Customer Reviews

Four Last Things (Roth Trilogy Book 1)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Almost a horror story, this novel is highlighted by interesting characters and a plot that gradually tightens the pressure on the characters and the reader. Along with Breakheart Hill and Void Moon this is the finest mystery/suspense novel of the last decade. A must read.

This book is not for the faint of heart, especially if you read the text closely. The villain in this work could easily be the Marques de Sade's sister. The characterizations in this work are unusually rich and complex for a suspense novel. Also, the writing easily surpasses almost everything I've read in the mystery/suspense genre. This book takes risks and succeeds magnificently. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed reading this novel. It is not really a police procedural as the police play a small role. Nor is it really a mystery as we know quite early on who has commited the crine . Some people might find the story disturbing as it deals with crimes against children. The author is a very good writer and there is an atmosphere of menace through the book. The story jumps back and forth between the phsycopaths who have kidnapped a child and the distraught parents.Frankly I thought the parents considering there child has been stolen seemed to decend into self pity and I found the criminals to be more interesting.Anyway the book was quite good and I would reccomend it.

The marriage between Sally and Michael Appleyard is going through difficult times. Sally, a reverend, in the Church of England and Michael, a police officer, seem to be drifting apart with their only connection being their beloved four year old daughter Lucy. However, their world spins further out of control when a pair of kidnappers (Eddie Grace and Angel Wharton -- ironic names for kidnappers of a child of a deacon) abduct Lucy.

Sally turns to her Church for salvation, but her godfather, a priest, loathes women in the clergy. Michael turns inward in a hope of finding answers through the police. Both fail to gain salvation as their institutions fail them. Meanwhile, the police are finding body parts at voarious hurches. They feel that these occurencesare somehow linked to the Lucy kidnapping, but this deduction leaves them no closer to finding the child. If Lucy is not freed soon, Eddie a pediophile and Angel a violent person will probably rape and kill the child.

THE FOUR LAST THINGS, the first novel in Andrew Taylor's serial killer trilogy, is an interesting thriller that successfully shifts perspective from one person to another so that the kidnapping shares the central theme with religious beliefs. The four major characters are all interesting players with the two relationships on the surface seemingly different, but inside very similar. However, with all this going for it and it being a thriller worth reading, the book seems a bit flat when compared to Mr. Taylor's classy AN AIR THAT KILLS.

Harriet Klausner

"Contemporary crime fiction is rather like Africa in the last century - a dark continent, full of unexplored mysteries. " This quote, by the author himself, encapsulates the essence of his own writing. Over the past year, Andrew Taylor has become a favorite author of mine, for the tautness of his plots, the pithy nature of his prose, and most importantly, for his ability to first develop his central characters and then to commingle their fates. To accomplish this in one novel is remarkable. To do so in a series such as the Roth Trilogy is exceptional, and it is not hyperbole to say that his novels transcend genre. Taylor has mastered the art of building atmosphere and tension, revealing bits and secrets of each character's personality chapter by chapter. Some elicit empathy from the reader, and others, revulsion. But none are perfect, and it is in the way that their choices impact one another that their mutual though unconscious complicity results in the crime. The Four Last Things exemplifies this power. Somber, deeply disturbing, but ultimately satisfying. And the biggest shock is the final line of the final chapter.

First rate, intelligent fiction, highly recommended.

This is the 1st book of Taylor's Roth trilogy; it's set in a rural suburb of London in the 1990's--later than the following volumes which go in reverse chronological order. However, the Author's Note states that each can be read individually. The 2nd book is "The Judgment of Strangers" published in 1998 (a year after the 1st volume) but set in the 1970's. The 3rd book is "The Office of the Dead" published in 2000 & but set in the 1960's. The trilogy explores the relationships over time between the Appleyard & Byfield families. Some characters appear across the novels.

This book interleaves two related stories or happenings (though not simultaneously over time)--revolving around the kidnapping of a 4 year old girl. The stories are of the kidnappers/kidnapped & of the parents. The parents are a new female Anglican cleric (around whom the story essentially revolves) & her police sergeant husband. Both are stressed at work prior to the kidnapping. Resistance to the mother's clerical calling is a major theme throughout the book. The author does not show her in a very good light though she is severely tested by the kidnapping. She's a mother 1st & a cleric 2nd despite what others may think. I don't think the author treats her too kindly though he explores her thoughts & feelings extensively. The author presents a rather bleak view of religion. But, he does make some interesting statements: e.g. p. 11: "She lived in an age of faith. Faced with something she did not understand she would automatically assume that the failure was hers" & p. 158: "To those in fear, creation was nothing but a mass of portents."

Most of the characters are unappealing to me. Indeed, the perpetrator of the kidnapping is perhaps the most sympathetic character in the book. But not his confederate. Indeed, parts of the book are downright grisly. While the story begins slowly, it gradually accelerates, building up to its climactic ending. It's more a horror story or "thriller" than a mystery though I think it would make a good episode of "Law & Order--Special Victims Unit." I am not ecstatic about the book; it is well-written, but doesn't compare at all with his later, excellent "An Unpardonable Crime."

It's true you can read the trilogy in any order. I strongly recommend that you keep all three books close until you are finished because I found it fun to double back to check up on details that I might have overlooked on the first read. Something apparently insignificant in one book will turn up in one of the others. It's also interesting to see some of the characters at different stages in their lives.

I love Andrew Taylor's writing. He always keeps you going, I could not put this book down, I just kept wanting to find out what was happening! Now I'm on the next one in the Roth Trilogy. These are definite must reads!