot of the main character, telling the reader all about his latest clients and what he is going to have to eat, in great detail. I found this somewhat repetitious and it slowed the pace. Although the diary style of narration worked to a certain degree, there was too much listing for my tastes and long drawn out detailed descriptions that didn't add to the story. I wanted to skip chapters because of this. It is repetition for the sake of it and does nothing to enhance the personality of the character or give any insight into his motives. Yes, it tells us he is meticulous, but we know that from very similar passages that have gone before. I think that perhaps the author was trying to make the character a bit like Bateman, in American Psycho. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, as the writing isn't up to it. Editing is there for a reason, and here it should be used with vigour to get rid of superfluous sections and introduce relevant backstory when the action is taking place.The other characters do come across as stereotypical villains, cops, sexy females, and we don't really get to know any of them since they are all described from the one viewpoint. The narrative is so one-sided that it fails to show us anything new about any of the other characters.I know it seems trivial, but I did not care for the font that the author used. It did put me off, as it didn't look professional. There are quite a few typos/grammatical errors and missing words throughout the text that became somewhat irritating after a while.Okay, so on page 116 we get the end of a chapter? Then on the next page this: "...with malice aforethought," and nothing else. Next page we are at chapter 1. I was confused at first until I realized it was the next `book' with more to follow.In "...of another human being," he is the family man. We are subjected to his life history with his wife and children. "Of the terrible thing that happened" continues and actually links to the storyline. This could have been clever, but it was just unnecessary in my opinion. I don't see the need to split it up into different books. Oh wait a minute, I do. There is a lot of backstory and Craig V. Boren gets it all in via new `books' that all begin with chapter one. He needs to restructure this novel and maybe try and get only the relevant backstory in via active scenes rather than exposition.Then there is an epilogue. I went away thinking - too much information.There is a good story here, but I think Craig V. Boren needs to restructure this narrative and get it honed. There are too many grammatical errors and it is just too long. It should be a pacey and action packed read, but it is not. The author allows himself to explain too much - often the same thing - and the mystery is spoiled by giving over to long-winded minute detail of why he did what he did. To be frank, I preferred the character before I discovered his justifiable actions towards the people he kills. I guess some readers will respond well to this book if they enjoy CSI, Dexter, Hannibal, and Little House on the Prairie, because for me, the book ended too neatly, sweetly, and obviously. But, that's just my opinion.