The Execution: A Novel [Hardcover]

Hugo Wilcken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2002

"I should have left her as soon as I found out. If I'd left her then, she'd have come banging at my door. She'd have come back to me eventually and I could have made my choice. I couldn't contemplate her leaving me, though. I couldn't contemplate her being alive and not being with me."

Matthew Bourne is very much the center of his own universe. He has a long-term partner, a mistress, and a high-flying career with a humanrights agency, where he is campaigning to secure the release of a condemned African dissident. Then one day a colleague's wife dies in tragic circumstances, and Matthew is called to identify the body. Only much later does he realize that this incident has seeped into his life like a slow poison, and he spirals into a nightmare of death and betrayal.

The Execution is a riveting narrative of mystery and menace, of emotional disengagement and passionate action. Written in a smooth, detached style that builds the tension and suspense to almost unbearable levels, The Execution is an extremely accomplished debut from a new writer of huge promise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A self-absorbed British PR rep for a human rights activist group slowly begins falling apart in Wilcken's taut debut, a diabolical thriller that echoes the best suspense of Patricia Highsmith with a cheeky nod to Dostoyevski. Matthew Bourne is the first-person narrator who temporarily ditches his campaign to keep a controversial African poet from being executed after an older colleague named Christian collapses upon learning that his attractive wife has died in a car accident. Bourne takes him to the hospital and identifies her body for the police, but he becomes so disturbed by the incident that he inexplicably picks up an attractive PR colleague at a party, even though his girlfriend Marianne has just become pregnant with the couple's second child. Bourne's behavior gets even stranger when he impulsively trails Marianne to a midafternoon appointment and learns that she is having an affair. After tracking the couple for several weeks, Bourne confronts Marianne's lover and accidentally kills him. He then calls Christian to the crime scene, and the two men take the victim to a remote location outside of London to dispose of the body. The excellent character writing carries the day here, but Wilcken is also a masterful storyteller who uses a combination of plot twists, Bourne's growing guilt and his deteriorating relationship with Marianne to notch up the tension and transform an unlikable protagonist into a fascinating antihero. This is a remarkably accomplished debut heralding the arrival of a noteworthy talent. Wilcken's literary career may take as many fascinating twists as this brilliant book.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In this stunning debut, Wilcken creates a beautifully written, intricately crafted, multilayered story that can be read as a psychological thriller, a commentary on the superficiality of modern life, an Everyman story, or a modern morality tale. On whatever level, the book is both moving and mesmerizing. Matthew Bourne's life is changed the day he is asked to identify the body of a dead colleague's wife. That cataclysmic event transforms him from a good-looking man with a loving partner, a sweet daughter, plenty of friends, and a good job that supports a cause he believes in to a haggard, hopeless shadow who loses his grip on life. Matthew's odd lapses of judgment alienate him from everyone, and his erratic behavior drives his fiancee and daughter into their own private hell. It is a relief to Matthew when the consequences of his actions finally bring him face to face with his fate. But there's no relief in sight for the reader, who will be moved, troubled, and disturbed by this deeply affecting book. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (January 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060188235
• ISBN-13: 978-0060188238
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,637,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, But Lacks Payoff, January 24, 2002

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Execution: A Novel (Hardcover)

Wilken's debut novel excels as an example of a certain kind of crisp, emotionally detached style that for some reason seems to be particularly prevalence among modern British male writers. So it's just as well that the story centers on an emotionally empty, self-absorbed human rights worker who gradually self-destructs over the course of the slim book. At work, Matthew Bourne is given stewardship of a campaign to free a dissident African poet facing execution in his homeland, while at home his French girlfriend becomes pregnant with their second child. However after he's called upon to ID the body of his colleague Christian's wife, something slowly start to eat away in him and he casually falls into a torrid affair and neglects his work.

Wilken creates a lot of mystery and tension in a limited space, but the payoff isn't quite there. His on again, off again guilt certainly rings true, but his spiraling descent is more annoying than it is disturbing. Why is Matthew's girlfriend acting increasingly odd, why does their three-year-old daughter fear "the man with glasses" who attacks her teddy bear, why does his colleague's dead wife's face haunt him, why does his fate suddenly seem inextricably bound to that of the poet? Some of these are answered, and some aren't. While I often like films that don't explain every last detail, here there are too many unexplained threads. (This may be because the narrative constraints of film's 120 minutes make such absences more necessary and thus palatable, whereas novelists have all the space they need to explain anything they wish to.) For example, a number of times Christian tries to tell Matthew something important, but is never able to. Why repeatedly stage such a scene only to never reveal its meaning? Another time, Matthew and Christian see each other in a train station, pause, and then walk past each other wordlessly. Again, as if we are in a David Lynch film, the reader is left wondering what that was all about.

All this is not to say the book is not well-written, because it is-however, it suffers from a kind of "is that all there is?" ending. Indeed, I could see it making a much better film than novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking, August 14, 2002

By 

B.Lue "Blue" (Tn USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Execution: A Novel (Hardcover)

I too thought this book left too many loose ends and unanswered questions. On the other hand it was a great psychological study and felt "real" on so many levels that most modern day novels do not. In other words-if you are looking for a great plot look elsewhere,perhaps a John Grisham. I did not particularly like the protagonist in this story,but I did feel sorry for him in a way. He had perhaps led too charmed a life to know how to deal with adversity.In the end I felt cheated in some ways-yet strangely deeply affected in other ways, as tho I had been handed a small window with which to view another person's soul. And maybe a recurring thought of mine,that adversity can truely enrich us and be a building block forming character and developing coping skills. But the adversity had sadly come to late in this character's life.

4.0 out of 5 stars Trying to just live it., June 6, 2007

By 

Norliza Ismail "The Librarian" (Seria, Kuala Belait Brunei Darussalam) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Execution: A Novel (Paperback)

omg! I pulled this out of the shelves to read because we had a storm and tv with the internet is off. And I never thought it is this much of a page turner.

It's about a life of Matthew Bourne, a human right activist who is trying to save the life of Jarawa. In the midst of trying to do this, his own life is falling apart. He has live-in artist partner with a daughter, and on the side a mistress of his own. He found out his partner is sleeping with somebody else.

it was kind of annoying at firts because it took me a few chapters to realized what's exactly is going on. but it's a good past time reading. some plot really do pull you into the book itself.