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amazon.co.uk]
A bit of a change from my usual steady diet of SF, this is a crime/serial killer novel. It's also a change from MMS's three earlier novels, which were SF - hence his use of a cunning pseudonym to distiguish this work in the eyes of people who view everything by strict genre boundaries and can't cope with eclectic authors. Hey, if it works for Iain (M) Banks...
For much of its length, this book follows two main threads, though the reader is allowed a few glimpses of other events. In one thread, Ward Hopkins investigates the circumstances surrounding his parents' death in a car crash, and finds that their lives were somewhat more complex than he thought. In the second main thread, ex-cop Zandt helps an FBI agent in her hunt for a teenage girl, kidnapped by a serial killer they failed to catch two years earlier.
MMS is really playing to his strengths here. This book has the same sense of calculated, chilling, evil he demonstrated in his short story "More Tomorrow". His trademark cynically humorous prose is also present, and fits well with the characters and overall tone. Fans of his talking appliances will be disappointed, though.
The author has said that this is the first book where he has made substantial changes between first and second drafts, with the final third of the book being largely rewritten. It shows, and was worth it - while I've enjoyed his earlier works, I've always thought the endings were weak. Not here.
While I haven't read enough books in this genre to make any worthwhile comparisons, I enjoyed this book a great deal, and think it is MMS's best yet.
Additionally MMS was, as always, a very entertaining speaker on his signing tour to promote this book. If you get a chance to listen to him reading and speaking, do so.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}