Customer Reviews

Doctor Slaughter

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This is the unlikely story of a young female Ph. D. who, upon finding that she isn't makeing enough money to live the life she would like to, becomes a high price call girl at night. She takes this step rather matter of factly and there seems to be little or no squeamishness expressed at such a career move. After all, her clients are men of quality - business and government officials who are polite and can afford to pay. Her only complaint has to do with the kind of intercourse many of her clients want (I will leave the specifics to other readers to discover). The complication in the story occurs when a high government official becomes one of her regular clients and they develop a real fondness for one another. Further complications come from a regular Arab customer who intends to use Dr. Slaughter's relationship with the government official as a way of setting up his assassination.

For those who have seen the movie 'Half Moon Street' on which this book is based, the two are quite different. The book is better; the characters are more real and the overall emotional impact of the book is move satisfying.

Paul Theroux(PT) has written some three dozen travel books and novels situated in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. A number of his works have been televised; The Mosquito Coast, situated in Honduras, was made into a popular movie. He moves easily between fiction and controlled autobiography. His one foray into science fiction (O-Zone), written for his children, was quite rewarding. He has published two biographies of V.S. Naipaul, one admiring, the other scathing, 30 years apart (I own both!).

Doctor Slaughter is an unforgettable tale about ambition, disorientation, penury, lust and betrayal in London, featuring a new American, PhD-holding female fellow of a British think tank, who soon embarks on a double life. There are many angles: poor living conditions and pay scales in London, the UK's pretension to play a role in a world that has slipped from its grasp; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And Lauren Slaughter's own psychological profile, which is quite alarming after reading the first two dozen pages...

The novella was made into a well-received movie called Half Moon Street, starring Sigourney Weaver and Michael Caine.

I consider this brief work one of PT's best achievements. It is a riveting tale and once begun, most readers will read on until it is finished. The 145 pages in fairly large print make this quite feasible. This is a slim stand-alone masterpiece. Publishers should make it available again as such. Why? It has not aged, has no PC-induced flab, and its message is as acute as it was on the date of publication (1984). And it makes a perfect small surprise present to thinking people.

As a stand-alone work it has been published as Doctor Slaughter and as Half Moon Street. It is available mostly second hand, with prices starting at EUR 0,01 and USD 0,01. Shame, shame, shame. It is also included in a collection of PT's short novels published in 2006.

A neat, concise, terrifying story.