April 5, 2010
This disappointing crime thriller from Ellory (A Quiet Belief in Angels
) focuses on a serial killer who restages famous murders with new victims across New York City. As the surprisingly ineffectual NYPD struggles to track down the Anniversary Killer, Det. Ray Irving finds himself unexpectedly allied with the enigmatic and reclusive John Costello, lone survivor of a previous serial killer's rampage and perhaps New York's foremost authority on serial killers. While the fiend strikes again and again, Ray is forced to depend on the fragile John, despite the personal cost to John as well as Ray's growing concerns about John's reliability. Ellory's operatic story, for all its entertaining purple-tinged prose and forays into the lurid underbelly of serial-killer fandom, brings little new to this familiar subgenre. His decaying New York as a place of unrelenting despair and violence will strike many as far more suited to the 1970s than to the present.
May 15, 2010
Uneven thriller about a New York City police detective who tracks a copycat serial killer.
Ellroy (A Quiet Belief in Angels, 2009) begins with the appealing John Costello, nearly 17 and growing up in Jersey City. When John spots Nadia, a beautiful young woman, they begin a passionate relationship. One night, as they sit outdoors, a man approaches from behind and smashes Nadia's head with a hammer. Nadia dies, John narrowly escapes and the killer eventually commits suicide at a psychiatric facility. Ellroy now jumps forward 11 years and, in what may be a strategic mistake, shifts to the point of view of police detective Ray Irving. The author provides ample details to animate Irving and his Manhattan, but neither the man nor the place equal the vibrance of Costello and his Jersey City. At work, Irving confronts a killing similar to Nadia's—in Bryant Park, the body of a teenage girl turns up, her head crushed. Then the bodies of two teenage girls, shot in the head, are dumped along FDR Drive. Later, the body of a young man, his face painted like a clown, is found in a drain. A story in the City Herald traces the killings to those of serial killers of the past. Because all these killers were executed or are currently imprisoned, the story suggests a copycat killer is at large. How did reporter Karen Langley develop this theory? With aid from research assistant John Costello, who now obsessively compiles information about serial killers. Langley points out to Irving that the present-day killings occur on the anniversaries of the earlier murders. Aided by Langley and Costello, Irving digs through a massive haystack of serial-murder cases to find a needle—another case the killer will recreate. After several dead-ends, the three face off with the Anniversary Man in a tense scene in Madison Park.
Ellory's prose is rather colorless, the plot lacks pace and momentum and Irving, at the center of it, is lackluster.
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May 15, 2010
Det. Ray Irving of New York's Fourth Precinct is a typical procedural heroa man who has suffered loss and now has a rather solitary existence. He is investigating the murder of a teenage girl, but despite able forensic support he has virtually no leads. In the meantime, reporter Karen Langley has drafted an article linking Irving's case to other murders that have occurred around the city, all replicating crimes of past serial killers on the anniversaries of the gruesome deeds. Her research was conducted by John Costello, a survivor of a serial killer. Irving gains Costello's aid but remains uncertain whether his knowledge comes simply from prior study or has a more sinister explanation. Meanwhile, Irving and Langley begin a tentative relationship, which adds a positive element to this otherwise grim story. VERDICT Despite the (to this reviewer) disappointing conclusion, Ellory's ("A Quiet Belief in Angels") gripping thriller should appeal to lovers of procedurals and may also draw readers of true crime, as it deals with many actual serial killings.Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Lib., Wisconsin Rapids
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from May 1, 2010
This is one of those police-procedural gems that come along once in a blue moon. The book is entirely free of the tired formulas that drive way too many procedurals and that often seem more oriented toward securing movie rights than telling a story. And what a story this is! NYPD Detective Ray Irvingoverworked, underpaid, and absolutely dedicated to his jobrisks his code of ethics and, ultimately, his life to track down a serial killer who is imitating the crimes of some of the worst monsters our society has spawned. An increasing number of leads begin flowing in from newspaper researcher John Costello, a psychologically damaged survivor of the Hammer of God killer. Two decades after that traumatic event, Costello now seems to have garnered an uncannily encyclopedic knowledge of serial murderers. Costellos almost prescient information soon makes him Irvings number-one resource as well as his number-one suspect. Although Ellory is widely acclaimed in his native Britain, his books have not yet received widespread distribution in the U.S. Following A Quiet Belief in Angels (2009), this could be the one to put his name in lights in this country. Expect his name to be on every crime-fiction fans lips in short order.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)