I don't usually read thriller-ish books, but I found this for $3 at Books-A-Million. It sounded interesting, so why not? I liked it, although the more I think about it, the more I think it wasn't really very good. I feel like it's one of those books that, had I written this review 3/4 of the way through the book, I would've had a lot more good things to say about it than I do now that I've finished it. Does that make sense? No. Well, fine.The Killing Circle is about widower Patrick Rush, a TV critic for a Toronto newspaper. Patrick actually wants to be an author, so he begins attending a small, quirky writing workshop. The members are asked to bring pieces to read aloud at each weekly meeting. A young woman named Angela brings a story about a little girl who is haunted by a killer called "The Sandman." The entire group gets sucked into Angela's story, which she builds on at each meeting. Then, Toronto begins to be terrorized by a serial killer... whose method of operation sounds an awful lot like the killings in Angela's "Sandman" story. Eventually, members of the writing circle begin to notice a strange figure stalking them. Then the members begin to disappear, and so does Patrick's son, Sam. Patrick is desperate to figure out who (or what) is responsible for the murders and how it all relates to Angela's story.
I have to say, the author of this book, Andrew Pyper is a wee bit pretentious sometimes. There's no way I can explain why I think that, but for some reason, writers who write about writing can be extremely pompous, especially if they're writing about the writing process. That whole,"this is what I do, so I know what I'm talking about" sort of attitude. I don't know... This is clearly the most nonsensical review I've ever written, but I think if you read it, you'd see what I meant. That being said, Pyper is definitely a talented writer, and the book moved along very well. It held my interest, and there were definitely some twists and turns that I did not see coming. I feel like the ending was seriously lacking, though. There wasn't really much of an ending, actually, in terms of the central plot of the book... Not in a, "he left this wide open for a sequel!" sort of way, but in an, "oh... so that's all?" sort of way. There was a certain plot twist close to the end that I think was intended to totally shock and amaze the reader, but even though I didn't expect it, it still wasn't really that impressive.
I guess I've kind of dogged this book, but I would actually recommend it. I mean, it's not mind-blowing like Steig Larsson's Millennium triology or anything, but it's worth a few days' time. Up until the last couple of chapters, it's great. After that, it's decent. So there you go.
3/5 stars
Read from May 27, 2010 to June 1, 2010
--C
I'd be very interested to see what you thought about the ending, particularly the last couple pages/paragraph or so. I've just had to read this for a class, and I definitely understand what you mean by having more praise before the conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that everyone thinks Patrick is pretentious, despite the fact that he's always putting himself down (he is the Couch Potato and a drunk, after all). I think...I think maybe, it's more the reflection of ourselves, that we all want to be writers and this is possibly what we are; especially apparent in his descriptions of "Why can't that be me?"? At least, personally, that's where my sense of revulsion and dislike came from: Almost a mirror, but not quite...
Creepily, sort of like Angela's features! /gasp!
Overall, I DUNNO! But your review was spot on, and the poor thing had no comments despite it being so accurate. Here you go, then :D
Cheers!