Customer Reviews

The Killing Circle

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Pyper's new novel is the most blood-chilling, mind-bending thriller that I've read in years. The plot's as intricate as frost patterns on a winter window - you never know who or what to believe, everyone seems capable of anything - and yet Pyper never loses control of the story. The twists and shocks come hurtling at you but never feel contrived, illogical or forced. Too exciting to put down. This book is just brilliant.

Bill Loehfelm, author of Fresh Kills

The Killing Circle is a novel about the flagging success of Patrick Rush, a recent widower, single dad, and columnist at the city paper. The economy of print news combined with Patrick's indifference and bad attitude quickly lead to unemployment. Having always dreamt of writing the great Canadian novel, Patrick joins a writing circle, where he quickly discovers that he's really got nothing to contribute. When strange things start happening in Patrick's city and writing circle, he's drawn into a sequence of events that ultimately sets his life back on track - or so it seems.

Though that sounds like the complete story, in fact, it's just act 1 and I haven't spoiled anything for future readers. The story is told in two chunks - 2003 and 2007. The 2003 section almost entirely serves as back story. In that sense, the story takes some time to evolve. However, the writing and the characters make the time pass quickly. In 2007, we discover even more about the protagonist that makes us question his moral fiber, and from there the mystery takes unexpected twists and turns. Is Patrick the next victim? The prime suspect? An unwitting pawn in someone else's game?

On the thriller spectrum from Koontz (the good guys always win and live to see another day) to King (sometimes evil prevails), Pyper is much closer to King. Patrick is far from perfect and I didn't always find myself rooting for him to come out on top. Unfortunately, I didn't really identify or connect with any of the characters which made me feel oddly disconnected from the story. At the same time, Patrick also seems slightly disconnected from his own life so perhaps the distance I felt was appropriate.

In the end, I enjoyed the book, the unique plot (I didn't come close to guessing the ending), and the writing kept me interested until past my bedtime. I have added Pyper's previous books to my eventual to-be-read list, but I won't go out a buy them ASAP. Overall The Killing Circle is solid read that I'll be happy to pass along to fellow mystery readers, but not something that I'd highly recommend.

Andrew Pyper wrote a wonderful first book called Lost Girls. I remember thinking how proud I was that he was Canadian. So, of course, when his most recent book became available for review, I jumped on it. The Killing Circle is a "thriller/mystery/whodunnit".

What I like about Pyper is that you can never really categorize his books in just one area.In this newest entry, our main character Patrick Rush is an ordinary guy, who is down on his luck. His wife just recently died and somehow, his writing career at the paper seems to be on a downward spiral. He longs to write "that" novel, but somehow does not seem to have much to say. In an attempt to get some ideas and rejuvenate himself, he joins a writing circle - which at first glance appears to be a mistake - until he meets Angela. Angela is a mother, but she tells tales of this Sandman - a horrible man who comes into the night and does horrible things. Rush finds himself fascinated and returns, week after week to hear more. The only problem is - the Sandman appears to be real - a dark man has appeared and is re-creating the grisly scenes that are "imanaged" and "told" by Angela.

Rush gets this idea - should he offer to write the "true story" of these murders? and why do they sound so familiar? how can this be happening? It is very difficult to write this review without giving anything away. As always, Pyper does not use the standard thriller ploys to get the story moving along. We remain unsure of the intentions of ALL of the players until the end of the storyline. There are some serious twists along the line (one in particular that I really did not expect). I kept asking myself, is it possible that Rush has lost his mind?

Pyper writes with style, he often uses poetic storytelling that lures you into a different world - only to yank you right back out with a grisly scene. He is unlike any other writer of this(ese) genre(s) I have read.On some level Pyper is the Paul Auster of the mystery world. You start off one place with the storyline and you end up at a completely different place and you never know how you got there - except that the ride was exceptional.What a wonderful read

The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper is a great book. I am lucky to have stumbled across this book at the store because it is well worth the money and time. The engaging and entertaining plot is one of the best that I have read in quite a while. Pyper installs a sense of creepiness throughout the story . . . it kept me reading on to find out what in the world was going on. I felt that Pyper was very accurate in delivering a psychological toll that the main character would be going through with an intense story such as this. This book is for anyone who enjoys reading dark mystery/suspense. I will be reading more of Andrew Pyper.

Excellent, and a very quick, engaging read. The first chapter clues you in to what you believe will be the end of the story. Not so fast, though, there are still surprises to come! I enjoyed the way this author wrote, reminded me somewhat of Stephen King's style. Wry witty dialogue, yet this IS a thriller, not black humor as some of the blurbs I've read would indicate. Clever concept, this "writer's" circle and the "story" that unfolds. I had no "oh no" moments, you know the kind, where the story takes a disappointing turn. I would recommend this book to any one who enjoys this genre and for those who are new to it.

Holidays like Valentine's Day bring special pain to thirty-something widower Patrick Rush. After the death of his wife Tamara, their four-year-old son Sam is all he has left. At work, his job as a critic and television feature writer at Toronto's National Star doesn't bring much fulfillment to his life. In fact, he turns bitter and envious from writing about other people's creative accomplishments. What Patrick really wants to do is unleash his own creativity and write his own story.

One evening, after Sam is safely tucked in for the night, Patrick heads down to his basement office, which Tamara called "the Crypt," and makes a phone call that will change his life. He digs out a slip of paper and dials the number in a classified ad that offers an intensive workshop facilitated by Conrad White, an obscure poet and novelist. He tells the voice on the other end, "I want to write a book."

The atmosphere of the writers' circle, which meets for five Tuesdays in the Kensington Market area of Toronto, is dark and mysterious. The circle is limited to Conrad and seven members --- Patrick, Petra, Len, Angela, Ivan, Evelyn and William --- who round out the odd assortment of people drawn together by their desire to share the stories of their lives. Yet Patrick, the published writer, seems to have nothing to share because there are some internal demons he doesn't want to unleash.

Patrick is especially envious when he hears Angela read from her journal about the Sandman, who lurks in the shadows waiting to attack and destroy. While Patrick sits listening to Angela tell her story, he records her words.

As weeks progress and circle members share their stories, the city of Toronto is plagued by a serial killer who is striking close to Patrick's home. Sam has nightmares about a man, "a bad man," in the house across the street. They sound eerily similar to events in Angela's story, and Patrick can't escape the feeling that his house is being watched and he is being stalked. After the circle has ended, the murders in his neighborhood stop.

Several years later, Patrick has achieved success, fame and fortune. He also experiences a parent's worst nightmare when his beloved son is abducted. To find Sam, Patrick undertakes a journey to uncover the root of the evil that's been lurking in the background of their lives.

THE KILLING CIRCLE is a dark, chilling and haunting tale of ambition, envy and the evil that lurks among us, complete with breathtaking twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the end.

--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt

Pyper is an immensely talented writer, as evidenced in The Wildfire Season, a master of the dark, haunting rhythms that draw characters into a netherworld of secrets and shameful deeds. Reeling after the death of his wife a few months after the birth of their son, Patrick Rush seeks a distraction from his grief and a downward-spiraling job at a local Toronto newspaper. Once the paper's book critic, Rush is being gradually demoted, barely clinging to a profession in the throes of technical revolution and downsizing. Thinking to discover his novel-in-waiting, or at least some inspiration in an otherwise difficult life, Rush answers an ad for membership in a limited writing circle. Strangers all, the group is chaired by a controversial novelist with plans for weekly meetings and discussion of each session's work.

At best, the quirky figures in the group are talented, although one, a giant man who reeks of menace, offers only tales of escalating violence ("blood tattooed on the curtains"). But Patrick is most caught up in Angela Whitmore's unfolding story of The Sandman, "a terrible man who does terrible things". Drawn into Angela's scenario, Rush is further distraught by a series of violent murders occurring in his neighborhood. Obviously a serial killer is on the loose, eerily similar to Angela's Sandman. In a juxtaposition of fact and fiction, Patrick is immersed in a nightmare as, one by one, members of the writing circle die and even his beloved son, Sam, is kidnapped. Followed by an ominous stranger, Patrick is trapped in a world of real danger and increasing paranoia, finally learning the consequences of his own pretensions.

Is this a ghost story? Maybe. At least Patrick embraces that concept when he uses his experience in the circle as a bridge to fame. But as the story evolves, it is clear that Rush is no innocent, no stranger to self-deception. Yet even more troubling is Pyper's attempt, as a writer, to construct a novel about writers, a lumpy porridge that is less than satisfying, if an interesting plot contrivance. Pyper fails to exercise sufficient discipline. More than the writer-on-writers angel, I had trouble with motive. For all the ghastly, confusing events that happen, I cannot identify a logical motive. There are murders, threats, creeping fears and untrustworthy characters, but to what purpose? Making matters worse, Pyper handles a cloudy resolution with a question to the "Dear Reader". I know Pyper is an enormously gifted storyteller; I just don't think this novel fulfills his purpose. Luan Gaines/2009.

Every Labor Day, father (Patrick) and son (Sam) would go to the drive in to watch the last movie of the summer. Before they can settle down with their food and enjoy the movie however, Sam goes missing. It's the Sandman.

This beginning to the book ties you in as you have a name of the person you are looking for. Who is this "Sandman"? Why does he want Sam? How does Patrick know it's the "Sandman"?

We then get taken back to 4 years before and how it all began. Patrick, failed writer, joins a writing group known as the "Kensington Circle". It's a small group of wanna-be writers and none of them really holds his attention. Except for one. Angela. A shy, quiet woman who shares a haunting story called "The Sandman". Patrick is so mesmerized by her story he secretly records it.

Patrick isn't the only one taken by the story, everyone in the group is enthralled. Then it so happens a serial killer emerges on the streets of Toronto, re-enacting the same scenes from Angela's story, Patrick (and other members of the group) is worried that there might be a serial killer in the writing group. However, once the group stops meeting, the killings stop.

That is until somehow "The Sandman" story gets published and the killings start again. I don't want to give away too much of this book, as there are many twists and turns that will constantly keep you at the edge of your seat.

This book is a gem. It has been a while that I have wanted to put everything on hold just to sit and read through the day. This is an easy read that yanks any of your ideas of who "The Sandman" is after every couple of pages. Excellently written.

Since Lost Girls, Andrew Pyper has matured and polished his story and prose. Lost Girls got boggy at times, caterwauling and loosely navigating itself to its climax. Killing Circle is crisp, clear, clean, well-paced,and tightly controlled. Character and story are dimensional, thrilling, suspenseful. It is a story within a story that converges with taut boldness and assuredness. He blends psychological horror in a literary thriller with a novel of ideas, a thought-provoking (if nihilist) philosophy. He stays one step ahead of you but not smugly; he coaxes you to come with him. I was alternately frightened, shocked, and moved. He haunts you, evokes deeper emotions than a standard thriller. He crossed genre boundaries with his complex characterizations and "killer" story. And his expressions of love and sacrifice are authentic and artless, never saccharine. I am impressed with the tangle of love and nihilism. He achieved what he set out to do and even surpassed it.

The reviewer of this book for the Richmond Times-Dispatch (see back-cover blurb) was of the view that TKC is "head and shoulders above most thrillers out there now." Assuming this reviewer's assessment is an honest one, formed on the basis of his own comparative reading of "most thrillers out there now", then I can only imagine that most thrillers out there now are truly awful, and extend my sympathies to all the professional book reviewers whose unhappy job it is to slog through them. To highlight the best things about TKC: the writing is decent in a creative writing class sort of way and it's a very fast read. To highlight the bad: the story is mediocre in the extreme. Its shocks are all predictably unpredictable. You might not know exactly whodunnit it from the outset, nor exactly how the story will resolve in the end (or rather -- naturally -- not resolve), but by the time you get there you'll pretty much have run through all the possibilities (there aren't that many). And along the way, you'll be served up a hash of writer/protagonist-going-mad musings, horrific (though for the most part under-described) set pieces, black sedans and/or vans trailing at a distance, ghostly apparitions, shadowy figures, faceless persons (presumably all one and the same), all with a jagged glass of things-you-fear-the-most (cue to reader: you are supposed to bring your own worst fears to your reading of TKC; for my part, I couldn't be bothered). TKC grinds endlessly -- albeit, thankfully, quickly -- to a lame conclusion. It is paint-by-numbers from start to finish. If it really is "head and shoulders above most thrillers out there now", then I know exactly what genre I'll be steering clear of in the future.