Book Log #50: The Samaritan, by Chaz Brenchley

[annathepiper]

It was a very interesting contrast indeed jumping from desperance's current fantasy novel Bridge of Dreams clear back to his very first book, the psychological thriller The Samaritan. The prose is clearly the product of the same hand, even with twenty-some-odd years between the books, and even given that The Samaritan by necessity has a significantly terser style.

Paul Fenner is a former cop who was driven into alcoholism and divorce by the overwhelming brutality of a case he never solved: the rampage of the killer known as the Butcher. Since walking away, he's striven to rebuild his life; he's sworn off drinking and has established a new relationship with a young woman, Tina, whose fondest wish is to settle with him in a cottage in Wales. But when Paul's and Tina's landlady and friend is found murdered, Paul realizes that the Butcher is not going to let him go.

This entire story is intense, gripping, and in parts highly disturbing. The sections from the Butcher's point of view are particularly effective--told as they are in second person, which has the immediate effect of placing you right into his head so that you see every little twisted corner of his brain. You even relive the horrific abuse that the character experienced as a child, and this led me to almost, almost feeling sorry for the guy. Yet the gruesome barrage of violence in the very end of the book takes that little glimmer of sympathy, sharpens it right into a knife, and stabs you with it. Brr.

There's only one bit in the book I take issue with, one bit in the aforementioned barrage of violence that for me as a reader was really unnecessary--because in order for it to work, one of the characters in the cast does something that made me want to smack her so hard that I was momentarily taken out of the story. But that was mercifully brief. What comes after that point was otherwise a veritable storm, ripping through almost all corners of Paul's and Tina's lives, until its passing leaves them with barely more than a glimmer of gratitude that they've survived.

And after reading this book, I know exactly how they feel. ;) Three and a half stars.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hee. That's really interesting - 'specially as it is the best part of twenty years since anyone reviewed the book. I'm glad it still stands up; it predates, of course, the mega interest in serial-killer thrillers (I do have a terrible sense of timing: all my books are too early to catch the wave, or else too late), and I did wonder if it had been superseded entirely.

And I'm glad that you could still recognise the voice. What we value, that abides.

[So can you tell me which is the bit that pushed you out of the story? If you don't want to discuss it in your journal, my e-mail is chaz at chazbrenchley dot co dot uk...]

[annathepiper]

It did indeed hold up well; I can't point out any particular detail that made it feel dated to me at all. And yeah, I could catch your voice in this book as well as the other; this one was as I mentioned quite a bit terser of style, and yet there was a certain rhythm to the language that felt like what I'd read in Bridge of Dreams.

I'll fling you an email!