Fergus McNeill (1)

I chose this book entirely because of the local setting. It was obvious that the settings are very well researched. But I also found myself completely drawn into the killer's world. It's a rather chilling thought that he could choose his victims so completely randomly. I never really warmed to the policeman as much as I hoped. There were enough twists to keep me reading, but no single huge twist in the story. The ending left itself nicely open for the sequel, which I will buy when it is released.… (más)

The back cover poses the question "how do you find a killer who strikes without motive", and indeed that was an interesting question. Most fictional killers seem to have some motive or pattern to their actions which makes the job of the police that much easier. It did get me thinking that this very much the meat in the sandwich of the police procedural, whereas in this case we were just waiting for the perpetrator to make a mistake.

It wasn't that it was badly written - in fact it was very well written. And I thought the depiction of the killer, with his adherence to rules he imposes on himself, was very effective and very clever. As a slightly aspergic rules-based person myself, I did kind of identify with that, which was chilling in itself as I don't intend to go around murdering people.

The problem for me was the lack of narrative drive from the police's point of view - they weren't going to dig up clues, they weren't going to find people with a grudge against the victims, they were just going to have to wait for the killer to slip up or strike again. And the end was curious - could it be this author is setting up a series of books not just about a single cop but a single killer too?… (más)