The Minus Man [Paperback]

Lew McCreary (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 1999

The Minus Man, adapted and directed by Hampton Fancher is being released as a film in fall 1999 starring Owen Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, Mercedes Ruehl, Dwight Yoakam, and Sheryl Crow. Lew McCreary's brilliant, chilling novel enters the mind of a harmless drifter whose idea of intimacy is murder.
Vann Siegert is by all appearances an ordinary man. With only his truck and a few possessions, he has moved cross-country to start a new life, taking a temporary holiday job at the post office in a small Massachusetts town. But when the urge calls him, Vann takes to the road-armed with a poisoned flask of liquor and a smile that strangers trust. Woe to those who accept his comfort-junkies, hitchhikers, a high school football star, Vann gathers his victims like moths to a flame. A harrowing journey inside the mind of a disquietingly compassionate psychopath, The Minus Man is an unforgettable literary experience and is sure to be one of the year's most talked-about movies.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It is an eerie, rueful tale Vann Siegert tells in McCreary's ( Mount's Mistake ) startling second novel. After a cross-country move from his native Oregon to a small Massachusetts town called Bledsoe, Vann is soon looking for employment, a place to live and victims. Vann is a serial killer who poisons hitchhikers from a flask of Southern Comfort laced with lethal sedgwort. "Go ahead and help yourself" are the last words these unsuspecting riders hear. In Bledsoe, Vann finds temporary work in the post office and victims aplenty. What sets this work apart from the usual serial-killer saga is the tone. In an uninflected but quietly impassioned voice, Vann relates the murders and bits and pieces of his own dark history--his mother, for instance, used to tie him to a chair in the cellar when he was a boy. Painfully self-aware and clearly suffering, Vann is a troubled, memorable character.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

On the plus side, The Minus Man is consistent in its message: there may be more meaning in death than in life. What happens in between life and death for most people is of little importance. Therefore, Vann Siegert, a serial killer with a gentle modus operandi, poisoning, is doing the world and his victims a favor by putting them out of their misery. On the minus side, the overall theme of this novel is so depressing, readers may lose interest before the ending, which holds little payoff. Since this novel is written in a first-person narrative, one would anticipate being able to get into the mind of the central character, but it is difficult to relate to Vann, whose thoughts and actions repeat themselves over and over again. A marginal purchase.
- Sue Mevis, Ludlow Memorial Lib., Monroe, Wis.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Grove Press Ed edition (August 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802136745
• ISBN-13: 978-0802136749
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,664,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of an "ordinary" killer, September 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Minus Man (Paperback)

I have read this book when it was published 4 or 5 years ago. It was Anne Rice (!) that praised the novel in the New York Times Review talking about great fiction and regreting that modern fiction was poorly written (she has since denied herself by writing poor executed popular fiction for teenagers). Anyway, the point is that this book feels like nothing you've read about the subject -serial killer- before. It is more like an inside monologue. Don't expect cheap thrills, or killer-on-the-loose-page-turner.

Sometimes weird, often hypnotizing,The Minus Man deserves to be successful. I hope that the movie coming out (good or bad) will give this book a second chance.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars when you read this book think of Owen Wilson, January 20, 2001

By 

aaron narocka (new jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Minus Man (Paperback)

It's so simple and that is scary.With this story we get to see inside the mind of a simple man.A simple man that simply kills.His habit of killing is the equivalent to a nicotine addiction.He simply needs his fix and he doesn't have to go to great lengths to get it.A drop of some poison as easy as buying a pack of cigarettes. I loved this book but I have to admit that I had the ADVANTAGE of seeing the movie first.Owen Wilson is so damn lovable and cute and that made the story so damn terrifying.It is a completely believable work of fiction.I'm not sure what you should do first---rent the movie or read the book. Whichever order, make sure you do both.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A strange, quietly disturbing tale that's not for all tastes, June 29, 2010

By 

Joshua Mauthe (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Minus Man (Paperback)

It's unlikely that you've ever read anything quite like The Minus Man, a book about a serial killer that plays out more like a quietly unsettling drama than a thriller. The Minus Man is narrated by Vann Siegert, a quiet, likeable loner who carries a poisoned flask with him in his glove compartment. McCreary has created a fascinating, enigmatic character in Siegert, whose stream-of-consciousness thought processes are filled with philosophical musings, self-awareness, a damaged psyche, and yet a quiet humanity as well. This is not a plot-driven tale or a gripping thriller; rather, it's a psychological study of a deeply damaged human being, one who acts in a way he himself does not always understand, even as he finds himself driven to kill again and again. Siegert's mind is a fascinating place, and McCreary's beautiful and poetic writing gives the book an unsettling and eerie mood that lingers long after the last page is turned. There's a story here, about Siegert's stay in a small town and his relationship with his landlords and their co-workers, but that's never the book's focus; instead, we follow Vann's wanderings and musings, ranging from his childhood to his imagined interrogation by detectives who will one day capture him. The Minus Man is definitely not a book for all tastes; many will find it dull, or complain that nothing happens, or be frustrated by how oblique Vann remains, even after spending so much time in his head. But for those who are up for its subtle, strange charms, it's a quiet masterpiece of psychological drama, a beautiful piece of writing, and a quietly unnerving tale.