The Bone Parade [Hardcover]

Mark Nykanen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2004

shley Stassler is not your average artist. He has been wildly praised for a series of bronze sculptures that group families together, depicting them in moments of excruciating physical and emotional pain-but the art world has no clue as to how he creates such authentic, gruesome, seemingly tortured human representations. He assigns each family a number, and now he's up to number nine. What's in store for family #9? Cruelty and savagery that you can't even imagine... The Bone Parade introduces a villain who is as methodical, calculating, and detached as any found in the best fiction. It's gripping. It's chilling. You might be too afraid to read on, but you'll never be able to tear your eyes away.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An award-winning former investigative journalist, Nykanen (Hush) falters in his second novel, a gruesome chiller that's an amalgamation of Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. Ashley Stassler is a world-famous sculptor who abducts and kills entire families (cue the Red Dragon) in order to make the ultimate "art" from their dying flesh (remember Buffalo Bill?), and his ego is even bigger than his reputation ("I expect I'll not only be forgiven but I'll be more sought after than ever before. There'll be rock bands named Stassler, and my sculpture will sell for several times its original price"). Nykanen's spin on these Thomas Harris tropes gives the killer his own first-person POV and one of his latest victims a particularly disturbing case of Stockholm syndrome ("I clamp my hand over her mouth.... And then-I don't believe it-she slips her tongue against my fingers. What a wench.... I love her"). In a lackluster subplot, a junior art professor named Lauren Reed learns that her most promising student has gone missing during an internship at Stassler's Utah ranch. The connection is a hunky reporter named Ry Chambers, who interviews Lauren as well as Stassler. Nykanen loads up his tale with plenty of voyeuristic sadism on Stassler's end, while the predictable trysting between Lauren and Ry is all gushy romance ("her mouth opened as readily as leaves in the desert to an early morning mist"). Fans of Harris and other dark thriller writers may eat this one up, but no amount of good details or spine-tingling descriptions can replace original plotting and characters.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In less talented hands, it might have been easy to dismiss this thriller as derivative. But the author, whose first novel, Hush (1998), was gripping and very scary, rises above his somewhat familiar material. Like Hush, this one is told from various points of view: Lauren, the sculpting instructor; Kerry, the student selected to intern with a world-famous sculptor; and the sculptor himself, Ashley Stassler, whose brilliant depictions of families caught in moments of extreme agony are created in the most frightening way imaginable. Stassler is by far the more compelling of the lead characters, a noted artist who kidnaps families and turns them into works of art, and we are always a little disappointed when the narrative shifts away from him. A certain plot twist is a bit too similar to one in the Hannibal Lecter series, and Stassler's fate is thoroughly predictable. Even with these missteps, however, the novel is deeply unsettling and exciting--a testament to the author's skill as a storyteller. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (February 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401300189
• ISBN-13: 978-1401300180
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,696,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Nykanen is the author of six novels that have focussed on a variety of subjects: sculpture, murder, adoption, art therapy, environmentalism, counseling spousal abusers, and post-apocalyptic North America in the latter part of this century. The last tale noted is "Burn Down the Sky," written under the pseudonym James Jaros. It is the first in a series that he's writing for HarperCollins about the collapse of natural systems triggered by climate change. The sequel, "Carry the Flame," will be published in July, 2012. His novels have been widely praised in national magazines and newspapers, both in North America and abroad; Europe's largest newspaper called Nykanen "The new master of the psycho-sexual thriller." Translation rights for his books have sold to seven countries, including France, Russia, and Germany, where "The Bone Parade" ("Totenstarre") was a bestseller. His novel, "Primitive," was a number one Kindle bestseller. Nykanen is also a journalist of note. His many awards in print, radio, and television include four national Emmys for investigative reporting as a correspondent for NBC News, and a duPont-Columbia award for "excellence in journalism" from Columbia University. As the writer of "The Silent Shame," a network documentary on the sexual abuse of children, he won an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He was also the reporter for that documentary, which was lauded by scores of critics, including "The Chicago Tribune," which hailed it as "a landmark in broadcast journalism." Nykanen now blogs on climate change, providing summaries and links to the most important news he finds on the subject.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Serial Killer gets lughs, July 20, 2005

By 

blind lemon pledge "BLP" (san jose , ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bone Parade (Hardcover)

I didn't think it was possible to laugh out loud with a story about a serial torturer/killer, but this is a special book. Twisted sense of humour on every other page. Stassler is one for the ages. Think Hannibal meets Stephen King. Diamond girl is the hit of the victims list! Man would I like to see her in a movie. I would cast Christina Ricci in a heartbeat...
Very cool book...very funny read!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SICK, TWISTED and COMPELLING, March 10, 2005

By 

paul mason "dedarkone" (Barrie On) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bone Parade (Hardcover)

Lauren an art/sculpting teacher is only lukewarm about famous/infamous scultor Ashley Stassler, yet her prized student Kerry is more than eager to intern and learn from the master who gained fame by sculpting families in mental and physical anguish. Kerry's enthusiasm wanes however when she meets the eccentric sculptor, and disappears completely when she stumbles into the model family for his Family Planning 9 series.

This novel is not for the faint of heart. It is very graphic in its depiction of violence and sex. In fact this was a book, that compelling though I found the writing to be I could only read a few pages at a time so disturbing was some of the imagery conjured by Nykanen. The author did a good job of alternating the narrator's point of view throughout the story from first person point of view to third person (when describing Lauren and reporter's Ry's scenes.) I think this device was more than sleight of hand to make story more interesting no tricks were neccessary to accomplish that feat. It allowed the reader to pull away momentarily from the deranged mentallity of Stassler. The characters could be described as thin in some instances but I found Nyaken to have formed an excellent cast of main characters in the ninth family's young daughter and Stassler, who are what the novel's plot really revolve around. Even after finishing this novel a week ago I still carry around some of the nightmare images and impressions in my skull now that is what I would call art.:)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully twisted, delightfully weird - perfect for fans of Hannibal Lector ..., February 2, 2009

By 

K. Sozaeva "Obsessive bibliophile" (Athens, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Bone Parade (Mass Market Paperback)

Of course, while the villain of this piece isn't nearly as urbane and charming as good ol' Hannibal the Cannibal, he does have his moments and while you certainly will look back at yourself and say "why on earth was I laughing at this?" you will none-the-less find yourself laughing at this book a time or two - at least, once you get done untangling your fingers from whatever you are holding onto at the moment, because this book is one dilly of a ride my friends!

Ashley Stassler is a renowned artist who works in bronze and does family groups, always shown in agonizing pain. He refuses to discuss how he does his work. He has done 8 groups - called "Family Planning" 1 through 8 - and is now working on #9. Things start to fall apart when first the daughter of the family he has picked for his ninth group starts to turn things around on him, and secondly when he decides to take on an intern.

I definitely do not want to spoil this book for those who haven't read it yet, so I won't outline any more of the plot. But to say it is a roller coaster ride is about right. Once the rhythm gets rolling, it just doesn't stop. Believe me, you'll be kicking yourself if you don't hurry and get this book!