Customer Reviews

Perfection

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

 

 

I've read a bunch of Satterthwait's books -- he's one of those authors you discover and then keep seeking out. His writing is always sly, witty, and solidly suspenseful. "Perfection" is no different. The sociological/psychological implications of this premise about a serial killer who slices up fat girls and trims them to fit his obscene ideal are disturbing but riveting. You won't be able to put "Perfection" down -- and if you're on a diet, you'll want to read it with your back to a wall.

Veteran cops who thought they had seen everything want to puke; some do. The killer removed the fat from the obese woman as St. Anselm, Florida detective Sophia Tregaskis thinks the murder reminds her of a flensing operation performed by whalers on whales. Her partner former NYPD detective James Fallon takes charge of the crime scene. The clues are few if any. Two more identical deaths of obese females follow, making it obvious that a serial killer targets overweight women. To aid the cops, psychologist Dr. Eva Swanson begins profiling the killer.

As they dig for clues, James admires his partner for holding up and providing insight into the case, as the culprit is quite clever. As the city panics, the Mayor and police chief, encouraged by the demands of the media to catch the killer or resign, pressure the two lead sleuths. Sophia has learned so much from her veteran partner, the consummate professional not allowing anything to intrude on uncovering the identity of the killer except his desire for his much younger partner, but his top priority remains stopping the ritual-like murders before another victim surfaces.

In this day and age in which serial killers are common in police procedural novels few match up to the centerfold Lector or the real things, but the "sophisticated" culprit of PERFECTIONS he comes reasonably close especially as he dines and wines on quality food and drink,. Readers and Sophia appreciate James professional and methodical sleuthing for instance lecturing a cop who carelessly parked his car on a crime scene lawn. Though the climatic final twist is somewhere in the realm of Rod Serling plausibility, fans, except overweight females, will enjoy this solid suspense thriller.

Harriet Klausner

BOOK CLUB REVIEW
PERFECTION
by Walter Satterthwait

Our book club's book for February was PERFECTION, by Walter Satterthwait. Many of us had read Satterthwait in the past - he is a very diverse writer who's distinguished himself by not sticking to a particular formula.

PERFECTION takes place in a small Florida community where a serial killer has struck. This is where it gets a little hard to right this review, as this is without a doubt the most gruesome book our club has ever read. We've seen some sadistic scenes before (for example, in Chelsea Cain's book), and we do not tend to like them, though we (as a group) can deal with them if they are mercifully short or if they somehow give insight into a character. The murders here are simply ghastly, and rendered in such detail that many of our readers (and not just the women!) went running for the barf bags. Without going into too much detail, let's say that this serial killer targets fat women and decides to take some weight off them. Several of us couldn't get past the first 40 or so pages of the book due to this level of gruesome description, so about 5 (of 11) of us sat and listened while the others discussed the book. I did read whole book myself, but that's because I usually do the written reviews and I feel compelled to have finished the book to do a fair job!

The cover of the book says "Not your usual serial killer," perhaps in a bid to make this seem like a different type of serial killer book, but let's just say: While there is a good twist or two, the book does proceed very much like any one of a thousand other serial killer books you might have read.

I think what led to the most disappointment was our sense that the book was going to be a sort of interesting look at the problems of being overweight in our society. In fact, one of the investigating detective, Sophia, is battling a weight problem of her own, which made for a lot of potential that was never quite realized. The other investigating detective, Fallon, is your basic cop-with-a-drinking-problem.

I'm really sorry to report that this is just not a book that we can recommend, though several members specifically asked me to report that some of Satterthwait's other books have been terrific: MISS LIZZIE (an interesting twist on Lizzie Borden) and ESCAPADE among them. PERFECTION isn't for the squeamish, but the real problem is just that the ending--which is either really clever or completely unbelievable, depending on your perspective--doesn't make the slog through the book worthwhile.

I hate posting negative reviews like this, especially one for someone whose books are usually so good. But maybe everyone has a bad day every now and again.

Satterthwait cooks up a fleshy thriller with a great detective team, whom you'll want to see in future books, and a rich plot. You'll gobble up this (hopefully low fat) book, hungry for more, and will be so intent on figuring out "who done it" (and if Sophia and her partner will achieve their own romantic perfection),that you'll forget to reach for your M&M's while reading it. Add to all this, Satterthwait's social commentary on our obsession with weight, and his usual elegant writing style, and you'll agree that this is one binge of a book.

I honestly have a hard time understanding that anonymous reviewer from P.W. He opines that the characters are cliches, and then reveals details about them which suggest that they are not. As for the ending of the book, my own personal, and of course humble, opinion is that the ending has been very carefully prepared for, very carefully set up. The ending to a mystery novel should be, I believe, like the punch line to a joke -- both inevitable and surprising. And I think that the ending to PERFECTION is both those things. But then again, what do I know?